Trees & cows

Had a lovely brunch meetup with Rainie today :D  It's always a pleasure to share some time nattering about each of our adventures, successes and failures and today was no exception.  Today's al fresco brunch was brought to a rather quick halt when the forecast bad weather began to arrive, beginning with a brisk and cool wind whipping itself up.  By the time I was on the road again, heading towards the Waitaki Valley the rain was falling, the temperature had dropped still further and it was feeling anything but summery!  Stopped along the way to watch Nico Porteous gain a gold medal in the skiing half-pipe event.........incredible ability, even more so when the conditions they were skiing in were temperatures down towards minus 30-odd and the wind was creating havoc with competitors balance.  Still, the conditions were the same for everyone and it seems our man handled them the best.  What a star!!

Staying tonight on the shores of the Waitaki River just down from the Aviemore Dam.  It's felt oddly good to be heading back towards the Twizel area.  The van has travelled well which may have something to do with it.

In COVID news, there were 1901 new community cases today, there are 76 people in hospital and 0 in ICU.  2.1 million boosters have been given representing 65% of eligible people.