Slacker Blogger!

Yes, I have been a slacker blogger. But I've been on vacation doing a lot of fun things! I haven't had time to blog.... We've been in Queenstown for the last 2.5 weeks. We arrived from Dunedin, parked our caravan in the only caravan park that we have found that recycles almost everything AND has vermicomposting! Very exciting. As soon as we settled into our new home we started exploring. Queenstown in renowned for its mountain biking so Marc has been spending every second morning biking to the top of the mountain in town and hurtling himself and his bike off of it. I'm sure that he actually just rolls down very quickly with style and grace, banking curves and clearing jumps with speed and skill, but I don't know, I'm not that kinda gal so I've never seen him do it. I joke that he SAYS that he's going mountain biking but really just heads off to have a nap somewhere or attempts to pick up young tourist girls. Before Marc heads off to bike down mountains (or have a nap and eat ice cream), he drops me off in a nearby town named Arrowtown. The very clever local council here has realized that while there are plenty of high adrenaline tourists and locals who enjoy higher risk speedy sports, maybe their partners/parents/children do not. So they built over 150kms of wonderful biking and walking trails in the area. They built suspension bridges over the gorges to link the trails up, underpasses under the highways to that timid riders, tourists and kids alike can all cross without playing frogger. Since it opened up a year ago they estimate that 100 thousand people have used the trails. They weren't cheap to build, costing millions of dollars. 2 purpose build suspension bridges, 3 underpasses, 7 regular bridges, and lots of excellent trail that has to be maintained. But they realize the value of having a place for locals to stay fit, and having a dedicated trail system to keep cyclists safe and heading to local businesses to buy things. Most days when Marc heads out cycling so do I. I can cover about 35 k in 3 hours, this usually includes huffing and puffing up various steep hills, cruising down the other side, stopping to wash my face in the cold blue river, using one of the toilet facilities on route, and checking out the beautiful landscape. It's all really so much better on a bike than in a car. Marc came with me one day and we cycled from Arrowtown to the Gibston valley wineries for an afternoon of wine tasting and tours before heading back. This trail is one of the reasons that we've stayed here so long. I have something super fun to do while Marc is mountain biking. So other than cycling and getting sore bums, we've been fishing. We've driven the road up to Glanorchy a few times. A beautiful winding 45 kms along lake Wakatipu with mountain ranges in the back ground. We stop along scenic areas and pull out the rods and cast until we get sick of the views or the blackflies, then move on. We must have fished for a total of 20 continuous hours so far this trip. And not one fish. Last year we caught several fish in November and December in river runs. Apparently at this time of year, mid summer, the fish have all moved into the deeper lakes and so boatless people like ourselves have to take our rather poor chances casting from shore. But it's such a great excuse to make so many trips to strange places. We'll pick a lake in the middle of nowhere on a map, pack a picnic and head out to see if we can catch any fish. Along the way we see new scenery, stop in to new grocery stores etc, then we arrive in this spectacular location where we have the excuse to hang out for several hours as we are "fishing". The latest fabulous place we headed to was Mavora lakes where we also found "Fangorn forest" from the lord of the rings movies. A few days ago we took a trip out to near Clyde to cycle a section of the central Otago rail trail. We cycled for 35k, crossing several old bridges and passing through two loooong dark tunnels. Info panels and old ruins to get a history fix along the way. I love how small towns keep going here. Until the 1980's the government kept the rail lines going by putting limits on how far goods could travel on the roads. Once these restrictions came down, the rail line....and those towns whose life blood was the rail line, were defunct. So the rails were ripped up. And did you see these small towns, some as small as population 25 people, whine, moan and beg the government for a handout? Nope, they started the central Otago rail trail trust, fund raised millions of dollars, and partnered with the Department of Conservation to build a cycling experience from the old rail trail. Now, about 80thousand people cycle or walk on the trail every year. These small dwindling towns, they have had to convert their schools, old police stations, and empty homes into lodging, hotels, B+B's and cafe's to accommodate the cyclists who pass though spending money each year. Very cool On the way home from our cycling day, we stopped in at the old Hayes engineering work and got to check out the shop and homes of Mr Hayes who invented many agricultural tools that we still use today, like fence wire tensioners and the like. Marc spent at least an hour in the shop figuring out how the windmill would have powered all of the equipment there. The old building, over 100 years old and still sound, were build of sun baked clay bricks. All really neat. Then on to the tiny town of St. Bathans, an old gold mining town, for a pint and a snoop around the landscape, dramatically changed by sluicing during the gold rush. I also got bragging rites in St Bathans as I spotted a New Zealand Falcon in a tree. Being married to a birder, it gives me some pretty hefty street cred to have spotted a rare bird before Marc. We've been filling in the gaps with cherry picking (5kgs each time...the last place that we were at, the scottish owner asked us if we would like a roll of toilet paper with our cherries), wine tasting, a few music concerts, day hikes, and today we're going to snoop around some open houses to see if we can glean any ideas for our own construction at home. Big hugs to all, see you in late Feb Erin and Marc