Happy Birthday, Mum! Hope you can get to see these blogs xx
Leaving frenetic Sydney was somewhat of a wrench - a great time had by all - but we need a break!
Flying in to New Zealand's South Island was a treat - especially if you watch Air NZ's classic airline safety demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji65WI5QLZI
And here we are....Scotland!!! (even had the weather for it - dreich, or if you're Dundonian: dreicht). The Sherwood hotel is a classic. Don't lock your room, don't bother checking out, don't need to book dinner, just go with the flow, bro'. Fabulous daquiris in the town centre after a mammoth walk round Lake Wakatipu. Then superb supper and live music with Lisa Crawley - check her out on i-Tunes. She also drinks whisky pretty well too!
And then an early unscheduled departure in the morning. Gill was going to pick us up in the car, but managed to send a helicopter instead. What an unbelievable treat - and James the pilot was some cool dude. 20 minutes later, we're on the lawns at Whare Kea (for those of you not familiar with the local Maori dialect, that's Farah Kiya...no not the blone one in Girls Aloud, it means 'house of the Kea' in Maori – and is named after the world’s only alpine parrot which lives all year round above the snowline of the surrounding mountain. Smart eh??
Loads of events today. After coffee at the Lodge (how about waking up to this view every morning?) The girls are pretty cool too.
Then we drive to Lake Hawea, which was formed from a parallel glacier to that which made Lake Wanaka. And by complete coincidence, in the middle of an empty landsacape, Sarah and Scotch, brother to Gill & Olli's wee pup, Oban.
That's Scotch. And this one's Oban. Or is that one Scotch?
Yomped up Mount Iron in record time
Then back to the lodge and an absolutely brilliant idea. Let's go swimming in the lake for the first time this Spring. Yaay! My goodness that was a shock. Coldest ever says Oli. Graham too busy trying to find out which bits have not actually frozen off. Girls and Oban are too smart to venture in.
And the reward is beer and a hot tub. Maybe life's not so bad after all.
