Denniston, Karamea and Nelson travels

Had a wonderful trip up the coast to Denniston to do the new mine tour a few weekends ago. Seeing the Denniston incline and realising that for a time the only way up or down for people, their belongings, and the coal was over the edge and down that long drop was an amazing experience in itself. I am now re-reading Jenny Patrick's Denniston Rose and have a new appreciation for the setting and atmosphere of the book.
The mine tour is not for the claustrophobic or those afraid of the dark. An electric train takes you to the portal where you are winched inside up the shaft with the smell of coal all around and sound effects of rats and creaking timbers. Once inside some are given the chance to trial each of the jobs miners had to do - shovelling coal, firing shots, putting in posts, hitching wagons up to the wire and so on. All this in tunnels with low ceilings and lit by lamps, often working bent over all day. What a life it must have been.

Imagine dropping off this edge!

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No closer Jean - it's a long way down!

Onward from Denniston to Karamea to visit the start of the Heaphy track and the Oparara limestone arches

We struck a beautiful sunny day which made the bush walks spectacular. Wekas seemed to be everywhere, but there were also bush robins and wood pigeons.

Standing inside and under these arches gives a much better feel for their size, but my photography is not good enough to capture that.
One trip down from our West Coast wish list. For now that will probably be it as the weather turns to winter, temperatures drop and the rain sets in in earnest.

Having said that I also just had a trip to Nelson where I defied them to mention the wet West Coast. It was
hosing with rain there too and they had to admit that it has felt like the wettest summer for years up there.
As we were quilting and eating and gossiping weather was fortunately irrelevant. Made some placemats and a tote bag for gifts, a quilt top for a mother-in-law and progress on some more scrappy string blocks. I'm working on Virginia Bound from the Quiltville website. The hope is to use up my leftover scraps, but they seem to keep multiplying in the basket. I wonder if I will ever reach the bottom of it.

Lots of light reading going on, mainly chick lit. Also lots of experimenting downloading books onto the iPad.
One wonders why I can download a book from Kobo in Canada for very few dollars while our local Whitcoulls presents the same book for a hefty fee?
Speaking of Kobo we have purchased one for the staff to become familiar with at work and as a demo for customers. My learning curve is to get it set up ready to use with the new Overdrive system due shortly so that we can show customers how to use their own e-readers. It was amazing to see that about 7 of my quilt group of 40 already owned and used e-readers or iPads and most of them would be over 60. So much for the younger generation being the computer generation. We oldies aren't so bad ourselves!

Lots of time spent playing with my own iPad installing and sorting out apps for a Budget, a To-do list, and various note-taking programmes including those where you can write with your finger or a stylus, or maybe have a recording taken while you write. My husband reckons it is the best money he's ever spent and keeps me occupied for hours. He could be right, after all it is far more fun than housework.