Diamond Harbour

Boxing Day - and it's not the best weather-wise so I'm holed up in Diamond Harbour. Again I am surprised by how small the township is - just a cafe/restaurant, not even found a gas station since Christchurch. Even Lyttleton doesn't have a gas station! Unbelieveable. Pretty little place; well, pretty sleepy little place really, but it overlooks Lyttelton so I got a few shots for posterity. Ferry plies the harbour between Lyttleton and Diamond Harbour. The last one of the Heads is my favourite.

Christmas

With the DS festival over, I stayed in an NZMCA POP for a few days leading up to Christmas, building a new plane for flying at parks and when there is no wind. It's a 3D foamie based (loosely) on the plans for the Big Nasty I got from RCgroups. I've made it look more like a Harvard (AT6 Texan) and here's a couple of pics building it inside the van and after giving it a coat of paint.

Just needs a few servos and electrics before it will be ready to maiden. I'm hoping this little beast will keep my fingers in practise because I'm not expecting as much wind as the summer kicks in. On Christmas eve, I headed over to Lyttleton with the idea of seeing some live bands at the local pubs. Well pretty disappointing to find that Lyttleton is a lot smaller than I expected, plus, with all the earthquake damage, there was only one venue offering live music. Lots of cleared building sites and cracks in the footpaths.

On Christmas day it was the usual drizzly wet stuff we seem to get every year, so I headed off around Lyttleton Harbour to Charteris Bay, where I stayed at a Orton Bradley Park - an old holding with some historical buildings and miles of tramping tracks. Unfortunately none of the hills faced the prevailing wind and at $8 per night I decided to move on. Had these nice trees on the harbours edge.

Tekapo

Went to Tekapo last Saturday for Dynamic Soaring. The wind was really strong from 40 - 60mph. A great view from the ridge overlooking Lake Tekapo and up to the Southern Alps.

With strong wind conditions launching was differcult; here's Alex launching Andrew's DSX - plenty of rocks and not much grass about.

And this is what the backside of the slope looked like. Pretty steep.

Andrew's DSX looked good in the air, but it was getting a lot of buffeting from the turbulent shear, and eventually it succumbed and the elevator blew off creating a massive crash that resulted in this pile of bits. $4,000 plane is no more :-(

There was no shortage of sad tales for the day, and at the end we had 9 planes in the wreckage pile. DSing is surely the hardest flying to do and the fastest way to write off a plane.

Cass Ridge

Ok, just a few photos from Cass Ridge where we flew on Tuesday and Wednesday First up, Knut's Pace - a moldie that he said has a 14 month waiting list to get a new one. Obviously very much hand-made.

Next up is Neil's Typhoon. This particular plane suffered from some surface distortion in the sun on the horiz stab and was quickly moved to the shade of a tree for closer inspection.

And Andrew's self-made Scratcho, which flew extremely well in the light conditions.

A bunch of foamies waiting for the breeze to pick up....

And finally a panorama of Lyttelton Harbour - the weather may not have been perfect but the view was still spectacular.

Christchurch - Akaroa

Arrived in Christchurch on Friday and headed straight to Wainui/Akaroa. Was pouring with rain all afternoon so stayed overnight at French Farm Bay, a tiny little spot on the western side of Akaroa Harbour.

Next morning I found the road up to the Wainui flying site was too narrow and steep and signposted as unsuitable for motorhomes - what to do? Eventually I decided to head back in to Christchurch and hook up with the Aussie guys with the chance of a ride with them. On the way, I made a detour to take in the town of Akaroa. A quaint little place, with very much a French theme. Lots of tourists etc. Here's a pic of a garden cafe on the main street.

On Sunday, the winds were just not blowing so we all headed out to an invitation to join the Christchurch Model Flyers Club's Christmas BBQ at Burnham. Some interesting planes were flying at their site.

After lunch we headed back out to Awanui in the Port Hills, but alas the wind was just not there. We spent a lot of time just mooching about waiting for the wind to pick up, but it never eventuated.

Today, Monday, they've all gone to Tekapo for the day, but I didn't think it was worth it to go so far for just one day - I'll probably head out to Tekapo with them later in the week. But for now, I'm catching up on domestics and maybe will get a chance to start building a little floater kitset (Canary from Hobby King) that I have onboard the wagon.

Kaikoura

Here's a typical pic of the Kaikoura coastline - fabulous blue sea colours when the sun is shining.

Managed to get my flat tyre sorted out finally at Kaikoura - it is now back to tubeless on the right rear - seems to be ok now. Stayed at another DOC camp just north of town where I could see this shot of snow still on the Kaikoura Ranges.

No suitable flying sites around Kaikoura so I concentrated on some repairs to the JW and battery charging in readiness for arrival at Christchurch this coming weekend. Did take in the sites tho - seal colony was interesting and cliff walk very nice too. Was tempted to try a paua fritter at the roadside BBQ but was too dear at $9. Had my first POP - park over property - NZMCA site at the Kaikoura Trotting track. Met a couple from Tauranga! And, just for Mel, here's a couple of photos of the inside of the wagon.

Overniting at Parnassus near Cheviot tonite, (Wednesday).

Marfells Beach

After leaving Cullensville, I headed back thru Blenheim and out to Marfells Beach near Cape Campbell. A delighful little DOC camp right on the beach with my own picnic table and even a water tap!

Had a great fly off the cliffs on Saturday (see arrow on pic)before the wind turned real nasty. Saturday night was galeforce and many times I thought the wagon was gonna get overturned.

The clouds looked really weird, but I guess this is par for the course when you look out to Cook Strait.

I decided to punish this camp by staying on until the weather came right - and finally today, Monday, it is a beautiful day. Will definitely be coming back to this spot again.