To Palmerston

Last year Josie and I did a trip from Wainakarua to Oamaru. It was a really great ride so this year we decided to go the opposite direction from the Trotters Gorge turnoff to Palmerston. We had a really fast trip actually especially after I fixed Josie's back brake which had been slowing her down for the first 5 kms.  During the entire trip we didn't see any other trafic on the road and the silence going through the gorge was amazing (as was the scenery). We climbed a 250 metre hill to the summit of Horse Range Road  and after that had a great ride down to Palmerston.  It took us just under 2 hours and we got picked up by Mari.
Next year we might do Oarmaru to Timaru if I can find the appropriate back roads to travel on. I didn't take any photos unfortunately but I did do one video. Unfortunately Josie doesn't want it loaded so it will just have to stay on the home computer.

Fisherman Extraordinaire

I went fishing today and caught a couple of fish. I have just had them for dinner.

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnster1968#p/a/u/1/mWfFNjZ4-QY

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnster1968#p/a/u/0/q2B-dXt3Gz4

Uploads of snaps from a couple of days ago...

At the foot of the cairn. All of the neices and nephews are present aprt from Josie (who was feeling sick at the time)

Queen of al she surveys (but myopic)

Victoria devouring one of her birthday presents



This is a shot before reaching the top of the mountain



Raining today

Climbing Puketapu was quite fun yesterday and today there had been plans for a hangi but not only has it beeen raining for the last 18 hours there is a total fire ban in the Wainakarua district.  The next door neighbour had promised to put down a hangi as an early birthday for mum and we had all been really looking forward to it. Alas even a barbie might be out of the question today. This rain is also threatening to scuttle the plans to ride from Hampden to Palmerston tomorrow.  This is the last day in Hampden for my brother Peter who lives in Singapore with his wife AiLee and his kids Anna and James.  We may see Anna next year if she attends boarding school in Dunedin but she is also interested in going to Polytech in Singapore. Where she goes depends on the results of her GCSE (the Singapore equivalent of NCEA Level 2)
I have plenty of snaps to load but being a plonker I forgot to bring the lead thingie which attaches to the computer.  Looks like there with be a massive photo dump when we get back to Dunedin next week. In the meantime we are going to spend the day inside eating too much and playing board games. If the weather breaks I will rush out with the chainsaw and chop up some wood for a quick barbie.  Fingers crossed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKdPRgLARRA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmmeVH1H3GY

Here are some shots of our trip to Puketapu near Palmerston with Richard and Peter's families.

Christmas

All the Dunedin Williamsons slept in the tent on the side lawns at nana's house and woke up to a warm and slightly overcast Christmas day. The girls all got a sack of lollies and presents and I got my Napoleonic figures from Santa.  All of my brothers and my sister made it back for Xmas and there were 7 grandchildren running around for my mum to dote on.  Everyone got on really well and we ended the evening with a BBQ and a nice Havanan cigar and a cup of tea!
Today we are driving in convoy up to Timaru to meet with other members of the extended family for another BBQ and a trip to the Caraline Bay festival. It should be a great day. This first week of the summer hols has been really great. On the 27th we are planning to climb Puketapu and in the next few days we (Josie and I ) are planning on riding to Parmerston via the Horserange road. When I get back to Dunedin in a few days I will load up some photos of the event.

The Walk. (prt2)

On a 10 second delay- the poor old camera was on a signpost and in danger of being blown off by the big wind gusts.

Looking further inland from Warrington (famed for hippies and other alternative lifestylers) Somewhere in the photo State Highway 1 snakes its way over the big hill on the left heading north.

Mari gets hayfever so she had to be meded-up for the walk. This track gets pretty nasty pretty quickly in winter so for us it is a summer walk.

Same photo as the first I think but with a slightly higher elevation.

Looking inland west of SH1. Not sure that there is too much out there  except for wild animals and mountains. This area is great for pig hunting and there are a reasonable amount of deer as well. 

Tory

Taking a breather

To get to the track you have to walk through a lowland forest of native bush. It is very ferny and the trees have the unique NZ green about them. This coastal forest is different from the beech forests of central and western Otago in so much as the trees are a lot smaller and the lower canopy seems to be a lot for dominated by trees which seem to grow in people's gardens around East Otago. I have no idea what their names are but they aren't classically beautiful.

Poppets in the ferns. Taken from about one meter from the track. Not a place I would want to get lost in during winter.