upsidedown charlotte

update twilve: thelma and louise the out-takes (II): "on the road with mum and jeffrey"

guest-starring in this blog posting is my mum Grace and sister Rachel who returned a couple of weeks ago to summer in the UK after a 3 week visit. Picture is of them overlooking the bridge just outside Queenstown where bungee jumping was invented- not the bridge in the photo though! I managed to get a quick snap of them just before mum took the plunge. (I just made that last bit up...)

hello devoted readers, I hope you are both keeping well....

Another long silence on my blogging front. sorry about that. Hopefully this one will make up for it as there's lots to write about; mainly due to mum and rach's visit here mid-May to early June, there is always mischief to be had when they are around. It was fab to see them (and the pile of my clothes and other necessities I had asked them to bring over... Approx 90% of their luggage allowance went on my stuff!) It was also great to take the chance to experience some more of this amazing country. We stayed on the South Island but covered a lot of places, some I had been to before but other areas were new territory for me too so that was exciting.

In my last proper blog I think I mentioned their imminent arrival and that I was praying for accommodation and provision whilst they were here as the vicarage is completely full and my funds were low! It all turned out well with a lovely lady from church, Suzanne, kindly insisting she put them up and she did it in style... mum and rach experienced kiwi hospitality to the max.

They also got a good education in the ways of kiwi-man through Suzannes hilarious husband Alan who was very keen to introduce them to the delights of pig hunting (wild ones that is- not poaching from Farmer Giles' back-yard) and other typical rural-Rangioran pastimes. He made it his (ultimately unsuccessful) mission to 'cure' Rachel of her vegetarianism and lots of fun was had by all.
We were also lent one of Andrew and Christines cars to use as our own and so all in all were truely looked after!

trip 1: north & west
Our first trip was a 5 day jaunt with a couple of nights in Hanmer Springs, an hour or so north of here, then across to the west coast for 2 nights in Moana on the shores of Lake Brunner.

hanmer springs
Hanmer Springs is a gorgeous Alpine resort famous for its natural hot springs. Its pretty expensive to go and stay there but I am fortunate in that the electrical company I work at own a holiday 'bach' (holiday home) there which is available to employees for $15 per night (for the whole place not per person!) so we enjoyed a couple of nights in a top class bach with mountain views only minutes from the resort for the princely sum of approx 10 pounds sterling- extortionate.

Hanmer is a place to relax and so we did. Lazy breakfast then onto the hotpools, soaking in hot water and also soaking up the snow capped mountains vista! We fancied doing something a bit more active in the afternoon so opted for a spot of horse trekking. Absolutely stunning views as we made our way along the trail and across rivers and fords on our trusty steeds rather unfortunately called 'Kev' and 'Jimmy' etc. kind of took the shine off the glamour of it all a bit. Never mind.

Before we left Hanmer the next morning we popped into a coffee shop in the town- "The Old Power House". This was a lovely building maintaining many of its original features and as we waited in line I commented on this to mum.
mum: "hmm yes its lovely isn't it... I wonder what it was originally"
my mum's great.

lake brunner
We made our way through stunning mountain landscapes to the West Coast (famed for its jade, wild coastline and rain, saw lots of all three!) The bach I had booked in Moana was a family-owned one belonging to someone at work. It was quite old fashioned and cold but its lakeside position was fantastic and we enjoyed incredible views across to the mountains.

The first night it was cold, wet and dark out so we were settled in watching tv when I spied something scuttle along the skirting board.
"er... I hate to tell you this but I think Ive just seen a mouse run behind the tv..... "

A few minutes later, once we had all peeled ourselves off the ceiling and climbed down off the chairs we began to form our plan of attack.

I must admit we came up with a good one. The TV unit was in the corner of the room so we calculated we could hem Jeffrey in (giving him a name helped lessen the fear factor) Mum carefully constructed an intricate barricade of chopping boards, records and books around the unit whilst Rachel stood by with the hoover, finger poised over the 'on' button and I supervised proceedings from my great vantage point on top of a chair on the other side of the room.

Once satisfied Jeffrey was fully imprisoned we settled down again (Insofar as you can settle if you do not like mice, have just seen one and are aware they do not tend to live in solitude).

Minutes later I saw a furry face peeping out from behind the video player.... we had underestimated Jeffrey. The rest of the evening was spent in designing elaborate trails to tempt him towards the mousetraps mum had found and set.

Just before bedtime we heard an almighty crash behind the TV followed by a deathly silence. Upon investigation we deduced that Jeffrey had succumbed to one of the traps which had fallen with him to his timely end behind the tv unit. All was quiet. It was too dark behind there to be certain and I for one was not going to look to closely, so we left the barricades up and went to bed.

Next day we visited the pancake rocks in Punakaiki. These are fantastic formations on the coastline which, if you see at high tide, treat you to a spectacular blow-hole show. That was the second time I'd been but still have yet to catch it at the right time!

The following day, as we packed up to head back to Rangiora, we started to deconstruct our Jeffrey-proofed TV unit. We were horrified to discover that a weak line in our defences had been infiltrated. a suspiciously mouse-sized hole (complete with teeth marks) had appeared in one of the record sleeves we had used... as we slept 'safe in the knowledge that Jeffrey was no more', he was heroically chewing his way towards freedom, no doubt fortified by the lump of cheese he had grabbed from the jaws of death. Jeffrey was still at large! We were glad to be leaving!

Our trip back was via Arthurs Pass, the road through the Southern Alps runs alongside the TransAlpine Railway for much of the way and this is widely regarded as one of the worlds greatest railway journeys so you can be sure that we weren't disappointed with the views although mum did spend half the trip with her hand over her eyes (just to clarify... she wasn’t driving)

Back in Rangiora for a few days, we popped round for coffee at Jessica and Emma's one evening. Was lovely for mum and rachel to meet the girls! All very exciting for everyone to meet everyone else!

trip 2: south

Our second trip was over 5 nights and took in much of the southern part of the South Island. We booked in only one night ahead each time and so was always quite fun not quite knowing where we would be spending that night!

oamaru
First stop, Oamaru. This was just an overnight stopover but turned out to be a lovely place, unfortunately we got there minutes after dusk so were just too late to see the penguins coming in for the night. Next time! We had a lovely self-contained unit in the grounds of a large house. Roland the owner popped in during the evening to say hello. He was a particularly cheery fellow and I noticed he had a bible tucked under his arm. "off to church?"
"Yes"* he beamed through his beard... "well mid-week bible study group actually"

He needn't have explained, for if I ever had to construct a photofit picture of 'Man-Off-To-Bible-Study-Group' then it would be Rolands face staring out at you from the tv during Crimewatch (not that Roland would ever be likely to appear on said programme but you know what I mean!!)

* You can deduce from this that Roland is english.... for if he was a kiwi, this would have read "Yiss"

moeraki boulders & dunedin
Next day we continued south to Dunedin armed with detailed directions of the scenic route courtesy of Roland and with his chorus of hearty 'Cheerio and God Blesses' still ringing in our ears.

One 'tourist trail' stop on the way was the Moeraki Boulders. These are strange formations of almost perfectly spherical rocks embedded in the beach. Apparently there used to be zillions of them, all different sizes but the smaller ones had been take as souvenirs over the years and so only a few massive ones remain... the ones too heavy to put on (or fall off!) the back of a lorry I suppose.

Even though there are only a few left they were beautiful, so thanks go to Lou for recommending them to me! Loads of arty-photo opportunities!

We spent the afternoon in Dunedin (Gaelic for Edinburgh) this is very much a scottish settlers city with architecture similar to its namesake. Was very strange for me to a) be in a 'large' city and b) be surrounded by 'old' buildings (young by UK standards but after 8 months over here, anything more than 50 years old now seems positively historic!

There is much to do in Dunedin and much more to do in the surrounding area. One of the places I intend to revisit properly one day!

One of the places we visited in our short stay was Baldwin Street. Its in the Guiness Book of Records as the 'Worlds Steepest Street'. Im delighted to say that I made it to the top and requiring only a little oxygen and a couple of sherpas. (picture is of me at summit!)

Back at the bottom we met a young chinese couple heading up. The girl didn’t look too keen so I thought I would encourage her a little...
me: "It's OK , there’s a water fountain at the top"
her:- uncertain smile and blank look (obviously didn’t speak english)
me: "W-A-T-E-R" (speaking loudly and slowly always helps of course..)

Cue lots of smiling but she was still obviously not understanding.
So I exaggeratingly mimed having a drink
"AHHHH!!!" her eyes lit up and she practically started sprinting up the hill, excitedly calling over her shoulder to her boyfriend in Chinese.

I was slightly puzzled by her reaction, until it dawned on me I had just shown her the universal hand signal for 'having a beer'. Rachel wanted to stick around until they returned from the summit having realised there wasn’t a pub to greet them there after all, but I thought it was best to make a quick getaway.

That night we had booked into the Manor Motel in the city. The lady showed us to the nice but standard unit adjacent to the original 'manor' then said... "well as there are 3 of you I think you may be more comfortable on the family unit- its empty tonight so I'll pop you in there, no extra charge"

Well we were expecting this to have an extra bedroom and a bigger kitchenette perhaps so imagine our surprise when she ushered us into the actual manor itself and proceeded to give us a guided tour of this veritable mansion complete with ceiling roses, contemporary decor and about 10 beds. Now thats what I call an upgrade! (cost= approx 10 pounds sterling each) So we spent our evening in Dunedin in the lap of luxury. was a real treat!

te anau
Next day we headed across to Te Anau, the gateway to Fjordland National Park, one of the most spectacular areas of NZ. The route took us the most southern Ive been yet in NZ, an odd feeling to know that theres only a couple more towns in that direction then next stop is Antartica. Very cool. (in more ways than one of course)

Id been to Te Anau before with my friend Rachel but it was good to go back, this time we took a boat trip to the glow worm caves across the lake which was great fun and really beautiful.

Queenstown, Cromwell & Mount Cook
Over the next couple of days we headed back north to Rangiora via Queenstown which I thoroughly enjoyed with its funky and vibrant feel... lots of younger people around! then through Cromwell (Rachel was inexplicably excited about seeing the giant and totally pointless fibreglass fruit structure on the state highway that the town is famous for) and the mighty Mount Cook, Australasia's highest mountain (couldn’t see it in the fog but I assured mum and Rach it was actually there as I had seen it on my last trip!). pic is of mum and I at the church of the good shepherd on Lake Tekapo.

A few days later mum and rachel left. So Ive been adjusting to being on my own again but lots to be getting stuck into on the work front. More of all that on a later blog, this one is getting too long!

Also winter has struck hard and fast. Its FREEZING! Ansd much of the area just south of us has had power cut off for days now. I took a trip down to to Geraldine (a town not person!) on Saturday for a site visit to the ‘Summer Wine’ venue. Took some photos of the awesome view… snowcapped mountains aplenty! but alas have had to be frugal with photos this posting as having diffculty uploading them...

I was looking forward to the World Cup, but its proving very difficult to follow it over here with the time difference and the general indifference as nz is not really a soccer nation!

Dad sent me through a world cup wall chart to whet my appetite (nice one Dad!) and Rachel has also made sure I can do my patriotic bit from afar with some very classy (honest gov’) “come-on'en-ger-land” underwear. No photo of those as this blog is designed for family viewing.

Early yesterday morning I managed to watch the 2nd half before work on a dusty tv in the back of the local pub. Was a slightly solitary experience sipping my coffee in the silence and attempting to not miss my friends and the ‘big game’ experience I’m used to in england!

Must admit though I would love to be in a position to join with my friends sharing the ecstasies (and agonies!) of the games its kind of a relief not to be in the midst of the rather silly and over-the-top media frenzy that always accompanies tournaments such as this. There was a piece from the BBC on the news the other night about Rooney’s foot and I find all the melodrama just so unnecessary, one of the few moments when I’m not really proud to be english!

OK I shall climb down off my soapbox now (once I’ve checked Jeffrey is not in the vicinity....)

Well done for those who have made it to the end of this rather lengthy posting & enjoy the football Sunday night (an early start for me on Monday morning… *sigh*)

lots of love

Charlotte x