Saturday, June 28, 2008

Frozen sundries

I have been about the countryside again - this time firstly to Kaikoura. The photo above of a sign that took my fancy! I often wonder how people come up with these names, but I suspect all it takes is probably a few mates and an unhealthy quantity of alcohol.
This one shows that the only spot of colour was a road sign warning us of snow! Yup, we had that figured already actaully. An hour or so earlier we had been sitting on the side of a frozen road waiting for the graders to finish ploughing the snow off the road. To amuse ourselves we watched a group of truckers standing about shooting the breeze and WEARING SHORTS. Oh yes. There was one guy who amused us no end by spending the better part of the hour playing pocket billiards.
The next day saw us on the homeward straight. The above photo taken through the Otira Gorge. It was seriously cold and still snowing so we decided not to go up the very steep incline to the next look out post, we did not have chains for the car and thought it best not to get stuck!
On the otherside of the mountains, Castle Hill in the mist proved very pretty. If you click on the link, make sure you check out the web cam. I love this area of New Zealand, moody and almost menacing on a cloudy day but brilliant in summer.

It has been raining here for the past 36 hours and the river through the City looks fit to burst. But we're going out to dinner tonight, Pixie is in town! I think I might just get away with blaming her for the shite weather. After a few glasses of Chateau Collapso, who knows what I will get away with! (Evil laughter).

5 comments:

Steve said...

Pocket billiards in the cold? Geez, NZ men are made of tougher stuff than us Brits then! Looks fabulous... but I'll stick with my sunny garden for now thanks... now where did I leave my snooker cue...?

Mike said...

Beautiful scenery, but honestly, I could do without the snow. 8 months of that crap here in Michigan every year is enough for me.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow snow. A big dollop of snow would be lovely - I am cooking out here in the garden. And where's my glass of chateau Collapso. Funny as I typed that Geraldine strolled out of the house with a glass of something that looks jolly nice indeed.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Sagittarian said...

Steve! Oh you are awful - but I like you.

Mike - sorry, I love snow (for all of 10 minutes...) - we really don't get the snow very often here so it has novelty value.

RB - Hope your glass of Jolly Nice did the job.

The Poet Laura-eate said...

Great piccies! But is this not a better place for holidaying in our Winter/your Summer - aka Christmas?

Love the backpacker's hostel! Certainly not an activity that should be hurried in my opinion (though I'm not a sheep fancier myself).