Skiing in New Zealand

I recently went skiing in NZ for a week with some mates. Highlights were heli-skiing and quad-biking, lowlights included my dinging the hire car.

First picture is Cardrona, one of the four main ski areas accessible from Queenstown. It was quite busy despite the slope appearing empty, but had probably the best skiing of the groomed slopes.

Next is Treble Cone - easily the best view of the four over Lake Wanaka. You can make out the carpark in the lower-middle section; this photo was taken from near the top of the mountain.

This is me on the lift at Coronet Peak, around sunset. Coronet offered night skiing on the weekends, on pretty decent runs too - generally the night skiing areas in Australia are the baby green slopes.

 The Remarkables are the fourth ski area, but were fairly boring and had very slow lifts.

On to heli-skiing - this was our trusty seven-seater helicopter which ferried us around for the day. Naturally, being New Zealand, there were sheep on the helipad when we arrived. We went for seven runs total; essentially a whole day of skiing. The helicopter would quite literally take off and land within arms' reach of us once we were on the mountain - it took some getting used to. Not only that, but the guy would land it right on a peak and we would have to disembark and get our skis on in an area the size of a dining table with dead drops on each side.

Here we are above the clouds:

Looking around from there:



First slope of the day (we were the third of four groups, which is why there are some tracks):

View from the bottom of a run:

We also hired two GoPro cameras, which strap to your helmet and film as you go down. Sadly my head was too big for the camera to strap onto my helmet, but it meant I got filmed a lot via my friends following me. Unfortunately we ended up with about 35GB of footage which will take me a while to turn into something small enough and watchable enough to upload here.

Women's Day weekend

Off to a trout farm for a bit of R and R just outside Hazyview with our friends the Rex's and Kirkmans.

 Trout fishing is such thirsty work!!

Where are those elusive fish?

Don never gives up ...

Can't catch the fish so we may as well chase the little white ball ...!!??

What would a weekend away be without a late brunch next to the Sabie River in the Kruger Park?

Sunday spätzle

Tonight we had a birthday dinner for Smuts. I did a Swiss-inspired dinner. We had spätzle, veal geschnetzeltes (a word which Suz said sounded like someone sneezing), red cabbage cooked with red wine, vinegar, apple and cloves; and peas and mint. And green salad, of course.

Here is my spätzle, in the process of being made. We have the ingredients, and the mixture ...

The batter has been put through the Swiss spätzle maker, has dropped into the boiling water, and the little dumplings have risen to the surface.

The delicious little spätzle dumplings are now in the frying pan, in butter and a little olive oil, turning golden and slightly crispy. I hope Grandma Tina would be proud that I am passing on our Swiss cooking heritage.

Now, you may ask -- where are the geschnetzeltes? Well, they were all gone by the time I thought of taking a photo!

0 degrees and (snow) falling!

History was made yesterday when for the first time ever snow fell in all 9 provinces in South Africa on the same day.

The coldest day of the year -- look at my car thermometer showing 0 degrees at 6.35 am!

Midday coming down Corlett Drive in Johannesburg ...

Gardens in Houghton:

Due to all the heavy snowfalls in South Africa, the ANC is declaring a state of the nation emergency: the country is turning white again!! hee hee

Young Smuts

And a VERY happy happy birthday to Smuts from all of us Robertsons!

This photo was taken in Arosa in the early eighties. With the ski cap on, you haven't changed a bit!

Birthday Smuts

Happy birthday Smuts! I've chosen a photo for today that brings many happy memories of time shared with Mom and Dad in Cape Town. (This was 1992. Twenty years ago!)

Flower girls 1966

Heidi and I were flower girls at Beverley Trewin and Errol Blair's wedding on 29 October 1966 in Durban. Bev's sister Candy was her bridesmaid. Our dresses were pale pink satin and mine was the most beautiful dress I had ever worn (apart from my fairy outfit at the Wanderers Club Christmas Party, but more on that in another post).

Mom had kept these newspaper cuttings for 46 years. Now they are in digital form and will last forever!

The prints that Mom kept of these photos are small proofs taken by Norman Partington, the professional photographer. I note that he did not include my gappy smile in the main wedding party photos.

These colour photos are far more informal and I think were taken by Dad, as there are other photos in the same set of Heidi and me on Durban beach later on the same holiday. That's Mom and her father (our grandfather Bop) in the top photo. Do I remember correctly that Bop walked Bev down the aisle at her wedding?

Looking at these now, I also remember that we wore pink satin ballet shoes. As a non-ballerina, these might have been even more thrilling than the pale pink satin satin dress ...

Melbourne trams

Trams are a very distinctive part of Melbourne. The Melbourne tramway network is about 250 km and is the largest tram network in the world. The tracks run in the middle of the road, and traffic travels on the same road, next to trams.

There are 28 tram routes in Melbourne. Two routes run from the city to our suburb. An older type of tram runs on one of these routes; very modern trams run on the other route. I took these photos of the older type of tram over a few days in the city.

These trams below are the newer type. They're lower on the ground, for easier access, plus they're longer and more modern inside. (Which often means fewer seats ... you can get more bodies into a tram when people are standing up.)

Trams are moving billboards! Different advertising campaigns featured below.

Here's a photo of an older and a new tram together!

Very very old trams are called City Circle trams. These run on one circuit of the city, are designed for tourists and are free. There is a recorded commentary for tourists that plays continuously, telling people what famous buildings they are passing. Obviously locals can use them as well, but they're not very useful unless you live within the CBD.

And of course, in super-safe Melbourne, we are constantly warned about the Dangers of the Tram.

I do like the rhino on a skateboard.