stellar_muddle | Winter weekend 2011

It was fun. Bit longer than previous because decided to ferry and drive to and fro, rather than fly down to Chch.
Details follow.

Early last week: noticed back tyre getting a bit soft. Note this for later.

Weds 3 August: Early Cook Strait ferry sailing. Slow to load. My count was 2 dolphins underwater (never seen those before on the Ferry) in the Strait and a large group of seals playing in the Sounds. Z saw more dolphins and a penguin in Welly Harbour. Drove south, stopping at the waterfall where the seal pup play, near the Ohau Point seal colony. There were baby seals playing in the pool at the base!!! SQUEEEEEEE! 4-5 of them and they were having a marvelous time diving, splashing and darting. REALLY recommend stopping there (winter activity). No banana passion fruit :( Then made it uneventfully to Chch, where upon we dropped a quintain off with

xenogram and went to crash overnight with

manus (thank you :) ). ~4am, little mag 4 quake to keep things lively.

Thurs 4 Aug: Driving time. Bit frosty out. Out to Z's brother's (bit past WW site) to drop off stuff and say hello to H,J, A and new F. Back to Chch and timed it to the airport perfectly to pick up S&T and

alpha_angel from their flights. Lunch and shopping at Church Corner, then off to site. Car electrics issue. Read as a given for the rest of the trip what whenever we stop for a while, the car battery needs to be disconnected due to the car park lights not turning off... Dropped every one off, then went back to grab stuff from HJAF. Back to site. Back grumpy at me for sitting squint in car for past 2 days. Grrr. Spent evening catching up with people. Pumpkined round 1am.

Fri 5 Aug: Relaxing day, much of which was spent curled up with NESAT issues courtesy of

sandhi. Back still grumpy. After lunch, diversion walk in the Rakaia Gorge with S&J, S&T and

basal_surge. Much geologising and Z managed to pursuade people to carry rocks with green bit back for him - I think pigmentation experiments are being lined up. Left just as the sun disappeared and the NW rain turned up. Nap before dinner, then talking and socialising. Back massage from S, which helped a bit. Pumpkined round 1am.

Sat 6 Aug: Another relaxing day. Back better, but still not great. Sewing in the morning, then off to visit Z's parents and HJAF in the afternoon. Liked the chilli dinner (want the recipe for the cheese sauce mmmmm), nap, then quiz - 2nd year in a row in winning team! - good at picking teams. Z spent the evening with family friend, amusing Chilean dairy farmers. Pumpkined round 1am.

Sun 7 Aug: Last day. Luckily S&J were able to transport S&T, and we could fit

alpha_angel + the rest of the stuff, removing the necessity of multiple trips. Slow packup til photo time (temperature plummeting), then off to pick up stuff from HJAF and Z's parents, with a now soft back tyre, into the freshly arriving snow... Luckily snow stopped fairly fast, but was pretty/disturbing while it lasted. Refilled tyre air @ HJAFs, waved goodbye, stopped with Z's parents, then quickly left, to get back to site and discover we had missed lunch and nearly everyone had buggered off sharpish upon getting snowed on. Finished packing and headed off, with much stuff wedged around

alpha_angel in the back seat. To Chch and rubble-necked (Thanks D for that phrase), complete with geological commentary. Lunch/food at Redcliffs (~3pm...), then dropped K off for her flight (with a bit of time to kill). Back to

xenogram's to pick up some wood (not the quintain), before leaving town, pausing at a service station to note that the air in that rear tyre had halved over the course of the day, so might be an issue. Out of town to Amberley, where we holed up in a motel, unloaded half the wood, dug out the spare tyre (stupid storage place), changed the tyre, reloaded the wood and headed off to find some dinner... ~7:30pm (NorWester Cafe - nice but not cheap. Single open steak sandwich and garlic bread split nicely between 2 people though. Will report on the blackcurrent wine later when we open the bottle). Then went thud, but after a much less hectic day than had originally thought. Yay for motel hot water supplies.

Mon 8 Aug: Ferry sailing check in for 1pm, so left Amberley round 8am. Banana passionfruit. Found open garage in Kaikoura and they found the (nail) puncture in the original tyre and had it fixed in about 15 min. Go them! Stopped at seal waterfall and this time remembered to take camera (looks best on video). Much baby seal frolicking - SQQEEEEEEE! Uneventful drive to Picton in time for pies from the good bakery - I can thoroughly recommend the beef chilli and cheese pie - take good home made chili con carne and put in pie, and the usual waiting for the ferry to load. Quiet sailing (I slept and read, Z bounced around outside), to get home a bit after 6pm.

Kittens happy to see us and no bird corpses in the bathroom. There has been car unpacking, much internet catchup - no 2 degree wireless reception in Amberley, and it is probably time to go thud. I remembered to take tomorrow off, but Z is back to work...