Saturday 4 April After the fun of the air show, Saturday was a chores day - Louis swam, I went to New World and the Sallies, we filled up with fuel while we still could and we went on a fruitless hunt for a Pembroke Pâtisserie hot cross bun (no pun intended). I had fun at Sallies - the Teletubbies plate was one that Ella and Amy had as toddlers; the sequins were tempting but I resisted; and I nearly bought another bargain Stella&Gemma sweatshirt but feared it was a bit matchy

Friday 3 April Friday dawned with a watery moon behind Banjo & the vans and a shepherds warning sunrise in front. First day of Warbirds Over Wanaka but none of us had Friday tickets so some set up the chairs by the vans to watch the overhead air displays from the comfort of our lovely camp, some cycled over to the airport and we made complicated arrangements with the very helpful Wayne Senior to collect our generator which he had kindly ferried down from Christchurch for the

Thursday 2 April A rude awakening at the Webster household - 6am and the concrete team arrived to pour the floor for their new garage/shed! I popped my head out the door around 6.20 and it looked amazing & alien - all floodlights and a massive cantilevered concrete pouring hose machine. Checked in on progress over the next couple of hours as the light changed - pale & pastel at 7.30am and golden glow at 8.30am - and the team worked on levelling the concrete and then packing a

Wednesday 1 April Almost a frost - a couple of sparkles on the grass and 0*C on the thermometer - as we woke to a gentle pink dawn… and Kaye’s cheeky escapee sheep staring us out from the fodder beet field again!! We had a chill morning and packed up slowly - Kaye & Jet popped over to say goodbye (and for Jet to solicit even more belly rubs) then we hit the road up through the Kurow Valley to Omarama (no stop at Otematata as the real ice cream stop was closed 😢) then on into

Tuesday 31 March A chilly dawn in the Otiake Valley - but clear around us and very stormy looking over the hills. A strange morning light - lots of low lying cloud injected with bruised pastel colours as the sun rose. Louis got hold of Steve at Sublime Music Studio, which happened to be about 5km away from us at Glenmac, and got himself an invitation to pop over and chat. I wasn’t so keen on nerding out over music gear so we both cycled over to Grants Road and I cycled on whi

Monday 30 March Looked out the window on awaking and it was white all around - white skies, white mohos & campers and white Oamaru stone buildings! We packed up & pulled out of the freedom camp carpark comfortably before the 10am deadline and set course for Glenmac again. Loved this easy park-up and was very taken with the EV charging posts which were wrapped to look like local buildings and landmarks. From Oamaru the journey was grey & mizzly as we headed back up the Waitak

Sunday 29 March It was a quiet night - we didn’t even hear the hunters get back the evening before or leave in the morning! Only three went out on the hills this morning but they came back early and cooked up heaps of venison sausages from the last shoot and kindly shared the leftovers with us! Meanwhile I finally felt a bit guilty about the state of Banjo housekeeping so set to on a big “autumn clean” - spray wiping cupboards, walls, shelves and surfaces, cleaning all the wi

Saturday 28 March Taking it easy as Louis was still feeling rough and frankly, some days just need to be slow. Glenmac encourages this - gentle silence, punctuated only by birdsong and the odd baaing or mooing of farm animals. It was an uncertain day weather wise so I left Louis to doze mid morning and followed the tracks across the fields and up the Otiake River valley. The sun was definitely breaking through by now as I passed the shearers shed, but still low lying cloud a

Friday 27 March Oh what a beautiful morning 🎶 Stunning sunrise over Scottland but sadly we had to pack up and move on. Not before having a lovely gossip with some of the few remaining campers, chatting with Bill the owner and buying some supplies from their farm store - I bought apricot jam, black boy peaches and fruit leathers for walking & cycling snacks. Saw dozens of quail on our way out - surprised that they seem to coexist well with the feral cats! From Bannockburn w

Thursday 26 March On our way from Lowburn to Bannockburn the previous day, we’d stopped at the dump station at the same time as a DOC ranger. I asked her for a recommendation for a great short walk locally and she suggested Bannockburn Sluicings so we strapped up my knees, grabbed a bag of fruit leathers for snacks and set off to explore. Central Otago’s settler history is all about gold and there were many methods of extracting the precious metal. Sluicing involved jets of w

Wednesday 25 March A gentle morning at Lowburn - a soft sunrise, a hobnob with the geese at the end of the campsite who have their own cordoned off area, though they hang out wherever they please, an hour or so packing up then a quick dip because it was so hot inside Banjo. Once again, the lake level had fallen over night - the high tide line was from Sunday/Monday, by Tuesday afternoon it was about 1m lower and this morning a further 1-2m lower again. Had a lovely chat with

Tuesday 24 March To quote Leo Sayer “the sun is out, the sky is blue, there’s not a cloud to spoil the view”… but in our case, it’s not raining in our hearts… quite the reverse. It was another stonkingly hot day so we hopped in the kayak and paddled up the lake's twinkly waters to the NZMCA park up near Pisa Moorings. Had a wee elevenses picnic on the beach there - peacherine seconds from Webbs, which were absolutely delicious - took our shadow selfie in the clear lake waters

Monday 23 March Otago turned on the sunshine again - autumn is the new summer! Beautiful light and low ribbons of cloud over the lake as the sun rose. Lowburn Freedom Camp has a resident family of geese; they settle as a group all over the grounds and several times a day they fly over to the lake and swim around together before returning to land - this morning they were hanging out beside a couple of campers in the middle of the camp! We had a chill morning then inflated the

Sunday 22 March A gentle rosy dawn at Driftaway Queenstown - a passing visit from Campsite Cat and a bunny on the next door site made for a lovely walk to the facilities block before we packed up and headed out on time at 10am. We had planned to stay a couple of nights at 12 Mile Delta on the far side of Queenstown, out on the lakeside on the Glenorchy Road, but with diesel prices jumping again we decided not to add the extra kms/fuel use but start heading back to the coast a

Saturday 21 March It all started with a 4.45am alarm - an hour later it was still dark as we made our way downtown and an hour after that, Louis had stripped down to his wetsuit, goggles and orange swim hat, listened to the briefing, and was on board the TSS Earnslaw, steaming over to the Frankton Arm of Lake Wakatipu in the darkness, with around 180 other swimmers joining him in the madness. By 7.30am, the 180 mad swimmers were leaping off the Earnslaw into the 14*C waters o

Friday 20 March A gentle morning of packing up, next to a millpond smooth Lake Wānaka, and then we said our fond farewells to Glendhu Bay Motor Camp - for now... We set course for Driftaway Queenstown, trekking down Lake Dunstan to Cromwell where Jackson's Orchard lured us in as usual - real fruit ice cream stop of course. Strawberry & pineapple for Louis, apricot & passion fruit for me - it was quite tart! Pushed on from there through the stunning Kawerau Gorge to Frankton

Thursday 19 March Another glorious day - we may wake up to single digit temperatures but the autumn sun is working hard to give us a long-awaited summer! Morning means less likelihood of wind across the lake so we grabbed snacks (a pack of chippies and water bottles) and set off exploring in the Razor Kayaks inflatable kayak. We paddled out towards the peninsula opposite, with Roy's Peak on our right, then followed its coastline round to Paddock Bay where we saw zero trout, b

Wednesday 18 March A beautiful day for a drive into Mount Aspiring National Park. There was a gentle dawn light over Lake Wānaka when I woke and an hour or so later the sun had burnt through leaving glorious blue skies. We finished up the lovely eggs from Otago Fresh Milk (not so fresh any more, but still super tasty) with scrambled eggs on toast...yum! Then packed up a picnic and snacks for the day and slathered ourselves up in sunscreen. Said goodbye to Banjo in her perfec

Tuesday 17 March After 4 nights at Albert Town, we decided to see a different side of Wānaka so used the autumn getaway special deal at Glendhu Bay Holiday Park to book three nights on power with a lakeside view - $44 per night. A glorious sunrise to start the day then we packed up and were on the road by 11ish, after a lovely send off from the ducks and a good long chat with Kelly who owns the POP over in Haast. With time to kill before check in, we stocked up on a few groc

Monday 16 March Sadly I seemed to get hit by a 24 hour lurgy - slept badly and woke with sore knees (standard), a fully blocked nose and a stonking headache. Louis headed into town for a physio appointment on his neck (gotta be fit for the swim next weekend) and I huddled in bed feeling sorry for myself. Eventually the paracetamol kicked in and I felt a bit more human, so I packed a bag and we whizzed into the aquatic centre so Louis could swim and I sat in the spa then had a