Sunday 6th October 2019

Practicing for the future

​Hello friends and family
Gavin was with me for the first half of the week and the weather forecast was dicey, so we made the call to do our cycling adventure on Sunday. Robbie joined us and lent me a very nice ebike. We set off inland and left Gavin’s motor home on the side of a country road north of Omarama. We then piled into Robbie’s car and drove to the canal at the back of Twizel.

Beautiful Lake Ohau

​We set off on the bikes at around 11 am and followed a sealed road to Lake Ohau. That was great as I had a chance to get used to the ebike on the easy surface. We then left the road and biked around Lake Ohau on the Alps to Ocean trail. I had never been there before, and it was magnificent. The weather did not disappoint either. The next stage was a 400 m climb over 10 kms which was where the ebike came into its own. This was followed by a very steep and rough decent, back to the motor home. We cycled 54 kms and I loved every minute of it. 

Queen of the hill

​On Monday the expected cold snap kept us indoors and on Tuesday, our working bee day, we did the rounds, Gavin and Robbie installed the first fan for the enclosures and we planted 50 Swamp Ribbon-woods donated by the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust (Thank you) at the Moeraki Colony.

cherry blossom in the garden

​On Wednesday we had an easy day and Gavin left after lunch to have dinner with Hamish in Christchurch. Thursday was working bee day and we did the monitoring rounds in a bitterly cold sou’wester, but Friday was balmy and so Jan and I did the coast walk. It was very quiet, but we did see 2 juveniles.

It is good to look up - clematis in the reserve

Yesterday we found 3 new nests which brings our total to 34.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
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