January
18th January 2004
Woohoo. Our furniture and boxes finally arrived. Last night I slept on a bed and knew luxury. My computers and books are finally here.
Most importantly I finally have my big telly back. It's set up in the lounge room. I was almost caught hugging it when Marisa returned to the room unexpectedly.
--Brook
19th January 2004
New Zealanders love two things above all else, sport and cars. Last week we tried to get to the West Coast and found we couldn't get a booking anywhere because it was fully booked from Franz Joseph to Hokatika for a car rally. This Saturday we finally made it.
We took the camera with us but it poured with rain continuously so we couldn't get out for a single shot. The picture to the left is of some ferns at Craigieburn. I put it in just so the page wouldn't look boring.
This trip, far from being boring, was absolutely incredible. To get to the West Coast one must drive through Arthur's Pass and Otira Gorge. When it rains the gorge becomes a mass of waterfalls. While Rivendell may have been largely computer generated the inspiration for its endless waterfalls would have to be this gorge. I had to keep stopping to take it in. The roads are so challenging and the view keeps dragging your eyes left and right. They may not have snakes here but the views can kill you easily.
Once we were through the gorge we found ourselves in primitive, fern filled forest. This eventually gave way to a wild, rain swept coast. We stopped for lunch in the car by the sea side. With the rain lashing the car outside we had hot coffee from the thermos flasks.
After lunch we had a look in a green stone gallery. We spent about an hour in Hokitika. Marisa began to get concerned about the rain and thought we might get cut off from Aurthur's Pass. I thought she was being overly pessimistic but we headed home anyway. Sure enough we came across 200 metres of road we had driven on about two ours previously was 2 feet underwater and rising. We managed to drive slowly through it wthout incident and headed home.
Its funny, we might have considered this trip a disaster but the spectacle was so awsome that we haven't stopped talking about it since.
--Brook
24th January 2004
Today we went to the Little River A&P Show. Little River is a little town nestled between the hills on the way from Christchurch to Akaroa. The show is mostly about local agriculture but the whole town turns out.
This picture is of a competition called the horizontal bungie. It is exactly what it sounds like. A thick bungie rope is anchored to the ground and the men take turns at seeing who can walk the furthest distance dragging the rope.
As I said, the town is nestled between hills. It is a truly beautiful place. It was emerald green the first time we passed through but now the grass is brown and reminds us all of Western Australia, if Western Australia had huge mountains.
There was the usual horse events; sheep and cow judging; produce and cake competitions. I was particularly impressed by some of the photography in their photography exhibit. There are some great landscapes to capture here but some of these pictures were really outstanding.
After the show we decided to continue on to Akaroa. We continued our drive around the hills and took this photo from above Little River.
This trip gave us a chance to take some more photos of Akaroa and Duvauchelle.
We had brought a thermos with us and took the opportunity to stop by the seaside in a little park and have a snack and a coffee.
We headed home in the evening and went once again to our favourite pub at Govenor's Bay.
I seem to have done my share of Shows (fairs) this year. I went to the Perth Royal Show, the Toodyay Show, the Canterbury Show and the Little River A&P Show. It's interesting to compare the similarities and differences. I was suprised, for example, that there are few large rides at the Canterbury show.
I was also suprised that although there is a wonderful gallery in Little River there was not much in the way of art exhibits.
Still, it was another beautiful day and I love having regular contact with the country.
--Brook
| <<<Previous |