April 26, 2012
Hangin' at Picnic Rock
Discussions with other Castle Hill families resulted in a quick decision to take a load of kids round and ride the Hogs Back Track. It was the first time for Evie and Ruairi and they loved it. Had a picnic at Picnic Rock in the autumn sunshine too. Fantastic...
Posted by conor at 1:37 PM
April 20, 2012
Exploring Long Spur and into Waterfall Creek
My original intention was to head all the way up Long Spur to the summit of Mt Cloudesley, and along the ridge past Mt Izard, before dropping into the basin at the head of Waterfall Creek. However, the frozen ground and my (lack of) head for heights (always used to be better when I was doing more climbing/tramping in my 20s) prompted me to turn back from the top of Long Spur and explore Waterfall Creek from the bottom. Good day out, probably 16+ kms with about 1500m of ascent, which was a reasonable days tramping for me given I really haven't done many big days out recently. Enjoyed the company of 3 keas high on Long Spur and some peaceful dozing in the golden tussock at lunchtime; didn't see another person all day...
Posted by conor at 1:42 PM
April 15, 2012
Polishing some rough edges
Finally got the rest of the beautiful rimu kitchen bench island properly constructed, and Ildica did a fine job of tiling the back of the stair wall before I finished the handrail. We can finally stop worrying (slightly, and probably less than we should have been!) about somebody taking a tumble from the top of the stairs.
Posted by conor at 3:33 PM
April 8, 2012
Breaking through on Broken River
On a fantastically sunny and windless Easter weekend, we headed down Broken River from the Cave Stream carpark with friends from Castle Hill, Amanda, Bernadette, Paul, Shane, Lauren, Monique, Michael and Ella. Warm day, but cold water already at this time of year, even if Evie, Lauren and Monique were brave enough to go for a dip in their undies in one of the swimming holes!
Posted by conor at 11:30 PM
March 31, 2012
Sunshine Coast and Fraser Island
Using a load of Singapore Air frequent flyer points, we headed over to Brisbane and up to the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Island. Wasn't too busy since we nipped over just out of school holidays. We all had a great time enjoying the surf and activities such as Australia Zoo and Aussie World, before 3 days exploring around parts of Fraser Island, a World Heritage sand island known for its freshwater lakes, purebred dingoes, Maheno shipwreck etc.
Full album here.
Posted by conor at 10:37 PM
March 6, 2012
David & Felicity
A couple of portraits each while Granny & Grandad were visiting this summer.
Posted by conor at 4:49 PM
March 4, 2012
A watery wander up Tim's Stream
Tim's Stream runs through Craigieburn Forest Park near the Cheeseman Skifield road, and features a pleasant walk up Broken River (including about 20 river crossings) to the confluence with Tim's Stream which gets increasingly gorge-y as you approach a reasonable sized waterfall. Quite a few wasps around in the beech forest this time of year, so we didn't hang around in the bush.
Posted by conor at 9:31 PM
February 12, 2012
Avoca Homestead
Avoca Homestead is a historic homestead on the Broken River now managed by DoC as a tramping hut. Interesting drive in along the Craigieburn Road beside the railway line (with around 20 railway crossings and gates to open!).
Posted by conor at 5:03 PM
February 11, 2012
Coast To Coast
After helping out with a Springfield School fundraising opportunity cooking bacon butties for the Coast to Coast support crews (starting at 4am on a Saturday morning!), I snapped a few photos of some of the competitors at the cycle-kayak transition point at the Mt White Bridge.
Posted by conor at 5:01 PM
January 9, 2012
Christmas 2011
Two weeks of action-packed adventure up at The Doug @ Castle Hill with Granny & Grandad Boyd. Highlights included a few bike trips along the Hogs Back Track, plus an overnight camp along the track with the kids, a great walk up the Bealey Valley at Arthurs Pass, and a family trip through the Cave Stream cave with a range of ages from (nearly) 7 to (nearly) 75! Our next door neighbour Stephen also kindly took me up for a tandem paraglide from the Mt Cheeseman Ski Area (unfortunately it would appear I’d partaken of too much Christmas food to be able to fly all the way back to the village – plus I was a bit nervous at times!)
Posted by conor at 4:39 PM
