And then it snowed !!!

Winter really arrived for us yesterday when it snowed enough to settle on the ground in Christchurch, a fairly unusual occurence!! Feels really wierd to be in the snow in June! Gareth and Beth were out having snowball fights this afternoon and the temperature was only just above freezing all day today.

Great thing is the Alps are covered with a great big dump of snow so skiing will start very soon. We can't wait! The bottom photo shows the Port Hills and Christchurch airport in the snow too.

The Port Hills

We managed a quick walk yesterday before a very wintery southerly front arrived. Got some great views from the Port Hills into Lyttelton Harbour, about 20 mins in the car from where we live in Christchurch.

Queen's Birthday weekend

We get a day off here to celebrate the Queen's Birthday! Interesting!*! I think I would be correct in saying that Kiwi's are not the slightest bit interested. Great for us as we got to get away agian for the weekend. Further south this time to a place called Twizel, close to the Southern Alps and Mount Cook (highest mountain in NZ). Bit of an odd place as it was originally for housing the workers for the hydroelectric scheme in rows of temporary huts. They were supposed to have been taken down but are still there, and now most are holiday homes, like the one we stayed in. The scenary around is pretty spectacular (used in The Lord of the Rings ).

Winter now so weather more mixed. Still we managed a 3 hour bike ride in the sun but got very wet walking the next day up the Hooker Valley- kids not impressed!! Yes- that is ice floating on the lake- cold up there!! We were all soaked to the skin by the end of it. Our friends Brad and Sue came too and we enjoyed playing poker in the evening. Had some spectacular views of Mount Cook and the glaciers. Hope you like the photos.

Birthdays!!

Another year passes for both Wayne and I. The big 50 for Wayne, not quite so many for me!! We had a great weekend away with the kids in Hanmer Springs with golf, horse riding, mountain biking, followed by a much needed soak in the hot pools. The trees were turning and we were very lucky with some good weather, and a cosy log cabin to stay in complete with log burner.