Wicked Winter Weekend Day 2 - Whitianga

So... the reason I couldn't stay at the mountain longer was because I had a ticket to the Scallop Festival in the Coromandel on Sat 30 Aug! Yum seafood and tasty wine. It's a tough life but someone's got to do it eh? An awesome day and wonderful weekend overall. There aren't many places where you can go from snow to sea in a couple of hours. I'm glad to call NZ home! :D

The cutest and perhaps smallest library I've ever seen.

Macadamia scallops

Happy Alison. Notice how all the glasses are empty!

Bronze, me & Ali! :)

The gang. L-R Sarita, Simon, Bron, Suzette, Matt, Shar, me & Al

Some misty, mystical bay :)

This was such a stereotypical shot of NZ I couldn't resist. And a view many kiwis are prob used to: the queue at Kopu Bridge!

Wicked Winter Weekend Day 1 - Whakapapa

Much of what I was looking forward to about being home was being surrounded by friends. So when I was presented with the option of doing a day mission to Mt Ruapehu for some snowboarding on what was being touted as perhaps the best day of the season I couldn't really turn down the option.

PS for those that don't know what I mean by day mission it means leaving Auckland on Friday in the morning and coming back home after the lifts close. A bit 'hardcore' considering the drive is 4-5hrs one way!

The approach to Mt Ruapehu. Not a cloud in the sky!

And the biggest snow base they've had for ages! Whakapapa is on 3.5m and Turoa is on 4.5m!

Lunch with the posse. Pretty good turnout considering it was a Friday!

Sigh. I love NZ!

Dusk over Lake Taupo on the drive home.

The day was pretty fabulous, but you'll have to read my next post to find out why I didn't spend longer than a day on the mountain...

A town fit for a Queen!

and no, I'm not referring to myself when I say that...

When European settlers came upon an area with a gorgeous lake and beautiful snow capped mountains, they proclaimed it a town fit for a queen, which is apparently how Queenstown in the South Island of NZ got its name. It's now the adventure capital of the NZ and the place to go for a fun-filled adventure, which is exactly what I did!

A scenic lookout on the Crown Range road (way to get to Cardrona, a ski field)

Me at Cardrona :)

Perhaps the most quaint pub in NZ and an obligatory stop after a day on the slopes!

The perils of leaving your water bottle in the car overnight in chilly QT.

The view from the deck of the house we hired.

The gang! (And see, I was being honest about the house - check the background is the same as the pic above :)

Lake Wakatipu
The lake is 400m deep (its floor is 100m below sea level) and there's a cool Maori legend which explains why the water level rises and falls 12cm every 5minutes!

And last but not least, Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first commercial bungy jump (and where I did my first jump a couple of years back :)

a REALLY long time between posts...

Since I started my blog way back in March 2006, I've made at least one post every month, but not in July 2008. Which is a bit lame for those of you who have been following my blog (sorry all, especially you bexy!) but I guess it's because I've been settling back into life in NZ and I haven't been taking many photos - it is a bit strange to be snapping pictures when you're a local...

But that didn't stop me the other day... We've had some serious storm action in New Zealand recently so I couldn't resist taking this picture of a gloriously sunny morning from the bus on the way into work yesterday (yes I did get strange looks).

Auckland city from the Northern Busway

Oh almost forgot to say - watch this space! I'm off to Queenstown, one of the most beautiful places in the world tomorrow so I should hopefully return with some good pics!