January
1st January 2004
An interesting New Year's day. We drove North of Christchurch to Leithfield. We found a walk trail from Leithfield to the beach and headed off for Marisa to dip her toes in the Pacific. The walk is very pleasant, following the south bank of the Kowai river. It was about three kilometres to the beach. We had lunch along the way. I grazed on some unidentified fruit along the path. They tasted like small plums and, since they didn't kill me, they're probably safe.
The beach was not what I expected. It was all smooth pebbles. I took off my runners and hobbled down to the waters. I had a brief swim. Gab and Marisa waded. The Pacific is a bit colder than the Indian ocean so I got out after about 10 minutes and dried off in the sun.
We drove back into town and headed straight for Dyers Pass road and our favourite pub at Govenor's Bay. We had steak and chips in gardens and enjoyed the balmy twilight.
--Brook
4th January 2004
What a day! It reached over 40 degrees. Marisa nearly had heatstroke. She couldn't even pretend an interest in Rakaia Gorge. We were on our way to Methven to see what was there. Not much in summer. Plenty of buildings and no people. I'm sure this place comes alive when Mt Hutt ski field is open but it was a ghost town while we were there.
We eventually found a store and bought massive ice creams. That restored our spirits for a while. We had intended to head for Mt Potts station (Edoras) but since the weather felt more like the slopes of Mt Doom we though "Bugger it!" and headed to the cool (and rainy) Arthur's Pass.
We stopped at Greyney's flat and enjoyed the cool misting rain.
We stopped for dinner in Arthur's Pass but there wasn't much going on. Everyone in town had been off fighting a fire at Craigieburn. We munched on some sandwiches and continued enjoying the blessed chill of the place. The amazing thing is it's still light at 10 o'clock at night so it was still daylight all the way home.
We'll try for Edoras when the weather gets cooler (probably tomorrow).
--Brook
| <<<Previous |