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??
theses arrived in the mailbox today from Kate from Tasmania from stitched with love, as part of Maree's fat quarter birthday swap. How marvellous indeedy! I just love em..
Rowing Man wanted a hair cut (which again is a whole other story on it's own), and he is looking rather woolly, get some groceries and I wanted to check out Seqouia -
this is a really quaint serendititous shop - yeh you know the kind we all like to look in
lots to browse and delve and poke and wonderful wonderful eye candy,
and of course - QUILTS!!!!
this shop had the most amazing etched glass art work, must have for our new house when we we start building....
this town was an old town that supported the gold miners, which were mostly Chinese that came over to make their fortunes in the late 1800's, some did, and many many others didn't. I am always fascinated at these old walls, they have been standing for such a long time, and still look so perfectly stacked...
then yummy lunch
and coffee - really seriously GOOD coffee - aren't these cups just way too cute, and just the size that Rowing Man likes so much! So we sat and chatted, and ate our lunch and enjoyed our coffee, and each other's company, and this marvellous view
hmmmm life is so sweet....
hmmm rowing man has taken over my new toy...
he just loves anything with a computer, so I get to play on this when he is away at work
what a beauty huh!!! Still figuring some of it out...
but such a lot of fun!!
now feet back on the ground... I managed to get these this far, I have joined Melanie and Lyn in "A Christmas Story" by Annie Downs of Hatched and Patched. ...and boy am I frantically trying to catch up to where they are at!!!
...and I have inherited this from Rowing Man, but hey I don't really mind his cast off's and my old lappie is really getting past it's use by date, it is too frequently telling me that I am out of virtual memory and I need some more ram, so...... Rowing Man bought himself a Mac book Pro something or other... when we moved, so he no longer needs this wee machine, it has just taken a while to get around to taking his stuff off, and loading mine on, and then getting used to all the little foibles... you know the thingees that make all the difference especially when you are in a hurry!!!!
this cutie mini pillow arrived in my postbox from Michel'e of By Hoki Quilts - how gorgeous is this!! what a clever angel she is, Deb do you recognise yours in the background there!!!!
and I have very nearly finished this, altho not too much stitching going on in my house this week, the School National Rowing Champs are on, Rowing Boy is staying, and we are up and down at the lake very early...
oooh and I nearly nearly forgot to show you these, they are fat quarters from the lovely ladies in the birthday fat quarter swap that Maree has organised; from these lovely ladies, Jo, Jeni, & Jan, thank you ever so much!!
ladies traveled in cars from far afield, to share our day
and see our marvellous quilts on display
and take part in our quilt challenge, the theme was "reflections of McKenzie" (McKenzie being the district)
and listen to Sue Spigel our guest speaker, you can see her work here, and here,
and people browsed and bought at the merchant stalls, and looked at our many quilts on display, these were all made by our very own quilt group, and I must say, I was blown away at the variety of work, you don't realise what a collection of wonderful quilts there is until they are all gathered together...
this one shows that you do not need to keep with pastels for these Beatrix Potter panels,
and I am not sure that I might have used batiks for this traditional design, but it works well and looks stunning!
as do these...
and these....
and I love the way that this pinwheel looks...
welcome to McKenzie Country... and Twizel. Of course you have visited here before....
welcome to our house! 
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!!
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...
and of course the magnificent Mt Cook right on our back door step - literally...
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??
