Lockdown - continues

Hi and good afternoon to you.  I hope all is well with you in lockdown land.  After a week of wall to wall sunshine it looks like we are in for a wet week.  Dull and sunny intervals today, so we got out for a walk.  My hay fever is playing up and I have a really itchy throat and runny nose today, so all the blossoms whilst beautiful cause some discomfort.

We walked from Hemingford Grey through to Hemingford Abbots and out and around the common and back, 5.2 miles.

Home for a beer and crisps, just not the same as going to the pub

This afternoon I have finally finished the ten stitch for our bed.  It could have had another round but I have no more suitable yarn.  The bonus of this blanket though is that if and when I have yarn, I can just unpick the ten stitches cast off and do another round.  I'm sure I won't, but as a critical knitter I always find something I'm not happy with. Do you do that, always something you find wrong? Anyway this blanket was knit from stash, I didn't buy any extra for it.  There is an assortment of mainly aran weight with one round of chunky knit on smaller needles and one final round side done with 2 x strands of DK held together

Next up, is to finish my Exordium shawl and my short sleeved cardigan, and as I said the rest of the week looks fairly wet so we won't be going far.

Stay home, stay safe

Retirement Trip - what a day!

We left Reefton bright and early having planned to visit Buller Gorge as part of our day. 

Buller Gorge has the longest swingbridge in New Zealand.  Well having walked across the swingbridge at the Hokitika Gorge I thought this would be a breeze.  Alas no, as soon as I saw it I knew this was going to be a completely different kettle of fish.  These are not my photos, I was far to scared to take any, and if we hadn't of paid an entrance fee you would never have got me across it.  The terrifying thing is that you have to make way for people coming from the opposite direction.  This involves you leaning onto the side structure which as you can see tips away from you.  By the time I finally got across I felt sick and said there was no way I was going back across.

see how narrow it is!!!!

Once on the other side there is a lovely walkway and we spent some time wandering around and looking at the exhibits

This was the view for the return journey.  I knew I really could not walk over it. 

Whats the alternative you ask?  Well, if you had told me I would prefer to ride the Cometline then I would have said you were crazy but it was the best NZ$30 each I ever spent.  Whilst slightly terrifying, it was fast, safe and got us to the other side in one piece!!  I was sat behind Peter, so managed to get a few photos as we whizzed through the air.  Landing for him was the scary part as he saw the finish post looming between his legs, but it stopped in time!!  I have to say neither was a great experience.

The rest of the day was very tame in comparison, twists and turns then suddenly heading north we hit the fruit growing area, hops, kiwis, pears, apples, miles and miles of fruit.  It was great to see after weeks of sheep, cows and deer.  We ended the day in Kaiteriteri in the Tasman Bay.  Our plan was to keep going along the Golden Bay as far as we could on the South Island before heading back towards Picton and the North Island.  We had an enjoyable dinner in a small bar, sorry no photos but it was fillet of lamb on lentils and a couple of beers.

Retirement Trip .....resumed

Hello, as promised I'm back on the retirement trip posts.  So where were we.  Ahh right, that lovely meal in Fairlie.

6 March - we left Fairlie and continued along to Inland Scenic Route, stopping off at Rakaia Gorge

We stopped off a the town of Rangiora, where we got some great sushi for lunch

and more importantly I found a yarn shop

After lunch we followed the Alpine Pacific Triangle (Loop) to Kaikoura - lots of roadworks, bridge repairs which made for some interesting driving, across riverbeds (sure the camper company would have had a fit), Bailey bridges and some very rough surfaces

By the time we got to Kaikoura the day had turned cold and grey and was blowing a gale.  The campsite wasn't great situated on the main road to the port on one side and the railway on the other.  So not a great nights sleep.  It was just as well dinner made up for it - Gropers Garage

Next day we continued along the Alpine route, lots of twists and turns and hairpin bends, it ran along the coast for the first part before turning back inland to head towards Hanmer Springs, which was nothing to write home about, if you like spa towns then this is the place for you.  Lots of expensive clothes shops, bars and restaurants.  We didn't stop long.

can you see the seal?

We overnighted in Reefton a small frontier town, with not much in the way of places to eat so we had a salmon salad - having picked up the salmon from a farm enroute - with a nice bottle of sauvignon .  No Wifi so a quiet evening. 

Today, we started to realise that Covid-19 was to become a problem for us.

8 March was a FUN day, so I'll leave that to the next post