Winter Weekends

The past couple weeks have been a steady stream of planning and playing. We have spent a fair amount of time looking at our upcoming trip to Australia and organizing hotels, flights, etc. The weather for the most part of the winter has been all good and recently we have been noticing the increasing daylight. Most days have been sunny and in the high 40's to low 50's. In the middle of the day it is quite nice, if only work wasn't happening at that time.

Last weekend we went for a late run to the farmers market on Saturday. The only produce left at this time of year is cold store apples and pears, so we stocked up on those and had a couple tasty nibbles as well. We also purchased some fresh cheese curds and gruyere from one of the local farmers. Both of those we a nice treat. I haven't had cheese curds in at least a year. Saturday night we hosted a wine, cheese, and smores party to welcome our friend Lexie back to town. The wine was from our last weekends sampling and cheese from the farmers market. It could have been a locavore party except the smores weren't homegrown. It was a fun time hanging with the American contingent in Dunedin.


Dan Making, Lexie Eating


Mouthfuls of Smores (and Wine)


Sunday I got up and went for a paddle on a grey day. Katie relaxed and was able to catch up with friends enjoying the North American summer. By the time I got home in the afternoon it was drizzling, but warm, so we went for a short walk around the neighborhood. We also cooked up a big chicken dinner sunday night, yum.

Today we decided it was time to try the slopes again and headed to Ohau Ski Field. This is different than all the other ski fields we have been to as it is a "club field". These are much smaller than the commercial fields and are usually family owned. This one was pretty small and all the trails come from the only chair lift but there was a decent variety of terrain and we occupied the half day lift ticket we bought quite easily. The views from the field were awesome with a glacial blue lake at the bottom of the mountain and snow covered peaks in the surrounding 180 degrees we could see. After our afternoon of slopes we had a celebratory cup of cocoa and enjoyed the sights from high a while longer and then headed on the three hour drive back home. Surely a good Saturday.


View from the Road



Alpine Couple



Hard to Watch the Slopes with this Backdrop

A Few more Ohau Shots