Departures and Arrivals

Heading off to Invercargill on the 3 pm flight.
Meeting Hamish and Dad at the airport at two.
Am in a terrible rush trying to do my packing at the last minute as had only 3 hours sleep last night.
Had hoped to get this Blog up to date before I left and regale you with tales of a most amazing Caddy.
But last night Vida , my dog friend, went into labour at about 7.30 and things did not go well.
Her "Mum" had to get her to the Emergency Vet about 9 pm ,where I joined them.

Quick decisions had to be made to save her life and hopefully at least some of the puppies, as the placental sacs of two of them were out but no puppies in the birth canal to pull out!
Little Vida was so tired and had her 'please do something' look in her eyes.

A caesarian delivery seemed the only option.
She was prepped and under in no time.
We wait till 1.30 am until we could finally see her.
Very out of it on morphine.
But with four squirming brown pups(they look a bit like rats actually at this point)trying to feed.
The wonderful Vet nurses had managed to revive all three of the pups that weren't breathing.
Phew!



Photos will follow.
But you will have to wait till later to hear of my Nelson exploits and the caddy'extraordinaire' with an outfit for every occasion rivaling my own.

And how I got to the grand total of 39 courses played.

Oh alright just one photo then to give you a taste of what is to come.

Rhonda the Caddy strikes a pose to indicate the next hole.

 

A Couple of Canterbury Excursions

Winter................
Nothing much happened on the Golfing front.
In August I did training to be a Guide at the Botanic Gardens .

Each day as I walked to training I passed the Hagley Golf Club and on several occasions thought I would play a round on my way home.
But the weather remained inclement on training days so games in August were few and far between.

However,the guide training opened my eyes to the wonders of conifers.Trees I have always liked but never truly appreciated in their full glory.
 As spring came on I suddenly noticed how they all have such very different cones( in effect these are their flowers) and in a variety of subtle colours.


Hmm and  what sort of trees line the Fairways of most golf courses ?

Yep! Conifers.
Conifers everywhere.

So now my golfing expeditions become botanical peregrinations as well. And what mighty fine specimens I have found.

Abies amabilis-Red Silver Fir

Pinus montezuma

Atlas Cedar

 

Yes I realize dear golfing buddies that...
what with the checking  out of the birds and now the photographing of exceptional conifer species it really is better I play golf alone and allow plenty of time to get around the course.
Although I hope you appreciate that I do make an effort to turn a blind eye to the wonders around me and focus on the game at hand when playing with the 'ladies'.(Truly Denise I do!)


But back to Golf!

For Denise's birthday Wilma purchased some vouchers off the Treat Me site so that Denise and I could have a game on a real posh course.And so on a gray Christchurch day in September we set off for to the foothills of Canterbury to play a round at Terrace Downs Country Club and Golf Resort.

Gee it was posh!

 Once I had gotten over being blown away by the marble bathroom and toilet facilities that I could fit two of my houses into we settled into Golf the way rich folk play!
You don't lug your trundler around behind you at such a place. Everyone is allocated a cart.And at 6406 metres around the course it is just as well ! Of course with a cart to carry your gear and speed things up we felt we easily had the energy to play more than our usual 9 holes , so we played 3 extras whilst Wilma retired to the balcony of the restaurant to watch us over a nice Shiraz.  

Yes I can just see her standing there waving to us on the 11th.

It was fantastic to be out near the mountains and away from the beastly Easterly and gradually the layers of wool had to be removed.
The Fairways were long and wide but hazards abounded.

Denise surveys a water hazard.

Water,water everywhere.
And often all around the greens in case you overshot.

The Greens as you can see were immaculate and with all the cherry blossum flowering it was aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well as uplifting to the spirits after a long winter in the city.

And over all loomed the mountains coming in and out of cloud. 

And of course there were conifers!

But without a doubt the most challenging and just had to be played hole was No 10.
This is one of the most interesting holes I have played to date. Right  up there with the tee shot required off the 6th at Waitakere.Even though we had finished our nine holes and retired to the carpark for a quick bite of lunch(yep! we could not afford food at the restaurant)we felt compelled to at least play No 10 .From high up on a terrace just below the Clubhouse you must launch your drive off a cliff and out into the void to try and land the ball on a very small bit of fairway being very careful to not drive too far thereby missing the green and rolling into the very smelly lake beyond.
Yep! it had to be played:

And a lovely drive it was too.

Good day out Wilma , Thanks. x
But  those carts are a bit alluring!
So commodious- with a place for everything-pencil,scorecard,water,camera and layers and layers of clothing that progressively got ditched as the day warmed up.There was even a special thing on the back for cleaning your clubs and ball.
Posh.

Early October I played in my first competition match at another club.
Coringa.
I nervously joined a phalanx of ladies to play my 29th course.
I wasn't in the prize money today though with a mere 14 Stablefords.

61 ladies heading out to play.

A Canterbury course I definitely wanted to play this year was Akaroa.
The opportunity finally came at Labour weekend when I booked a nights accommodation through Treat Me and we went and stayed in a dinky wee crib that used to be a croquet clubhouse.It was tucked into the bush just before Akaroa township and although the road noise was bad in the afternoon come the evening we were surrounded by bellbird song and with a fantastic view up the harbour to reward the eyes after a hard round of golf.

    

And it was a hard round with all the challenges I love. This was no boring flat Canterbury  wide- fairwayed doddle. No siree!
There were bridges to cross and washed out tee-boxes from the last big rains when the river roared down the hills.
There were tricky shots across the boulder strewn river and over cliff edges, not to mention the CONIFER hazards too. 

An interesting approach shot!

But I had my lovely caddy along to push my trundler up some of the hills and enough lucky shots to keep me smiling all the way to the 9th Green.

   

I was still smiling the next morning when we woke up to snow and felt blessed to have made the most of the sunny late afternoon to have that round of golf at Duvachelles instead of waiting till Monday as planned.

And so now the score was 30 courses played and 20 to go..................
 

OMG! I am so far behind.

This is what happens when you are too busy living life to stop long enough to write about it.

I went away on a Qigong Retreat and when I returned my golf had noticeably improved.

Oh yeah and I have been away to Australia!

For two glorious adventure- filled weeks that have given me the travel bug again.
 A generous shout from No 2 brother (who made a promise to me when I was in hospital that he would shout us a holiday when I was well enough to travel) and aided and abetted by my wonderful parents who made a substantial donation to the spending money.
 
Didn't play any golf there though as  I was too busy getting out and meeting the locals :

Goanna on the road to Treachery

Water Dragon ,Roma St Parklands.

 

Kookaburra holding back a chuckle,Wattamolla.

"So what are yous doing at Hat Head?"

 And hanging out with friends:

And checking out the birds:

Tawny Frogmouth

Pelican

But certainly I have been playing golf too.

In fact I played today -in a hot Norwest.

And Newsflash......

I broke 50. No no I don't mean I have played all 50 of the courses for my
Fairway to Fifty.
I mean that I played the round in 49 strokes!!!!! A very happy thing.


And of course I have been playing more courses towards my goal of 50. Which needs to be completed by February 14th when I turn 51. 

I last left this story at Waipu with Brothers 3 on a day of torrential downpours and some not so very brilliant golf. But I guess the "fun points" gained from such an experience more than made up for the poor scores.

After my return from Auckland the total courses played numbered  27 after playing a final round with Hamish  at a lovely little 9 hole rural club-Awhitu before he dropped me off at the airport.It was pure rustic charm:

Honesty Box

 

And Facilities.

 
 

 

 

 And only one other twosome on the course.
The song"Don't Fence Me In"kept coming into my head as we
negotiated a pretty tricky bit of rural landscaping and hazards:

Double Gates to negotiate.

a network of double fences and gates running across the middle of the 6th and 7th Fairways. For some silly reason I thought we had to play over these and so attempted to do so with limited success. Imagine my chagrin when the local twosome came through and just opened up the double gates to get a clear shot to the greens.

Hamish  won the day again with a 57 to my 61 but I warned him the next time we play he has to play off the men's tees.
No more of this yellow marker business for him.

And the match is on as next week we will be meeting up in Southland for a few more rounds whilst we accompany our Dad to a jubilee.......more on that to come.

In the meantime I am trying to catch this blog up to date before I go as I have certainly worn down the spikes on my golf shoes with all the golfing adventures I have been having.

Coming up next there are tales of my Nelson sojourn and the caddy extraordinaire.