Haven’t written in my blogg for 4 months mainly due to not having wi-fi in the bus where I was living. I moved out of the bus 2 weeks ago and now living at a friends house by the Hawea river and there is unlimited wi-fi here.
It was a good winter with lots of snow, we did have area’s on the ski field which were closed due to Avalanche issue’s. We had a lot of snow with the early storms which fell on a warm mountain so the snow didn’t adhere to the mountains like it normally does if its cold, so the sunny north to north east aspects started to get glide cracks where the snow pack was seperating and the lower seperated snow was moving very slowly down the slope’s creating the glide crack’s so they closed some area’s and in the spring when it warmed up mid morning to lunch time the saddle track which took us from the lower mountain to the upper mountain would be closed because the snow above the track had glide cracks.
I only went touring on two occasions which is unusual but I enjoyed skiing in the ski area and the photo above was a really nice run in the Hollywood bowl, there is a skier is part way down near the top over the turns where I had gone 🙂 .
In August my brother Bill (above with me) had to go into hospital and the morning I flew up to be with him he sadly passed away :-(.
It was a very sad time and I was up there for a couple of weeks sorting his stuff out and helping to arrange the celebration of his life at a funeral parlour in Rotorua. He had a lot of friends there and it was a well celibrated and sad send off. It is going to be very hard to accept I won’t be seeing him anymore but he will always be with me in my thoughts, 🙁
Closing day at Treble cone was on October 2nd and after a fancy dress day up the hill we went to a spot we go to sometimes on closing day Penrith beach (above) to look back across the lake to Treble Cone where we had skied for the winter.
Cardrona which is another ski area up the Cardrona valley close by is on the same ski pass as Treble Cone, it stayed open till 16th October so we still had a few more weeks skiing there.
Work wise I only worked a few days a week, I was finishing off a friends house which I built and was staying in the bus on his property, working two days a week for rent and power but sadly that didn’t work, we had a fall out and I ended up doing a little job for a friend in Wanaka two days a week encasing post’s and a beam in ply and staining and sealing it in Dark Rimu and built a Cabinet for books and ornaments (above). It was a nice project which I finished last week.
The last two weeks I’ve been staying at a friends place where I have house/dog sat a few times over past winter months and on Monday I head up to Redcliffs in Christchurch and will be woofing for Kirsten again till I go to Canada on December 18th.
I will also be going to Rotoma for the last week november and the first week in December where my brother Bill lived and doing a little work on his house which his son Billy has inherited and lives in, were also spreading some of his ashes at the mouth of the river Ngongotaha, with his fly fishing buddies who said that was Bill’s spiritual home, a few family members and friends will also be there.
It will again be a very sad time but a celebration of Bill’s passion for fly fishing and we realise just how special and precious life is. We are born to die and Life is a journey on our specil planet and we should respect, enjoy and cherish the moments and time we have here with one and other.