Kaikoura - On the way home

Stunning scenary at Kaikoura. The snow capped mountains were quite breathtaking. No whales though. I thought they would be there to see me, but no. Maybe next time.


The last of our holiday pictures. You really don't want to know about the ferry trip home!

The First Blasts of Winter

I was mistaken last week about the first snow. But not this week, we have had a really icy blast.
The first snow on the ranges and Winter is still a month away. Nice to be sitting toasty infront of the fire while posting this.

Snow

Some snow on the distance mountains. Photo taken on my walk on a very frosty morning last week.

Heading for the Snowy Mountains

After a couple of very cold days and a lot of rain, we woke up to sun this morning and snow on the hills. My youngest is desperate to play in the snow, so we thought we would just drive until we found some. We had no idea where we were going. We just pointed the car in the direction of the snow. Every few kilometers there was a new awe inspiring view of the mountains, and I had to stop to take a picture (much to the annoyance of my youngest son).

We kept driving and driving, but we did not seem to get any closer.


The stunning views made us keep going on and on and on.

Nearly there

Not quite there yet. But still getting closer,

and closer,

and closer,

and nearly there.

Not quite close enough

We got closer,

and closer,

and closer,

but in the end the snow was just too far away.

Another Snowy Mountain

Actually this is the same mountain range, but a diferent picture. I think Peter and I need to visit the mountains in the next couple of weeks.

No Picture

This morning the view over to the ranges was stunning. The snow caps were glistening pink in the dawn light. The mist(actually smog) covered Hastings in a lovely fluffy quilt. And to cap it all there where hot air ballons floating in front of the pink snowy peaks. Wow I thought the perfect snap. Reached for my camera and attempted to capture it all. But I had left my data card in my computer at home and the camera could not take the pic. By the time I got home, grabbed the card and headed back it had all gone. You will just have to take my word for how good it looked. Typical.

Snowy Mountains

After a what felt like weeks and weeks of rain (one week in reality), the clouds have cleared, the sun has come out and the mountains surrounding Hawkes Bay have snow on them again. Winter is here at last.

Another sign of Autumn, we have had to light the fire for the first time this year. After enjoying months of temps around about 24 during the day and no lower than 14 at night. Today it has not got much above 16 and tonight is forcast to drop down to 3 degrees. Snow is expected on the hills. Peter has promised to kick me out of bed at 6am tomorrow to go and take pictures of the snow on the hills. I think he will have to kick quite hard!