My little project 1: 14 July 2007

Chocolate, Blueberry and Coconut Muffin from Kai Whaka Pai. My, so far, favourite coffee house in Wanaka.

A month through my eyes !!

My new project. One photo, every day for a month. Maybe it will tell a story, maybe it will be about me, maybe it will be just random photographs, maybe I won't stop in a month, maybe I will. Who knows, not even me - I guess in a month I will find out. Watch this space. It might be interesting - or then again maybe not! Confused?? I am but hey its a challenge and I like a challenge. I think I will call it my little project.

defrosting the car

It 7 degrees below, white as snow and foggy. Yes, its definitely a winter morning. I am getting into the habit of early rises. Its hard the first morning, but after that, its easy (ish). But what is a killer, it defrosting the snowy white car at dawn.

Its not like home, with a kettle full of cold water, bingo car sorted. It takes me 10 minutes of persistence to get the car defrosted and at that its not, but I can see through a gap in the window. As I pour the water onto the car, it froze in the bottle onto the edges. Its an art, trying to get the water temperature right. It needs to be warm enough not to freeze and cold enough not to crack the windscreen (not that I have ever seen that happen).

Today, in parts of Central Ottago (the general area or province around Wanaka) it actually dropped to 17 degrees below. That was a lot further south, but still it gives you a feeling. The frost only thaws in places during the day, and shady parts remain frozen all day long.

For the greater part of most days, we wake up to the inversion layer. A low lying system of clouds that cover Wanaka and Albert town. The sun sometimes burns this off but for a lot of it, the village does not see sunshine. However, up on the ski fields, the weather tends to be glorious, as they rise above the inversion layer.

There's no trees :(

Just what I said - there's no trees. No droppy snow laiden trees. Ok so there are trees in the vallley and around the town. But not on the mountain, none at all. Not that Chamonix last year was swarming with trees - but there was a significant number of forested areas none the less - there was a tree line. Here there is nothing. Its strange.




Healthy carole - hmmm - started today. Decided its time to get in shape again, need to get fit, build strength and gain my stamina. Hopefully, I haven't actually lost much - its only been 2 months of no climbing. But I don't want to lose it.

So, I found myself (well, ok I was pointed in the right dircetion) a nice little single track down by the river. It runs from Albert town, pass the back side of Mount Iron all the way to the lake. And what a pretty run it is. Next time I bring a camera.

Chilling - I need a plan

Up late on Sunday, I couldn't motivate myself. I sat all morning in my PJ's watching Wimbledon, the women's final, V. Williams versus M. Bartoli, was on. Not the best match, I've ever seen - dominated quite strongly by Williams, but Bartoli certainly put up a very good fight and certainly didn't give away the match. The match was certainly thrilling enough for me to forgo snowboarding for the day, replay as it was. But as i sat watching the match, pondering, I realised I need a plan. Not necessarily a big plan, just one to get me through the next couple of months. Being on the road for 7 months and now living here in Wanaka, I do feel a little lost. I think routine might help. But its brought back the, oh my goodness what am I going to do with myself thoughts.
I think I also need to get a job - yuck. Anyone know of any programming or web stuff that I could do via correspondence - eh?? No I didn't think so, oh well.

So my plan so far is :-
• Get up early and have breakie.
• Go snowboarding till the crowds hit.
• run / swim
• Hopefully do some volunteer work at the climbing wall.
• Chill and repeat tomorrow

Hmmm, sounds optimistic :)

Albert town

I don't think I have mentioned my new home yet. Myself and Orla found a place to live in Albert town, through a friend of a friend of friend type thing. We are living with 2 kiwis, Devin and Cameron, and a dog, Butch. Melanie lives about 2 km away from us which is great. It is certainly a experience. My room is in the basement - basically a room off the garage, away from the rest of the house, but its a nice & spacious, with my own bathroom (also doubling as a utility room). The guys are great - although a little (a hem, a lot) different from my previous housemate. One of them is a fencer (no not the sport - he builds them) and the other likes to dabble, an ex-new zealand skier, he spent many back to back seasons between here and the states, at them moment is chilling, contemplating on more skiing, and hunting or back-country motor-biking every weekend. I came home today to find 2 wild pigs hanging from the ceiling of the garage, dead obviously, this weekend's trophies, I guess, and food for the next few weeks.

Oh my goodness, I got such a fright, the first day I moved in here, though. As you know I am a vegetarian and don't like meat - let alone killing animals. Yeah, well, can you imagine the scream from me when I went investigating the fridge downstairs. Oh, in my naivety, I say, look at all the fridges in the garages, I wonder what could be in them. Now, in hindsight, that was stupidity in my part. But yes, I do have to have a peak, and a peak was all I needed. I yelped, yes, loud and girly - I yelped. There, in the fridge, was half or more than half a deer, fur, legs, the lots (not sure about the head), I gave up looking at that point and ran outside to the others. Enough was enough.

Its funny though, hearing the boys talk about their day hunting off with the dogs and their guns, killing rabbits by the bucket load, 40 or 50 in one sitting - they are pests you know. I think they enjoy telling me - I must screw up my face as they they me. Apparently, the noise a wild pig makes is horrendous, it squeals loudly.

Ah, the memories :)

I decided after, oh I don't know, 4 months to finally take the photos off my dinky little camera. Ok, so I don't use it very often, because, well the quality on the my D70 is just streets ahead. But my little camera has the advantage of being well little - and there were times when that is all I brought. I got a giggle looking at the photos - ah the fond memories.

A day wandering around Hobart - seeing all the blue around :)



Easter in the Arapiles and tent city :)



Getting ever so lost on the classic route - but still smiling :)



The Pines campground - from a great height.



New country - first glimpses of the snowcapped mountains of the Southern Alps.



The beach north of greymouth - as the rain clears.



Sean first day on the board and he's cruising.




The boys after a great day on the slopes.