Poolburn, 27 to 29 December 2009

27 December 2009
269881kms, 12:00, 16°C and sunny. Maggie has new back “feet”! – and we’ve already noticed a difference driving into the driveway – she doesn’t “rock and roll" – particularly the "roll” nearly as much, so it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like today as we are off to Poolburn for a couple of nights. The weather forecast is for hot weather (finally!) for the next 2 days. Got to the “rock spot” at 13:37 after stopping for a feed of chips and sausages from Muddy Creek CafĂ© – usually the food here is really good, but today the chips were yuck – soggy and greasy! Tried our luck at fishing but none to be had. A large crowd of people arrived from Alexandra Backpackers – watched 2 of them swim across to the island!!! Brrr – idiots. They moved to round by Whippy’s hut to try and catch some freshwater crays (we’d told them that’s where they might be as they were all foreigners and keen to try them and there are no rocks here).
Pretty much just as they left the wind got up so that even Maggie didn’t provide any shelter, so when they left we moved round, just in time to watch the news on the old “bus” 12V TV – which works perfectly! Thought we’d try it as it weighs half of the other black and white TV we’ve had ‘til now, and it actually gives a better picture. So bonus all round – we don’t have to start the gennie to watch TV, just run it off the cigarette lighter. Oh, and Maggie’s new back tyres have made a huge difference – all the glasses were still upright when we got to Poolburn. Up to now, the unevenness of the road has always meant we would roll so badly that everything upright in the cupboards would be on its side – the old tyres must have had very soft walls from day dot. We had often thought we needed to upgrade the shockies to heavy duty – turns out it was just the tyres! So much more comfortable ride. We had left over pizza for tea, and seeing as Mike was still recovering from a bad shift run, we were in bed really early – 20:00!!
28 December 2009
Alternately hot and no wind to windy. Up at 6:30, tried fishing all morning. Mike caught a beautiful fish, about 3-3.5lb on the worm. At that point Marielle had tried everything on the fly without any success, so threw a worm in and proceeded to catch 2 fish in the space of an hour – both not legal, but still 2 fish. Both got burnt despite plenty of high cloud – quite hot at times (T shirt and shorts weather). Bed at 21:30 after tea of Xmas ham and salad.

29 December 2009
Up at 07:00 – tried fishing, again nothing. Sunny and flat calm and hot until midday when the forecast wind arrived and we decided that, seeing as the forecast is not good, we would head home. Howling wind on way home, 19°C when we left, 29°C when we got home at 13:09. 269998kms (117kms this trip).

 

Poolburn, 10 to 11 December 2009

10 December 2009
Mike's 50th birthday!!!  269726kms, 12:59, 21°C.  Off to Poolburn.  Weather has not been great, but might be ok for next couple of days and we are tired of sitting around at home waiting for the weather to come right!  Filled up with diesel (52L, 269735kms), got some more beers (only $14.99 for a 15 pack!!) and got some reading material from the Alexandra library before heading off up the road. 
Stopped at Muddy Creek and got some fish and chips for a late lunch, at them beside the Manuherikia just over the bridge outside of Omakau and got to where we hoped to park overnight at 15:00.  A van parked up already, so asked them if they were staying (one of those spaceship type things, so if they had said they were I would have asked them where their toilet was!!!) but they said they'd move on, so we left Maggie where we'd driven up and got the rods out.  Not bad temperature - out of the wind it was T-shirt material. 
Decided after a couple of hours that the fishing wasn't working here, and the breeze blowing from wrong side for fly-fishing, so moved to beside Whippy's hut.  Fished some more but then breeze turned on-shore so called it quits. 
Talked to Linda and Danny Stephen for a while, had some more drinks and played some cards (Mike won 3 to 2).  Been around 22°C and not too bad - a bit changeable, windy then calm, sunny then cloudy but definitely not bad for up here!  Had whitebait patties (thanks again Darrin!) and salad for tea and amazingly (because Mike was tired at 18:00!) went to bed at the later time of 22:30.
11 December 2009
Up at 07:00 and YAY! it's dead calm and a mild-ish 11°C, so straight into fishing.  Mike caught a nice fish on the worm at about 09:30 but nothing at all after that,  The sun did try a couple of times and then very pleasant, but mainly cloudy with about 20°, until 15:00. 
Then it started to get darker and darker with a few spits of rain.  And then all of a sudden the wind got up, and then the rain really came.  And the associated temperature plummet - in a couple of minutes the temperature had dropped to 13°C!.  And the rain kept coming, so decided at 16:00 that Poolburn is an awesome spot, but not in this sort of weather, so headed home.  Got home at 17:00 - much warmer and calmer and no rain at home!  269855 kms.

Lake Aviemore, 28 to 30 November 2009

28 November 2009
269313kms, 11:20am. 12.5⁰C – brrr – cold but at least it’s sunny! Off over the hill somewhere. Filled up at Cromwell (47.79L, 269338kms) rather than in Alexandra because we had 25 cents per litre off voucher. Got to Lake Aviemore (269479kms) – just below the dam but further down than the last time we were here – at 14:40. Mike caught his first fish of the season – YAY! – a nice little rainbow. Nice warm afternoon (21.5⁰C) if you stayed out of the wind. Warm enough to sit outside in shorts and T-shirt. Watched TV for a while – no problems at all with the generator, in fact, it seems much easier to start now with just one gentle pull firing it off. Had lamb chops, asparagus and mushrooms for tea – yum. Mike fished after tea – a first, because it’s now 21:15 and he’s still fishing!!! Bed at 21:40.
29 November 2009
Up at 07:00, 7⁰C out, offshore breeze and light cloud around. Mike caught another 2 fish – 1 chocolate sized one, and another nice little rainbow. Marielle tried, on both fly and spinning, but nothing. The season’s total is now 6 to Marielle, 3 to Mike (not counting the ones Marielle has caught when fishing on her own!). Had ham/avocado/salad for lunch. Lots of people around, enjoying a reasonable day until the southerly wind really got up at about 15:00. Then it got cooler quickly! Because it got too cold to sit outside we had showers etc at around 15:30 and then read, played cards etc until news time. Again no problems with the gennie, so it’s obviously fixed. Oh, and we have super cold beer now too – Mike fixed the plug on our plug in chilly bin and it’s doing a great job. Had chicken and asparagus for tea and hit the pit at 22:00.
30 November 2009
Up at 07:00, overcast, blowing and 7.5⁰C. Forecast is for cloud and maybe rain all day and a maximum of 11⁰C. Will see what happens in the next little while and then decide what we are doing. 09:15, still only 8⁰C with a bitterly cold breeze so doing the dishes then going to dump and head home – the forecast is for this weather to stick around for the next couple of days, and there is a possible road snow warning for 1-2cm of snow for the Lindis Pass. 09:25 – battery dead, as in the truck battery. Too much radio and beer cooling!!! So out with the house battery and jumper leads – trouble is, the battery slide was stuck fast. CRC contact cleaner worked – not ideal but at least it released the slide so we could get the battery out. Then start Maggie off the house battery – just! Thank goodness for backup systems, otherwise we would have been sitting here waiting for the AA. Lesson for future: cool the beer when you’re driving and don’t use it all the time! 11:10 – at Ahuriri Conservation Park at the end of Birchwood Road. Decided to go and have a look, we’ve always wondered what is at the end of this road. Amazing scenery but oh, so cold – like winter with it still only being 8⁰C! Had a cup of soup and some bread and then carried on. 14:00 – checked out Kane Road (when you get to Tarras you are just about there, so we thought we might as well, in the hope that it’s sheltered and warmer down there), but still only 11⁰C and still blowing a southerly. So even though we don’t really want to, we are on our way home. Tomorrow is the start of SUMMER – YEAH RIGHT!!!! Got home at 16:37 after stopping in Cromwell for a commiseration drink. 269725kms – that’s 408.6 for this trip.