winter

winter

winter did indeed arrive full force about 3 weeks ago with heavy snowfall that came down to lake level, caused mayhem on the roads and cut us off from the rest of the island. we were nice and cosy and warm with our log burner stacked to the top and throwing out heat :)



fran got to get out snowboarding a fair bit and start using his season pass. I'll be having a taster day later in august to try out snowboarding - I've only ever done english dry slope skiing and that was when I was 4!



on tuesday fran went off to phoenix, arizona, for 5 days for some wind-tunnel training at skydive arizona. travel got a little interesting when his flight from auckland was delayed 6 hours, but he still made phoenix by nightfall (1.30am) and changed accommodation options from the $8 a night bunkhouse (read: non-airconditioned wood shed with night temps averaging 27oC) to the dropzone motel which he got for half price with air-con, private bathroom, sky tv.... I probably shouldn't say too much else, but he's done 30 mins training so far and was absolutely loving it!



today I drove south to five rivers cafe to meet my friend sandy from methven for coffee & lunch. the southland has been having heavy frosts and freezing weather and the scenery was just breath-taking. the frost was so heavily crusted onto grasses, trees and fences that sheep glowed gold against the stunning white and cattle stood out like black polka dots. I've never seen trees completely white with frost... it was quite hard to concentrate on driving!





fran will be between 25 to 40oC warmer than me for the next 5 days - we're having hearty winter weather, and my wood ran out yesterday so this morning my bedroom was 3oC. I've just had 4m3 of wood delivered so now I get to stack it all!