Mt St Mary

I had a weekend away with my friend Mel. We headed north to the Ahuriri and avioded the rain that hit Queenstown so it was perfect!

We stayed in a hut on the road end Friday night then Walked/ Scrambled to Mt St Mary via an alpine lake, down to snowy Gorge hut in the river valley, over 10-11 hours. The next morning it was only about 3 hours out but had a river crossing waist deep just before the car.

Map of where we went (stolen from Danilo Heggs site, as was the trip idea.)

Setting out. Melanie

At a lake about 1880m Mel is pointingto Mt st Mary( the pointy bit in the middle)

The scree slopes/ gully up to the summit were pretty chossy and loose.

The team at the summit.

Me, Mel, Catherine and Yossi

Pretty stones in the river valley

Our hut!

Massive grubber as a toilet only.

Me being silly

My Buddy Bailey

Bailey and I have been having lots of fun.
Biking has been a big thing for us this Summer, and after lots of practice riding up and down 7 mile, we got to do it the easy way and ride up on the gondola. We rode Skyline (thanks so much for discounted pass) on an awesome kids  downhill bike loaned to us by Outside sports.
It was so much fun that we rode until close and aaron met us with food to eat on the drive home (a couple of hours later than usual)
A few weeks later we hit the Wynyard  park. It's so exciting to see him growing up, and learning to make wise decisions.

Rail trail

Last but not least my Parents in the Summer of Family
We rode the Central otago rail trail over 4 days
Sat night Susan Hasler/ davies came to visit with Her kids and met us again on Sunday
165 km all up.
Don't miss
Omakau- Venison Pies
Oterehua- Gilchists store, Golden mine
Ranfurly- Ali's jewellery Studio

Tim in the tunnel

Big sky Country

Wedderburn Station

Via duct

NZ smallest post office

The whole team

Our last nights accomodation

Nelson and west coast- Hillenaar/Lowes

After returning from seeing Aarons fathers family it was off to his Mums.

It rained so much in Nelson we headed south and took advantage of the fact Aaron was too injured to do anything, and did the tourist stuff we normally rush past. Cape foulwind,  Okarito lagoon, Punakaiki, Jackson bay etc

 Us at Punakaiki

Looking for birds at Okarito marsh

 Old wharf at Okarito

Showing Oma and Pet Photo's of the Rellies in Oz

Family dinner

Nanny- Peg Ford

 Nanny's birthday lunch22/12

Stuffing the Turkey Christmas eve with Cheryl

Christmas day, 18 relies! Barry Ford next to Nanny

Xandars birthday 17th

We had a lovely christmas visit with all the Australian family. Unfortunately On 17/2/2012 Peg Aaron's beloved Nanny passed away. We were very lucky to have spent a few weeks with her recently and have so many wonderful memories.

Aaron's heliski day

Aaron shredding it!

2 weeks ago, before the knee issue, Guy( Aaron's boss) shouted Aaron to a days heliskiing as he has now been contracting to him for 10 Years.The boys came home looking so tired but so happy.

Aaron has Bu**ered his knee

Aaron is off work for at least 3 weeks having had a fall learning to Ski( he normally snowboards)
His ACL is probably ruptured, and the Median( other side) torn. He will have a specialists appointment in a weeks time where he'll be sent off for a scan to find out for sure.

He came out for the days climbing with a comfy deck chair on Saturday. The 100m walk was abit much 6 days after the accident so it's probably quite bad.

He is quite demanding calling out for service from the couch, but hopefully as he heals I'll be able to leave him with some easy housework each day.

Don't worry abut him though there is good recovery if he has the operation, so he should be back to full speed soon enough.

Sally