There’s an adjustment required to foreshortened views after the panoramic vistas of Wānaka. No mountains or lake, but we do enjoy the evening skies at home. Last night, the cherry tree turned golden as the sun set.
As the sky darkened, the colours deepened.
Then, as the colours faded, the crescent moon appeared.
I photographed the crescent moon and bright star (Venus, if I read the Stellarium app correctly) early one morning in Wānaka. I opened the curtains early to watch the sunrise.
Now that the dust has settled (literally – there were red alert gale-force winds as we drove home on Saturday) it’s nice to remember our Wānaka holiday as we adjust to being home. Dad used to say, “Back to plain clothes and porridge” at the end of a holiday. Back to cooking and clutter, too!
Felix is excited to be home from his holiday at the cattery. He wouldn’t stop ‘talking’ to us for the first couple of hours. Two days on and he is taking every advantage, such as monopolising Mum’s chair this morning.
Mum and I are reminiscing about the things we saw and did – and bought. The house smells lovely of soaps from Cardrona.
Our last dinner at Edgewater was delicious, with a view of the lake; nourishment for body and soul.
Strong winds discouraged our venturing far today, but the sun shone into our apartment where we read and dozed.
I did venture out for a brief walk, battling the wind, as far as that famous tree, but was more impressed by the partly submerged tree at the start of my walk.
We finished the day with dinner at the resort restaurant with a view of white caps on the lake.
While collecting Mum’s watch, which needed a new battery, from Aspiring Jewellers (where the assistant raved about Mum’s tweed skirt – clearly the attention she’s been getting is a fashion thing) we spotted a small number of stalls set up under a spreading tree. There we found beautiful, handmade crafts.
Mum and I each chose a bowl from the work of Invercargill ceramicist, John Kalb. He collects his clay from sites in Southland and travels to various markets to sell his work. I bought one of his blue jugs years ago at the Wānaka Sunday Market. The market doesn’t start up again until Labour Weekend, so it was great to find this mini market.
Earlier in the day we returned to Albert Town and I left Mum in the car while I briefly explored the Clutha Riverside walk which is part of the Te Araroa Trail.
We were delighted by green paddocks full of little spring lambs on the Cardrona Valley Road. We had lunch at the Cardrona Hotel and visited the Schoolhouse Shop.
Arrowtown is as delightful as ever. A passerby asked Mum if she could take her photo. I guess she looked pretty natty with her R.M. Williams stockyard shirt, tweed skirt and rustic walking stick. She’s attracted similar attention before (in the English Lake District) when her little brown trilby hat and ‘Driza-Bone’ oilskin coat caused a Japanese woman to exclaim: ‘Miss Marple!’ and photos were taken.
The Museum was a treat. Mum was dwarfed by a Moa skeleton. ‘Imagine meeting that in the wild!’ she said.
When we’re not saying, ‘Wow!’ to views of snowy mountains, we’re exclaiming at the Spring blossoms.
It’s still a little chilly morning and evening, so a fire was welcome at dinner last night.
Later, we saw the daffodil colours of fire fighters training under pink blossoms.
We don’t need a map to find the way to our favourite places here.
There was a park available right outside Wools of Wanaka and, even more fortuitously, there was a stick beside the car which I barely looked at twice, while Mum instantly saw a use for it.
We returned satisfied with our excursion and with our woolly jumpers.
Mum and I are relaxing on holiday at her pace. We saw ten tiny ducklings at the marina, then stopped here at Beacon Point where people greeted each other (and us) as they walked their dogs.
We explored further than we have before, since walking everywhere is not possible for Mum. We saw lots of subdivisions and something charming on Infinity Drive. (‘It’ll be funny if this ends in a cul-de-sac,’ I said.) The Pembroke Patisserie in Albert Town was a highlight.
Now we are reading and nodding off, relaxing in the sun with panoramic views of mountains sharply outlined against blue sky. ‘There’s not a breath of wind,’ says Mum.
The wind-ravaged greenhouse has been tidied up and secured with shade cloth, pegs and ties. However, the ridgepole was discovered to be rusted right through and crumbling.
My sister, who just has to look at a problem to come up with a solution, fixed it. She had a piece of rebar which was being used as a garden stake. She cut it to length, wire-brushed it, rust-proofed and painted it. Today she put it in place, with wedges of cork to make up the for narrower width.
The talent for fixing things is longstanding with my sister and her family. All the children are practical too. For example, an earlier post ‘All hands on deck’ (12/12/22) shows my nephew’s work – helped by other family members – to fix the underpinnings of the deck.
In 1993, my sister and brother-in-law (just before they were married) made the woodshed out of timber from the old porch. You can see from my last post that it is still in use thirty years later.
In an old album (pre-digital) are photos of the work underway, the careful measuring, while the photo above shows the partly constructed woodshed.
The last time I was at their place, my brother-in-law and two nephews were up on the roof solving a problem with the plumbing to the water butts. There’s always a project on the go!
It’s nice to put some order back into my little piece of the world after the scary gales we had on Monday and into the night.
The greenhouse plastic, already sun-damaged, has been shredded. Luckily, all the plants are okay. Mending it is a job for today.
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