Chookeyblue is taking us on a virtual tour, well she did this last week, I have just been a tad caught up of late... but here we go!

welcome to McKenzie Country... and Twizel. Of course you have visited here before....

welcome to our house!

of course you have to travel this way to get there,

and if you do it in the early part of summer you will pass this lovely colourful display of wild lupins... like many things in this area (rowan, pine & silver birch trees to name a few) these are considered by locals to be a bit of a nuisance as they seed absolutely everywhere! ...but they do put on a marvellous display don't you think?

Twizel is known as the Town of trees, as these are really great shelter belts, both from the heat of the sun and the nor'easter winds.

there are a lot of walkways here in Twizel and my favourite is down by the Twizel river..

right by the swimming hole, and the Mt Cook seat (hiding behind the fallen log), so named because it gets the most fabulous view of our mountain, it is a great place to sneak off to with a good book!

This is one of the canals leading to Lake Ohau, other lakes we have in the area are Benmore, Aviemore, Ruataniwha, Tekapo, & Pukaki (see below). Ohau also boasts a rather wonderful boutique ski field.

This is Mt Cook from Lake Pukaki.. this is the most coldest of these lakes, all being glacial fed, they say that if you fall in, you have 10mins to get back out again before the hypothermia is irreversible ... so definitely not a swimming lake!!


Ruataniwha (below) -meaning 2 monsters - is a Lake that was specifically made when the canals were developed for hydro-electricity back in the 60's & 70's... creating power for all New Zealand along with the hydro power stations on the Clutha river further south.

anyway, certainly this is the BEST South Island rowing complex,

and Twizel is about to host the Maadi Cup - national secondary school championships (these are held here every other year, alternating with Lake Karapiro rowing complex in Cambridge)

these are a really BIG deal, as the town swells with about 6-8,000 people including rowers, coaches parents and supporters. It is a fantastic event!!

anyway, back to Ohau, wonderful views from the ski-field..

and one on the mountain (me and Rowing Boy, we managed a just-the-two-of-us for the day last season - lucky huh!!).

and of course while we are talking about snow, this is our teeny tiny holiday home (now home!) the first week in July 2009,

isn't the cloud cover rather pretty...

but back to the sun, because of the high altitude, we have extremes in temperatures. Very hot and dry in the summer, and very cold... and dry in the winters....

and of course the magnificent Mt Cook right on our back door step - literally...


this is in the Hooker Vally which is one of the many walkways in the area for day tramps and walks

and the beautiful Mt Cook lily, which is really part of the ranunculi family, it makes a rather wonderous display in spring for a few short weeks...

the dryness of the area makes it attractable to the bees, and we make sme of the most marvellous honey..

the land just stretches out as far as the eye can see.. and then some..

and once you have been out on the Lake, skiing (either water or snow), tramping, traipsing, fishing, whatever,.... then back to our deck for a hot-tub, and a fine glass of wine to watch the sunset

pretty good huh, am I lucky to live here or what??