Cycling World Champs

Kelley had got me tickets to the cycling World Championships at Hisense Arena so we went along to see some of the action.  There were some big names there and some really strong teams trying to make their mark in the last major hit out before the Olympics.  We saw two world records broken on the night we were there and a couple of bronze medals to NZ.

NZ men's pursuit team lining up, on their way to a bronze medal behind Great Britain and Australia.

The NZ men flying along the home straight

Mens 15km Scratch race.

Bare foot bowls

It was a superb late summer evening so Kelley organised some bare foot bowling.  Team captains Gabs and Sara squared off and after a late comeback by Sara's team it finished up all square with a left handed bowling challenge to decide and if memory serves correctly, Chris cleaned up and Gab's team won.  Great fun though.

Good shape Kelley

Queens Birthday weekend

It was Queen's Birthday weekend and a good opportunity to get away for a couple of days so we packed up the bikes and booked a room on a vineyard in the Pyrenees in North West Victoria.  Lovely clear days, perfect for running, reading and riding which is precisely what we did, and tasted a few wines.

Enjoying the wine at Taltarni vineyard

View down the road from Taltani

Late afternoon sky

Federer vs Tomic

Federer - blasting Tomic off court in the fourth round of the Australian Open

            

Twizel and Mt Cook

After the wedding we had a few day to ourselves before we flew back to Melbourne and we drove to a little cottage just out of Twizel for some peace and quiet. We didn't do an awful lot, some walking aroun Mt Cook national park, a drive into Ohau and not too much else. We had great weather and the scenery was spectacular.

View from our little cottage at breakfast time



Fishing in the canal between Lake Tekapo and Pukaki



Catching fish out of the canal. Most of the fishing was done in the canal below the salmon farm...we were there for about half a hour and saw about five fish get caught - impressive strike rate.



Tasman Glacier in the background



A close up of the top of Mt Cook on our way up the Hooker Valley



Relaxing beside Hooker lake, Mt Cook in the background



Sealy Tarns on the hike up to Mueller Hut



Terrain starts to gt a bit more challenging..



Scenes from around the hut





Mueller Glacier



Behind the hut was Mt Olliver, the first mountain Sir Edmund Hillary climbed. We gave it a go as well, scrambling up the rocky ridge and then taking a short cut down the scree on the other side which had some hair raising moments.



Looking up the Hooker valley towards Mt Cook, Mueller Lake in the foreground and Hooker Lake and glacier beyond.



The next morning at the hut bought rain so after a quick descent it was off to the hot pools at Omarama to warm up ad get clean before heading back home.

Juliet's Wedding Snaps

A small selection from the big day courtesy of Juliet and Kevin.

Bevan excited about people starting to arrive



Kelley receiving a horseshoe from Juliet and Kevin's daughter, Mikayla



Popping the corks on the bubbles on the church lawn



Dad, Kevin and Juliet and Kevin's daughter, Mikayla



The May family with their new son in law... aren't they happy about it...



Grandma



Wedding party and partners



Bridesmaid flowers on the head table



Mother of the bride and mother of the groom

The Green Green Grass of Home

We arrived home in mid Dec to a sea of green. Steady, constant rain had left the area looking as green as I have every seen it, plenty of feed for stock and for silage and lots of smiling farmers.

Lambs in the lower pond block



Irrigator going in the former dustbowl that was the top of the bump paddock lamb feed in he foreground



Fat cows pigging out on clover in the calving block