Walking on water

Gosh, it's a hard life here! Joe joined us for a morning cuppa after dropping Esme at school then went over the Hill with a long list of requirements from bath to curtains to drawer runners. I had plans to do useful stuff but in the end we went off for a leisurely coffee and brekky muff ( well probably not technically as ours was plum rather than sausage). We then decided to give the Pupu Hydro Walk a go, somewhat tentatively as Himself's hips have been playing up. This is a long and challenging walk through the bush which goes up very steeply and includes this amazing teeny walkway with a fast flowing water race on one side and tumbling bush on the other
 This audacious bit of engineering was originally constructed in 1901 by 24 blokes with wheelbarrow, spades, ponies and a bit of dynamite! It's 3.5km long and took them 8 months and was originally used to carry water from the creek to the valley below to sluice gold from the gravel. In 1929 it became the Pupu Hydro Power Scheme and brought electricity to the valley. At some point it became obsolete but was restored in the 1980s by a gang of enthusiast volunteers. It's still going strong and the water was going at an impressive rate after all the rain
Hot and sticky, we then had a bouncy swim at Patons Rock where the waves were impressive.
By now we had worked up an appetite and popped into Dangerous for bhudda bowls- yum. Yes, this was followed by a fresh fruit ice cream , mango this time!
We're now relaxing and I am enjoy a glass of posh Marlborough fizz, given to us by our first hosts.

And I heard Himself say G'day to someone today - gone native!