Danseys Pass

It's been a very trying few months culminating in our discovery that most of what the builder has done is illegal or wrong or both. And he has run through pretty much all our money too so there is a mountain to climb to get this place liveable again. I might add that the builder in question is registered and came with references from previous jobs that we spoke to personally.  So much for that!!!! So I have no kitchen (what there is resides in the back hall and the laundry provides water) and no bathroom.

Fortunately the toilet and handbasin work and my brother lives next door so we have the use of his shower.  Only one room is finished and that is our bedroom.  Matt is working his way through the other bedrooms but what we will do about the missing cladding on the back wall I don't know.  We have insulated and put on the building wrap so it isn't as frigid as it was in the main house but the laundry and what there is of the bathroom are right out there with no door, windows or walls where the cladding was removed for the new concrete pad.

We will be able to finish the bathroom but the kitchen is doomed.

Anyhow the teens spent a week with Grandma in Arrowtown as usual so we decided to spend a couple of days on the road to bring them back - sort of a mini break.  We went slow and stopped quite a bit both coming and going and might have bought the odd ice cream or so :)

On the way back, we stopped at St Bathans for lunch and then decided to get back via Danseys Pass which is a challenging road that hasn't much changed since horse and cart days (well it has but not so you'd notice).  It was spectacular, stormy and we collected the odd rock or so for the garden. I'm going to add a photo or so but there is also a video from the car camera which I will link to later.

We had a good time doing that :)

viv

the bridge at Ophir

 The view from Grandma's

 Our yearly photo op (Have one here every time we pass from when James was just a baby) I think I shrunk in the wash :)

 St Bathans cliff with a weird thing that looks alien but is probably wind eroded rabbit holes

 A farm mail box which is also a children's bus shelter on the back road to Danseys Pass

 The road going up

 Looking down the other side to the sea waaay in the distance

 Like I thought - took us ages to actually get there.

Halloween

William went out to a party :) His Aunt said she was pleased I had boys who wouldn't raid her magnificent shoe collection.........wrong!!!

However he is still growing (just) so there is hope yet :)

And yes, he walks fine on those platforms!

viv