Rain, Shine, all the Weather!

Monday 2 March

We woke up in a bit of a swamp after a night of heavy rain. Gumboots on we waited at 8am to help out with morning rounds. The light was amazing - steamy clouds rising from valleys, rainbows, stormy grey skies and golden morning sunshine all at once!

Steve was running a tad late so just Nickie & I ended up helping with the feeding and had a lovely time hanging with motley crew - Anthem the bull, the Friesian bullock who is a little behind his compatriots so still needs extra milk daily (but also was quite frisky with his father figure field-mate), the two older orphan lambs, Caramello & Twix the younger lambs & Monkey the horse.

Then we decided to brave the weather and walk up to the McKenzie monument on Puketapu Hill. Turned out to be quite a climb which my knees did not appreciate so I turned back at the water tower (after a funny video chat with Amy) and left Louis & Nickie to complete the climb - which they did, up the steepest of paths, and came back with some awesome photos from the top of the tower. Built in 1929 it commemorates Sir John McKenzie (1839–1901), a pivotal politician who championed smaller farms over huge ones. The clouds and rain kept coming and going so they got some cool panoramas at the top and found a much more gentle slope back down.

Russ finished his work and we said goodbye to Abby as she left for Dunedin. We packed up Banjo & Fernandivan, and hit the Pig Root across to Central Otago, crossing the Shag River several times.

Paused at Ranfurly for lunch and a wander, then pushed on to the Domain at St Bathans, our home for the next 2 nights.

St Bathans domain is a huge site and there were around 8 other vans scattered around the grounds. We found a lovely spot over by the home made rugby goal posts and set up side by side. Met the campers over by the far fence who had two gorgeous retriever cross doggos - they love this area so much they have bought a plot of land and were now waiting to see if their offer on a property in the village has been accepted - how exciting!

Caught up on admin while the Fernandi worked & studied, then enjoyed watching the golden hour colours change under darkening skies. Dinner & cards in the FernandiVan then we wrapped up warm, filled a hot water bottle, switched off the water pump, drained our taps and sent to be in anticipation of the coldest night of the year so far - 1*C forecast!!! 🥶❄️.