No Icy Roads - Evening Weds Sept 19th

 

Roadside warning for Icy Roads

I rented a car from Rent-a-Dent, and drove to Central Otago for the weekend. Apart from the fact that I kept on trying to use the windscreen wipers instead of my turn signals, the change to the other side of the road was no problem - neither were there any icy roads. Again, I spent the weekend with Mark and Dhana. I went to a grafting workshop with them on Saturday, and then we went and poked around at the old gold workings at Bannockburn / Stewartville.

View towards Bannockburn from paert way up the hill to the
ghost settlement

Dhana took me to a local store in Clyde where they sell local merino wool, and I decided that my birthday present to myself would be some merino wool for knitting a cardigan. Most of the merino wool gets sent to China for processing, then it is sent back here to turn into "New Zealand made" merino clothing. This wool is carded and spun etc. IN New Zealand.

We spent Monday evening 'classing' Walnuts - they have  many walnut trees - at least 6 varieties - and we did a tasting / description.  I had never thought about there being different varieties of Walnut before. Wine to cleanse the palate.


View of the goldworkings from down below

The drive back to Dunedin was uneventful - with the highlights being my stop for a coffee at the Vulcan Hotel (yes, Star Trek Fans) at St. Bathans, and the discovery of a wild-boar decorated fence between Alexandra and Ranfurly, and the 'New Zealand Gothic' mural I found at Wakouwaiti. I also stopped for lots of views / exposures of geological interest.



New Zealand Gothic ? Mural at Wakouaiti

Vulcan Hotel at St. Bathans

 Right now I feel like a kid in a candy store - I just got my online journal access - I get get the full text of almost any journal I want. It is absolutely wonderful after the limited access we get at SCSU. I am now trying to teach myself how to use refworks properly so I can put them all in a bibliographic database.

Detail of fence 'decoration'

Fence between Alexandra and Ranfurly