Geology

Geology - everywhere has it but some places have it more than others. I had a rock pickers dream drive over the last ten days, and I also noticed that everyone else loves the rocks - and tends to make piles of them!

Backwards in time to Queenstown. . .

Chronologically backwards in time from September 20 to September 24:

Amazing photos

I have some amazing photos - I really do, but this particular internet kiosk is perhaps the most useless that I have found - it is in our hotel in Palmerston North and while most of these systems work pretty well and allow you to edit images using a basic tool like Irfanview, this one has nothing. SO I can't show you the great powder snow that fell on us as we drove through Saint Arnaud, or the pale face of Alli as we crossed Cook Strait into the teeth of the same low pressure system that brought the snow.

I hope to do a little photo editing tomorrow - and I'll post up some images then.

I can say that this morning I had my best coffee so far - in Wellington. By and large the standard of coffee and food over here is very high and I don't like to make comparisons but this was really outstanding - Floriditas in Wellington - I got the tip from "Grab Your Fork" an Aussie food blog and it was bang on the money and provided a good rest and recovery stop for us after an early start and moderately rough trip over the Strait (actually it was pretty calm but Mrs Grendel does not do sea travel at all well so for her a 1.5 metre swell might as well be a hurricane).

I have to catch up with a lot of the cafes we have visited over the last few days - there have been some goodies, and I'll also review a few of the places we have stayed - and a few we wish we'd stayed in, like Lake Wanaka.

We are on the journey North to Auckland but stopped by Palmerston North to visit friends and we have had a great time - we have another day resting here before heading for more adventures in Taupo.

Quick catch-up

We've been anable to get near the internet for a few days - most often because we were just too exhausted to try staying up.

I'll post a few quick pics though - mostly of Queenstown - we'll try catch up on some cafes later in the week but there have been some great stops along the way and it is rare to see the same coffee roaster supplying more than one or two cafes in a town and I have not seen a large bulk roasted presence much at all.

And now for the snow Grendels!

(Click on images to enlarge!)















We've just done the Fox Glacer, Punakaiki and are passing through Murchison on our way to Blenheim before catching the first ferry tomorrow morning across to the North Island. It is blowing a gale today and I hope it quiets before the crossing tomorrow!

The Astro Cafe

Barista Fraser Gunn is also a superb photographer. We got to be impressed by both the photos and the Supreme Coffee he served from his perch high on Mt John at the University of Canterbury's Observatory.

Given that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy and that both the Junior Grendels are proud owners of Galileoscopes, we could hardly pass up a visit to an observatory that also hosts a great cafe.

This cafe has to have one of the best views in the world and it was well worth the steep road trick up the mountain to drink in the view - along with a coffee.

Junior Grendel One and Two wasted no time at all in giving us both heart failure with their antics on the steep sides of the mountain.

Fraser had a small scope set up on a tripod with the view over the ski fields nearby - I managed to wedge the camera over the lens at just the right angle - and as soon as I can extract the images from my card I'll post them up - in the meantime the following spread of Grendel adventure pics should be satisfactory!

If you are passing Lake Tekapo ever in your life I highly recommend that you take the turnoff to Mount John and drive up the hill. Simply amazing. They also do night tours at the observatory, leaving on a minibus from the town below, and although I missed it (too tired!) it looks like a great night's viewing.