Public Service Announcement: Number … something!!

Now — I know you’re out there. So please feel welcome to comment, even if you’ve never commented on my blog before. Heck, even if I don’t know you!!! Even if it’s the first time you’ve read this blog.  Those ‘other people’ who DO comment never knew me before I started this blog either. Does that make sense?

And Robert – yes, you may comment, even thought you knew me before I started the blog…… LOL!

Other places I may be found these days include:

Geocaching.com  - 0ur profile

GoodReads   – my profile

Twitter - my profile

Dailymile - my profile

Postcrossing - my ‘official’ profile

NZ GPS Society - the geocaching forum

My blog is the main place you can get to know me and be known so if you haven’t commented here a bit, I’m not likely to recognise you or ‘friend’ you elsewhere.

So if I have turned down anyone’s requests, my apologies – you are most welcome to come & chat here & make yourself known!!

Postcard people – would you be interested in getting a bunch of New Zealand postcards – written or unwritten as you prefer?? Let me know. I’m thinking of putting together a set & having a lucky draw soon.

Love, Annie

Playtime

Ruger & Neve are, to be honest, don’t play well with others. Neve would – given half a chance, as she’s a busy little girl who likes to make friends with anyone human or canine. Ruger, on the other hand is territorial.  He doesn’t like anyone to play with his sister. Not that he necessarily wants to play with her, but no one else can either.

 

However they do love when my friend K. comes around with her two dogs. Sometimes we go to K’s house too. The number of dogs that ends up THERE can be quite variable!! On Friday we had six, and on Saturday when we all went around there for a meal, there were seven.

So it can be quite a riot.  Ruger usually entertains himself playing with his Jollyball (Thanks Penny & Velcro!!) But the rest of the tribe prefers to have a human throwing their tennis balls or toys for them.  And with less humans than canine, the dynamics of that doesn’t always work out well!!!

So here we all are:

 

 

Sammy - the old guy

 

 

Ruger - " I'm just having a little rest. "

 

Buddy - Energizer Dog!

 



Katie - An old girl still going strong

 



Tylar & her favourite toy!

 



Neve - "Playing is hot work!"

West Coast Sunset

What to do on a Friday night when you don’t actually have anything that you HAVE to do? Why, caching of course! We don’t often have a Friday night to ourselves it seemed, but we did this week – and the weather was beautiful too.

We had a little circuit out into the countryside planned. Our intention was to pick up four caches – including two puzzles that we’d had solved for awhile. However we got sidetracked by the amazing sunset …. and by the neighbour of one of the caches. He’d been getting curious about what people were doing across from his house, so he came out to have a look. So now he has a bit more of an idea about geocaching, and thinks that a scavenger hunt around the whole world sounds like a bit of fun!!

So now we’ve still go two caches for another weekend, and saw a really vivid sunset. This would have been amazing  to watch down at the beach.  Our photos don’t really do it justice. These are from three slightly different locations.

Molesworth Station

 Last weekend PB & I went for a little drive. We headed north & inland to the thermal village of Hanmer Springs from where we planned to drive through the Molesworth Station. This is New Zealand’s largest ‘farm’ – it’s really more like what my American friends would know as a ranch. Here in NZ we call these large farms that are in the back ground ‘high country stations.’ Generally these stations run Merino sheep, valued for their exceptional wool, and some cattle, but Molesworth is entirely dedicated to beef cattle.  The Molesworth homestead is the highest permanently occupied in the whole of NZ. It is at an altitude of 900 metres (about 2 950 feet.)  

Most of New Zealand is coastal and consequently has rather mild weather pretty much all year. A few places do experience ‘ continental’ weather conditions as they are far enough inland. This area is one of those – it is bitterly cold here in winter & a good part of the station may be covered in snow for up to two months. In summer it can be viciously hot & dry! (But probably not as hot as an Arizona desert.)

It is only possible for the general public to travel through the Molesworth between the end of December & the beginning of April each year.  It’s 26 kilometres (16 miles) from Hanmer village to Acheron – which is the start of the trip from this end, then the part of the trip between the Acheron & Molesworth gates is around 60 kilometres (a bit under 40 miles) and finally the trip out the Awatere Valley at the Blenheim end of the Station is a further 100 kilometres  ( around 60 miles.)This is almost all on unsealed gravel roads. It’s not exactly a 4WD trip, but it is pretty slow & rough – and dusty, dusty, dusty!!

 We had planned to do the trip last summer, but cancelled due to family illnesses, so this year when we unexpectedly had a three day weekend free, we  went for it! The weather was perfect. Hot clear & sunny. Not perfect photography conditions though, but we still got some scenic and interesting shots. So – go look at the slide show & comments to see how our journey went.

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