Mount Bruce

View down to Waimakiriri River

Top of Mt Bruce

Mount Bruce is a 1600 m mountain near Arthur's Pass. The views from the top are 360 degrees. It was an interesting day- it went from sunny and warm in the morning to snowing in the afternoon!

Mt Grey Birthday

Last Saturday I hiked up Mt. Grey for my friend Dharshie's birthday celebration. It was a grey day- but good to get out! Two days later I was struck with another New Zealand flu (again!)

Snowboarding in Queenstown

View from the house (Coronet Peak in the background)

Kawarau River

Ice Bar at the top of one of the chairlifts

View down Coronet Peak

Crazy mail boxes- a microwave, a computer, and a keg just to name a few

This weekend I went to Queenstown. We went snowboarding for 2 days at Coronet peak, and spent the 3rd half day wine tasting. We had 3 gorgeous sunny and calm days. We stayed at my friend Chantal's parent's house- what an amazing place!

Welcome Flats

This was one of my favourite hikes of all time. The natural hot pools at Welcome Flats are amazing- they are huge and hot. On a clear night, there is nothing quite like sitting in a hot pool of water surrounded by mountains and stars.
The hut on site is really nice and the walk itself is beautiful. I even spotted 2 of the rare and difficult to find Blue Ducks on the river. I'll be going back for sure!

Rakaia Gorge

Rakaia gorge walkway is a short and easy 3-4 hour walk along the gorge and down to the river. The sharp contrasts in colours between the blue water and the surrounding scenery can make it a beautiful place to take pictures- although on this particular day it was a quite cloudy until we we were almost finished walking.

Casey Binser

This was a beautiful tramp over two passes (Casey & Binser). There was quite a bit of snow over the Binser pass- but the weather was sunny and warm!

Snow Flurries

Poor lemon tree- the lemons are just getting ripe

This wouldn't be that exciting if it was Saskatoon- but it's not- it's Christchurch and it only snows one or two days of the year. (Last year, it didn't snow at all). A cold southerly wind dropped the temperatures to -9 C at night and they will reach only a high of +5 C today (the coldest weather event in 16 years- and it has hit the whole country). I was getting ready to bike to the university but I decided to check my email first only to find out that the university will be closed all day. (In the event of snow, apparently most of the city shuts down!) It won't last long though- it's supposed to go up to +12 C tomorrow.