Road trippin'

On a blue sky day.

We had a couple of messages to do up the street before we left but were still away by 10:45am as we had planned. Whilst up the street I decided to change my clothes as I was already too hot and it was going to be hotter where we were going. No I didn't change while I was out, we went back home and my GKB also picked up a light jacket - just in case. Luckily going home was in the same direction as we were going so no time lost really.

We were on our way through the Manuka Gorge when I thought maybe I should take some pictures. So below is part way through. It gets quite rugged in places with a bit of bush overarching the road but the road itself is well maintained.

Coming out of the gorge into farming country.

Lawrence is a gold mining town and very proud of it's heritage buildings and mining equipment from back in the day. They hold an annual Heritage carnival which I've been to once. A family day with family friendly activities.

We were to have met up with Jacqui's partner for lunch but he never arrived. He was away working and we're guessing he just plain forgot :) We sat outside Bellview Wetlands, ate chips (crisps) and  had a bottle of ginger beer each then went on our way.

But not before we headed up to the Gabriel Read memorial. Gabriel Read was the man who discovered gold in the gully and so started the Otago gold rush.

On the road again until we arrived in Ettrick and stopped at what used to be our favourite wee cafe until it began to get rundown. It has new owners now so we thought we'd drop in for lunch and have a looksee. This is where we sat. It is so nice now and we'll definitely be making it our stop once again when we're up that way.

After lunch we were back on the road again. We were looking for a fruit stall selling peaches, we'd already stopped and bought plums, cherries and apricots from another roadside stall. We were in Fruitlands, orchard country. Stone fruit and berries in the summer, apple and pears later in the year. We bought a box of peaches that had been on the tree while we were eating our lunch - they were still warm from the sun.

Heading home again, sheep on one side of the road

and cattle on the other, not sure whether they're beef or dairy

 but look quite young.

There weren't a lot of campervans on the road, most people 

travelled home at the weekend I imagine, but we sat behind

 this one for a mile or two.

Crossing the new Beaumont bridge over the Clutha River.

Two horses looking hot in the mid afternoon sun in 

a paddock beside the river.

Look closely and you can see both the old bridge and the new one. The new bridge is only about a year old.

Back through Lawrence, the road heading home :)

A stop at Milton for ice cream, a family tradition when travelling from Central Otago, and only about half an hour from home.

The fruits of our trip. Some still in the fridge and some shared with a friend. Most family have just recently been through so didn't want any.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day out and I hope it's not too long before we do it again :)

That's all for now.

Until next time

Diana

A nice day for a short walk

The sun was shining, there was only a slight breeze, a pleasant day for a short autumn walk. I went to the top of the street and turned right which takes me out into the countryside. Well almost. It's rural shall we say. Plenty of autumn colour, the leaves are starting to turn now.

Autumn coloured hydrangeas.

Half grown calves watching me .

A few yards further down the road there is a small orchard.

The traffic was starting to get a bit heavy and no 

designated walking paths so I didn't go much further,

 just beyond these trees.

Nearly home again, about 30 feet to the corner 

and we're back in town.

I love living on the edge of town, I have the best of both

 worlds to pick from when I go walking.

I hope you've had a good week. 

Until next time,

Diana

 

A stroll along the Silverstream

I went for a wander along the Silverstream today.

It was warm but with a bit of a breeze blowing at times and the fragrance coming from these lilies as I walked by was lovely.

I had decided to walk as far as the walnut tree about halfway along this section. It hangs over the path and I guess if you went along at the right time you might be able to pick up the windfalls. I've never been so lucky :)

As you can see it was quite a dull day and I actually had the path to myself - usually there are dogs and walkers or runners there. 
There are seats every so often, some donated by Rotary and others put out by home owners. The ones above look like they came from Carisbrook, the local football stadium, when it was pulled down.

I sat for a short while and just looked about and enjoyed the tranquility. Butterflies, bees  and birds flew past but 

I couldn't see any ducks in the stream, it was probably 

too early in the day for them.

On the opposite bank it was quite pastoral with sheep and

 cows in the paddocks. I didn't see any rabbits about but

 it was probably too early for them as well. We had a baby one in the front yard one day last week. I don't know where it 
came from and we haven't seen it since.

 

There were a few windfall walnuts but not worth gathering up. 

I'm not sure I'd know what to do with them in this green state anyway.

**********

And for those of you who expressed an interest in seeing 

Alice's Christening gown up close here is a photo her 

Granma took of her on the tapa cloth mat.

And I will now finish and make my GKB a coffee, 

he's been out mowing the lawn so I think he deserves one :)

Until next time,

Diana

The week just gone by

A friend rang me during the weekend to see if I wanted to join her for morning tea at the local art groups' exhibition. I did and we enjoyed seeing the paintings as well as having a good

 chinwag over coffee and cake. Some of the paintings were for sale but we didn't buy anything this time. Mind you there 

were a couple I really rather liked. Really, really liked :)

There are a lot of talented people out there.

And staying with the coffe break theme, my GKB and I went over to Wal's Plantland one afternoon for tomato plants and potting mix. There's a nice cafe cunningly placed at the end of a tunnel/hothouse  and while we didn't buy any extra plants we did enjoy a late afternoon tea which meant I didn't need to cook that evening. Bliss.

Staying with plants, aren't the blossoms on this magnolia magnificent? This tree belongs to a neighbour and 

my GKB had to wander partway up their drive to 

take the photo. Spring is certainly here :)

I took this photo while out walking one day. I love the moody clouds, rain threatened but hasn't happened yet. And that was several days ago. I rather think we may have drought conditions this summer as winter has been rather mild and not a lot of rain.

This is another pic I took while out walking. I had tried to get a shot of a flock of sparrows having a peck at the dirt on the road in front of me but they didn't cooperate with me at all and flew off :) This little thrush wasn't so shy, she just sat there and let me snap away. I love thrushes, their lovely colour and speckles on the breast. So cute.

Just to finish off  we went outside one evening and found we had this little fellow visiting us. He didn't stay long once he realised he had company. It's amazing how fast hedgehogs can run when they get up on those little legs and start to move.

Joining Amy and friends for
Five on Friday
and
Friday Foto Friends

Two intrepid walkers - day two

A long post so you might want to make a hot drink,
 or a cool one, and settle in for a while.

setting out 

On day two of our walk we had a plan!

We would begin at the other end 

and come back to where we were going to start.

Clear as mud?

We had talked over where we would be going and decided 

that we would begin where we would have finished if 

we started from where we finished the day before.

Oh dear, I think I'll stop there before it gets too confused :)

(I think it's the Irish coming out in me).

Hyde railway station

We headed up the road to Hyde and duly set out

walking back towards Middlemarch - after a comfort stop.

 We figured that doing it this way we would be walking downhill. In reality the walk from Middlemarch to Hyde

 only rises 100 metres, so not a huge climb over 28 k's.

derelict wagon filled with old wood, this was the worst one.

We weren't sure where the first passport stamping station was

 so we called in to the local cafe where there just happened to be a full complement of the various stamps. Once we were stamped the walk proper was on. The first corner we went around brought us to the Hyde railway station, no longer in use of course and now privately owned, with a few derelict wagons on sidings. 

And a hundred yards further down the trail was the stamping booth!

We hadn't gone too far when we decided that perhaps we were walking too fast and should go at a slightly more leisurely

 pace than yesterday so that we didn't get so tired. So we slowed down a little. We looked at more stuff. And stopped more often.

There were a lot more cyclists about today so we had to give way to them as well. And as most of them were travelling in the same direction as us it was quite interesting and reminded me of when we were in Japan and cyclists are just considered to be pedestrians on wheels. They used the footpaths and you were always checking behind for them, they did have bells. It's surprising how quickly you adapt though. And so we adapted on the trail.

We came across these cows relaxing before the heat

 of the day set in. These ones were chewing their cuds...

...but this lady was on a mission.

Can you see her in amongst the bushes?

When we first saw her she had her front legs up in the tree

 but had settled for this by the time we got the camera out.

She had climbed up on a rock to get at the delicacy she was after.

Well, what was it, you may ask?

gathering apples

She was after apples. All along this section of the trail was lined with apple and pear trees. There were bushes covered in clusters of red berries as well but we couldn't identify them and they were too far away to see them properly. Not handy like the trees. 

gathering pears

The trees have grown from the cores of the fruit thrown 

out of the train windows by passengers as it was travelling from Cromwell to Dunedin. So some of them must be getting on 

for one hundred years old. We gathered some fruit and put it

 in our bags to bring home, this did not lighten our load 

as we were walking :) But they were really sweet when 

I cooked them up once we got home. Compensation.

There were also a lot of different flowers growing and

 we wondered whether they had been part of some ladies

 gardens as they weren't wild flowers.

We only had one other stamp to get on this part

 of the trip and that was at the Rock and Pillars hut.

We took photos of each other here as well but they are so 

inelegant they are only for private viewing, haha.

We were pooped for some reason. We had some

 refreshments and got on the trail again. Didn't let our

 feet dangle this time either, we learnt that lesson.

looking towards the Taieri Range

The countryside is very dry and we came across 

this reservoir which feeds down to one of the 

farms and is probably part of an irrigation system. After we

 had been walking a few hours we looked up and 

Sis said 'that looks like your car over there'.

And I replied 'and that looks like my bloke over there as well'.

my GKB taking a video of us

He had brought the car back and was waiting for us with a 

full thermos and the tea and coffee. He was very good to us.

We had arrived at the Hyde Railway disaster memorial and we stopped to have a look and a bite of lunch.

There is a picnic table over the stile and behind the trees. 

The cairn is the memorial to the 21 people who died in 

the train crash in June 1943. The train would have been packed as it was on it's way to the Dunedin Show. We had walked through the

 cutting where it had happened about 100 metres or so further back.

stone plaque

The problem with stopping for half an hour, sitting with your feet up and just generally relaxing is that you don't want to start again. Oh dear. So we didn't. We had walked for three hours, only covered half the distance we intended but as the sun was getting very high in the sky decided to call it a day. We have a 6 km section to finish off and will do that next time. Maybe.

Then again we might just start here, which is the bridge over the river from Hyde and takes us  in the opposite direction to what we had been going, towards Clyde, which is the final destination. 

We didn't think we had done too badly, we walked 21 kms altogether and that is a half marathon!

We didn't have ice creams today, we all went back to the

 camp and fell asleep on our beds instead :)

Sis is coming back in May to do some more walking, 

I'm not sure about that as it will be winter, we'll see.

***************

joining Amy at:

Five on Friday

Have a good week,

I'll see you again soon.

Diana

Out in the paddocks

Driving home through the centre of the island earlier in the week these are some of the things we saw out in the paddocks.

A deer farm, blurred because we were on the move.

Cows, beef I think (not dairy). Again blurred

 a little because we were still on the move.

Sheep, naturally :)

Honey Bees.

Free range chooks.

We also passed free range pigs but I never managed to 

get  a shot of them as I didn't have my camera ready

 and we were on the move, just at the beginning

 of our journey. I don't like to ask my GKB

 to stop on the highway.

joining Stephanie at:
roses of inspiration 

Short posts this week as we are just back
from holiday and I am still in holiday mode.
Keep well, enjoy yourselves whatever you are doing
and I'll see you next week.
Diana