A big dump - snow in North Beach

The biggest snowfall in Christchutch since 1992 saw us 'working from home' for the day.
Luckily we managed to find some time to have some fun too.


Deciding whether to go to work.


The front garden.


Back garden viewed from the 'warmth' of the house.


Looking back towards the house.


Saggy Christmas Tree.


Birds feeding in the garden.


Carol sheltering under the side of the house.


The view from the street.


North Beach surf club.


North Beach sand dunes.


On the sand dunes with the Pacific behind.


Rawhiti Domain.


Rawhiti Domain


Attempting kite skiing on the golf course.


Tuesday - North Beach looking towards the pier and Port Hills.


North Beach and the Port Hills.


The second 'pier'


Sand Dunes and sunset from Bottle Lake Forest.

South Branch of the Ashburton River

After the first decent snow of the winter, I spent a weekend tramping the South Branch of the Ashburton River. The soft snow made for hard work, especially further up the valley. Snow shoes would have been handy here!




Starting from the Hakatere - Lake Heron Road the weekend started with a long walk in, reminiscent of the Scottish Cairngorms. The route follows a 4WD track across open country before picking up the Paddle Hill Creek. There was little snow here, but once I started to cross the base of the Dogs Range, the snow quickly covered the track and made walking quite tiring.


The Long Walk in from the Hakatere Road.


Mount Guy (1319m).


By Paddle Hill Creek.


The Dogs Range.

After four hours I arrived at the Boundary Creek Hut. Snuggled away in the bottom of a dip, the hut is not immediately apparent as you approach, in fact the only thing visible is the hut toilet, leading me to briefly wonder whether it had been destroyed. However it is in good condition, except that a bird had managed to get inside and make a bit of a mess.


Boundary Creek Hut.

From the hut I picked up the South Branch of the Ashburton River. A quad bike had been this way in the snow, which helped considerably in consolidating it under foot, at least as far as he had gone. However once I reached the end of his tracks the going became very, very slow. I eventually reached the Musterer's Hut as darkness was falling and camped nearby.


Ashburton South Branch and Wild Mans Hill.


Looking back down the South Branch.


Sun setting below the Big Hill Range.



Musterer's Hut in deep snow.


The last light of day over the Arrowsmith Range.

The following day I was up well before dawn, hoping to take advantage of colder conditions to freeze the snow a bit on the walk out. I was lucky enough to see a beautiful sunrise and the first light of day strike the Big Hill Range.


A pre-dawn start in the South Branch.


First light over the South Branch of the Ashburton River.


First light over the South Branch of the Ashburton River.


First light over the South Branch of the Ashburton River.


Morning light over the Big Hill range.

After morning tea back at Boundary Creek Hut, I headed out with just a short diversion on to some terraces to have a look at the Taylor Range. An excellent weekend, but a long way - some 50km there and back.


The Taylor Range viewed from terraces near the Lake Heron Road.

A rare visitor from the Antarctic

An Emperor Penguin on the Kapiti Coast

You don't need an alarm clock if you live in Christchurch

Who needs an alarm clock when you have a regular wakeup call like these?

Scientists finally admit they don't have a clue...

As reported in stuff.co.nz today, scientists have no idea what will happen next in the Christchurch earthquake sequence:

After such an incredible sequence of quakes, the problem now was knowing what "normal" was.

Earthquake scientists had "cut their teeth" on the behaviour of quakes from plate boundary faults such as the San Andreas in California and New Zealand's Alpine Fault but knew far less about small crustal quake sequences like this one.

"We know the plate boundary faults' history and behaviour that, say, every 300 years they do this or that. But with this type of event, we don't know what is normal for the Canterbury region," Furlong said.

"We assumed what we had up to September 4 was normal, but it appears it wasn't normal. We don't know what is the background condition that the Earth is now moving towards.

"Each earthquake sequence is unusual, this one both because of its character and observation.

"It's as well-recorded as any of this size has ever been. We are seeing things about it – things that we don't see in any other place.

"It's aspects of this that makes this [sequence] very important to science and why it's hard to be definite about how it's going to behave."


The Rose window & part of the west wall was destroyed in the latest quake.
The Cathedral is now likely to have to be rebuilt from the ground up.


The Anglican Trinity Church.
The oldest stone building in Canterbury - destroyed.


Lyttleton Timeball Station - now completely destroyed.

More Earthquakes

Well it's been a day of aftershocks following yesterday's now upgraded 5.7 and 6.3 earthquakes.
There's not much more to say really, is there. Pretty gutting. Just had three more in five minutes for good measure.


Carol cooking in the dark following yesterday's quakes.


Yesterdays 5.7 (left) and 6.3 earthquakes (right).
As recorded by the McQueens Valley drum, (borrowed from Geonet)


A day of aftershocks. You can count them if you want. I'm not.

And the wonderful CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority), who are supposed to be running our shining road to recovery, aren't even allowed in their offices at the moment.


CERA - you'd think they would know an engineer or two?


How many shocks before you've had enough?

Christchurch Half Marathon

The Christchurch half marathon was moved to Lincoln this year, because the traditional course is still unusable due to earthquake damage. I had an enjoyable run, finishing in 1 hour 39 minutes, a little slower than 2 years ago but not bad at all considering the lack of training for that style of event.

With a turnout of over 3500 there was a good atmosphere and it certainly brought Lincoln to life for the morning. There is a race report here.




Christchurch Half Marathon.


Christchurch Half Marathon.