2: Sevens

Queenstown hosted the Pub Charity National Sevens and there was not a cloud in the sky - that's a parapenter you can see to the side of the posts.

The action was fast and furious with lots of fit men chasing up and down the field and trying to get the ball from one end to the other without being clattered - that's the object, basically for the uninitiated.

The final was between Taranaki (in yellow tops) and Auckland (blue and white hoops). If you're interested Auckland won 36-26.

 

It was a very hot day, and there was a variety of headgear on display.

Now, that's what I call branding! Three stars are the emblem of Speights, the local beer (I use that word in a loose sense - it is brown and fizzy and it tastes vile). This girl clearly has a taste for all things tacky as she has tattooed herself with a marketing motif. Body art, it ain't.

 

1: Wakatipu New Year

Happy New Year! Him Outdoors got a call out to Wanaka on New Year's Day so I went along for the drive, and an ice cream, and a pint of cider at the Cardrona Hotel - as you do.

The next day we did a triathlon at Lake Dunstan near Cromwell and after battling wind, waves and scorching sunshine, we treated ourselves to lunch at The Wooing Tree vineyard and restaurant.

 

Sticking with the vineyard theme, a couple of days later we walked the new Gibbston River Trail, Wentworth Loop, which fortuitously enough, finishes at Peregrine.

Last Week of the Year: Maniototo

Another trip back from Dunedin; I took a different route this time, through the Maniototo.

Week Fifty-Two: Pathetic Fallacy

I had occasion to travel to Dunedin last week, and though my mind was overwrought, the stunning Central Otago scenery with sheep grazing nonchalantly before weird rock formations and blue skies always gives me pause for thought, as do the fabulous cherries from the Packhouse at Roxburgh.

I needed time to think and clear my mind so I went down to the beach at St Claire in Dunedin and walked on the wide sands inhaling the sea air and allowing the fresh breeze to blow through me like a Pentecostal cleansing. I love the expanse of the horizon: the thought that there is so much out there although all we see is sea. To paraphrase the master, 'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy.'

As I drove home I was very sad, and the rain fell on ruined buildings in a way that perfectly matched my mood. Thomas Hardy would have been proud of such pathetic fallacy.