Summer Camping: Pounawea

I've been experiencing technical difficulties, so sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything.  Here are a few shots from our camping trip to the Catlins earlier this summer.  It was actually a birthday trip for Mark... so there was lots of fishing on his part... and lots of reading in the sun on my part.  It was fantastic!!

 

 

We managed to find a few local fishing spots that required some lengthy gravel road runs... but the views were awesome.

 

Mark did really well in this particular river with rainbow and brown trout.

 

Our system was... I sit in the sun contemplating the merits of doing nothing and LOVING it until I hear Mark "Whoo hoo"... then I go running with the camera.  Tada...

 

With the occasional tree climbing...

 

 

 

We took a break from all this hard work to go out to the Cathedral Caves.  You have to wait until low tide to get to the caves.  Here's the walk on the beach at low tide...

 

These pictures downloaded in the wrong order, but this is from the inside of the caves:

 

This is the caves from the outside:

 

And of course... night time fishing was spectacular!

 

Great weekend!!

Tis the Season

As the tradition continues… so does the gingerbread creations!  I can’t decide if I love eating it all or making it.  This year I got a little nostalgic with the rocking chairs on the front porch.  It makes me think of home!  The bikes are a tribute to our #1 (and only) mode of transportation.

 

This is in honor of Mark’s love of fishing… and catching a rainbow trout! Yes, I know I'm a dork.

 

And of course, paying homage to the best…

 

 

 

I'm not commenting on how long it took me to eat the entire thing with very little help from Mark!

 

Fishing for Crayfish

Being the keen fisherman, Mark decided to take his chances at catching him some crayfish.  There are many places to do this around here, so first we tried going off the wharf.  Basic process is to drop the net contraption at night, and then come back in the morning to see what you caught.  I love this type of fishing!  Here's Mark preparing said contraption, and dropping it into the water.

 

Mornings on the wharf are awesome!  So quiet.

 

We were excited to see how we did (I use "we" loosely here).

 

Unfortunately, the only crayfish that were interested were the babies.

 

Mark was less than thrilled, but tried again at a different spot... and viola!  Crayfish big enough to eat.

 

They really freak me out when they are alive and crawling around, but I have to admit that they were tasty! 

 

Ok now that school is finished for the year I will hopefully have many more posts to come.  Sorry I've been so lapse in my blogging!

Mount Cook

Over my mid semester break Mark and I ventured to Mount Cook for a camping trip and some hiking. Mount Cook is the tallest in NZ (but maybe don't ask me how tall that is). I've had this blog half done for almost 2 weeks now, but can't seem to get my act together to finish it! I have some more and potentially better photos, but that would delay me publishing this post even longer. So in no particular order here is what I have for all of you thus far...

NOTE: The snow capped tall one is Mt Cook! :)

View from our camp site.

We camped next to Lake Pukaki that is at the base of Mount Cook.  Most mornings we were up before sunrise... what a spectacular thing to see.

Pheasant anyone?

Me on the beach at Lake Pukaki one early morning.

Along a hike around Mount Cook.

Yes I'm a wonderful camera person!  I was struggling maybe a little... and finding it hysterical.

This was our tiny rental car and the neon blue waters of Lake Pukaki.

I got better at the photo taking.  I think these are called the Blue Lakes?  Interestingly enough they are neither big like lakes nor blue... but I have a good imagination.

Mount Cook at sunrise.

A shot one during one early morning hike.

Mark at a swing bridge.

I have tons of photos, and I'll try to dig through them all and maybe post some more.  In the meantime, it's back to studying!

In a Flash

I know I haven' t been blogging like I should.  And I promise I will TRY to do better... but classes have started again, and my schedule is nuts as always.  Until something more entertaining happens I'll leave you all with the best part of my day... sunrise.  Here are a few of my favorites:

All out of my bedroom window.

And then there were two...

Mark and I had our very first visitor from back home!!!  My friend Lisa came to visit us for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was/still am that she came.  And let me just say for the record that she has broken the seal and ALL of you are now required to come pay us a visit.

Among other things, we took a trip to Queenstown with a friend of mine for a few days.  Here is Lisa and Chivala at our picnic in Central Otago on our way thru... side bar:  it was so AMAZING getting to eat Lisa's food again!  Oh how I've missed it (for those of you who don't know, go visit The Little Red Hen in Glencoe - ask for cake box cookies!)

And of course we did all the tourist things to do... rode the sky gondola...

... all the way to the top for the best views of Queenstown..

And here's our ridiculous view from our hotel balcony

We had such a blast!

Unfortunately the weather wasn't spectacular.  We had such an amazing December that it clearly was too much to hope that Feb would be just as nice.  But, no matter... we still took Lisa to our favorite beaches that just also happen to be great places to get mussels and clams!

This is Lisa and Mark climbing back from gathering mussels.

Lisa maybe wasn't OVERLY excited about the idea of all sea creatures, but she managed to gather a few clams that we later turned into dinner.  And by "we" I mean Mark.

I can't thank Lisa enough for coming to see us.  I haven't laughed that hard in a year!  I love you Sugar Chix!!  xoxo