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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lake Kaniere

This gallery contains 8 photos.

 I wanted to share a few more photos of our weekend trip, so I’m trying out the new ‘Gallery’ format that this blog theme has. PB took most of these photos - the better ones of course!!  

Last Picture Taken Sunday

 

Random plant

A really random one this week! We went looking for a geocache this afternoon – which we did find. GC20841 Happy Birthday Bitsprayer   It was a short track up a steep hill that required some use of  ‘four -paw scramble.’ Pity we didn’t have any four paws with us!!!

Anyway, I took quite a few random photos of things we saw – and this was the last one.We came back down the road rather than take the chances of slithering down the hill track. This plant was on the roadside - I have no idea what it is. Not a native anyway.

Check out Tracy’s Topics  for more information about Last Picture Taken Sunday and come join in!

Last Photo Taken Sunday – Kelty

PB wasn’t in tonight, so Kelty had to do with sitting by me & the laptop instead of by PB’s computer. He sure wasn’t impressed – but I’m not sure whether it was because he couldn’t sit in his normal place & get his normal attention from PB or because I was flashing a camera in his face!!!  Or perhaps just because life is often not up to the standard that a discerning cat demands.

Kelty

There is a somewhat better photo at Flickr.  But this one is the last one for the week so here it is!

To join Last Photo Taken Sunday check out Tracy’s blog at Tracy’s Topics! 

//

First to Find Weekend

Even though PB was on call this past weekend, we still managed FTFs on two new geocaches in town.  And we went for a third, but got muggled out.

Ducks on the water.

The first one had been conveniently placed near PB’s work. The first time we looked for it was from memory of the Google map as we were already out when PB got called. I had a bit more of a look - then went to watch the ducks  (as you do!) –  but it turned out that the map was way out.  When we went back with the GPS  I spotted almost straight away.

Sunday we went for a drive up a country road that we never knew was there before, and had a quick find on a new cache.

"Is this the right tree...?"

Then we headed to a wonderful ‘cabbage tree’ that has had a new cache placed.  Usually cabbage trees don’t seem to accumulate mosses, lichens and epiphytes growing on them – but this one has an amazing collection!!

'Cabbage Tree' or te kouka (Cordyline australis)

We almost FTFed the previous cache at this tree – after a couple of trips and a bit of Kiwi ingenuity we did get it, but we’ve not yet claimed the FTF on it’s replacement. We quickly found the (nasty) decoy,

Nasty decoy

but by this time the horsey people across the road were looking at us suspiciously so we called off the hunt before we found the actual cache. We were doing a bit of photography as cover – and PB got this lovely shot of a little snail, and I saw some little fungi.

Snail

Fungi - not sure what this one is yet.

 

It’s a long time since we’ve had two (almost three!) FTF’s in one weekend!!

Help me choose!

I’ve started trying to get some more regular exercise. I’ve been motivated by registering with this website: Dailymile - which I found out about thanks to my Twitter pal Penny . Somehow, being ‘accountable’  to the goal I’ve set there  has got me out and walking. I really need to get fitter!!!

But however, I digress. When PB & I were out walking a couple of nights ago I took a whole bunch of sunset pictures. I need to chose just one, for my 365 shot for the day. So – which one do you think it should be??

eight

seven

six

five

four

three

two

one

Last Picture Taken Sunday!!

Miraculously, for once, it is still Sunday for me here when I’m posting this photo!

The TranzAlpine Express

I was very tempted to crop this photo  because that light post really annoys me, but I was good and stuck to the rules. The theme this week for the Hoohaa 52 at Flickr was ‘transportation’ and this was the last shot I got today when the train was leaving town.  I used a different one for the 52 – which you can see : here.

This is the TranzAlpine – setting off on one of the top train journeys in the world – apparently.  I agree that the scenery is pretty stunning, but even better in the depths of winter with snow covered mountains. That is when I would recommend to anyone to do  the trip.

So nite nite from me, and happy Sunday to all of you out there for whom it’s still weekend time!

Last Picture Taken Sunday – Carrot Crop

We’ve had a pitiful carrot crop this year.

This is 50% of it!! I was taking pics for my Project 365 shot for the day, this wasn’t the best one – just the last one!!!

Carrot Crop

See Tracy’s Topics for more about Last Picture Taken Sunday!!

Last Picture Taken Sunday

I’m sure this isn’t actually the last photo I took on Sunday, but for some reason it’s showing up last in My Pictures, so I’ll go with it.

Ducks

I was trying for patterns on the water, or ducks for my HooHaa  365 photo.

And it looks like I got neither successfully in this shot!!!

Behind PB’s work there is a pond that is sort of part of a lagoon. But it doesn’t change too much with the sea levels unlike the rest of the lagoon on the other side of the road. This section usually has  Mallard Ducks in it and seagulls round about. Occasionally there is a  Kotuku (White Heron) here and other birds like shags &  swans. We often go there to feed the ducks on the weekends, and sometimes  during the week we have a quick lunch together down there when PB has his half hour lunch break.

For more info on Last Photo Taken Sunday see Tracy’s blog at Tracy’s Topics!