Easterish time

So this is a backlog as well.    I arrived back from Ngatamariki just in time for Easter weekend.   Emily and I had planned to go on a tramp up in Lewis pass, but the weather for the weekend showed about 1 nice day (after that it went to torrential downpour).    Christchurch was supposed to be about the nicest place around.  As such we stuck around, went for a day hike, wandered some of the beaches near CHCH (something I don’t really do all that often), and generally ate good food.    Our hike was most of the way up cloudy peak, which was not cloudy; it was very windy!  We’re talking about 65-70 km gusts.  But on the plus side it was beautiful.  

Looking to Arthur's pass

Towards the sea, notice the wind

More of the Cragieburns

The next week Emily shipped out for some Grand adventures (literally, the grand canyon) and I got back to work parsing out the mess of data I had collected up north.   I spent the next weekend getting caught up with my normal chaos and killing trees!  Pines are a big time problem in New Zealand.   They were introduced as a timber crop (which is still a huge industry here today), but they out compete the native bush.   I volunteered for a tree-killing day up in the castle hill area.   It snowed in the high country the day before, which made the day cool and beautiful!   3 days later I’m headed to Oamaru to help out with a geology field trip.

Up towards the Gap

Flock Hill

The clean up area, note the dead pines everywhere

Looking towards Castle Hill