10 May 2011
12:02, 289758kms, 12°C and overcast. And, it's our anniversary - 15 years ago today Mike came round for a coffee - and, as they say, the rest is history! Anyway, we're off somewhere - anywhere - away from the low cloud, fog, gloomy days! Our bedroom is all ready for when the wallpaper arrives (on back order) and we don't have to rip up the old carpet until next week, seeing as the new carpet won't get laid until 10 June, so we are allowed to have a bit of R&R, we thought! The weather is ok at the moment - at least it isn't raining (been very, very wet here and all around Otago these last few days)! We're not sure if the weather is going to be nice to us over the next few days (forecast says not, it's supposed to be wet), but we are really hoping to get away from this depressing low cloud. The odometer won't match with the "end of last trip reading" as we took Maggie to Cromwell yesterday to have a wheel alignment done, as the front left tyre was cutting in. Turns out there is nothing wrong with the alignment, it's just what happens with our set-up and the only option is to religiously rotate the tyres. Ok, so now we know. So then we went to Beaurepairs in Alexandra (after getting prices everywhere else too) where we got the best deal for 2 new tyres, so Maggie now has 2 new front feet! Filled up in Cromwell while we were there because we had a 20 cent per litre discount voucher, but it still didn't take away the pain - 65.51L at $1.47 - OMG!!!!
Anyway, back to today's trip! Stopped at the Clyde Garage to mail the DVD's Marielle spent the last couple of weeks making for Kirsty and Cody (home movies off video onto computer and then onto DVD) and then headed into Alexandra to drop the wallpaper sample we've had for the last week (to make sure we picked the right carpet!) off back to Resene and then we carried on to see where we'd end up. Will have to take extreme care choosing a spot by the look of all the bog holes in every paddock and on every grassy bit - don't want to get stuck. Stopped at our normal stopping-place in the Pig Root for a stretch at 13:30 and then we stopped in Palmerston for a treat at 14:35 - a 1/2 dozen oysters and a piece of Elephant fish for afternoon tea! Stopped and ate them at Shag Point, but everything so wet and muddy that poor old Roxie was most upset at only being able to see the birds on the beach - and not chase them! And, much to our disgust, it seems that we just can't get away from bloody fog and low cloud!! Had thought it would be better on the coast, but no such luck as it was painfully obvious when we were approaching Palmerston that the sea fog had rolled in. BUGGER. Checked out the Wainakarua Mouth but there was no way we were ever going to get in - the road was just a complete bog.
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| Gemmells Crossing |
So then we had to go looking for somewhere else, and ended up at a new spot - Gemmells Crossing. It's not ideal but it'll have to do as it's now 15:39 and we need somewhere to park for the night and the only other alternative is to drive inland - for about an hour. This spot's ok, but not ideal because 1) we are near a road - a quiet one, but still a road; 2) no views; and, 3) near a river which is ok, except that we are behind a large stop bank so we can't actually see it, and we can't go near it because it is contaminated with toxic algae, which is deadly to dogs. Anyway, Marielle played outside with Roxie for a while, while Mike rested his sore muscles - he played squash yesterday, for 45 minutes, for the first time in nearly 20 years, and he's suffering right now! Then we sat inside reading and doing cross-stitch while it got gloomier and gloomier! Watched TV, had steak and home made mushroom sauce and broccoli for tea and went to bed at 22:30.
11 May 2011
Up at 08:05 (we were awake earlier but it was just too nice and snuggly in bed!), 7.5°C and high cloud. Weather forecast is for rain everywhere today, but it's still dry at the moment. 09:04, have had a couple of coffees and decided we'd find somewhere nice for brunch later on, so we are now rollling. Put some diesel in the tank at Weston, then we checked out Kaik Camp (saw the sign so headed off down the road!) but not really our cup of tea. Now 10:25 and heading off to Glenavy Fishing Camp to have a look as we've never been here, and sounds promising as it's on the Waitaki River Mouth. Couldn't get to the mouth as the road was closed due to tree felling (why didn't they put the sign at the start of the track so that we didn't have to back all the way back to the turn-off!?!) and the camp is a little like Lake Clearwater and Heron - NO DOGS signs everywhere.
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| Morven Beach |
And it's all private property anyway, so couldn't go in and park up. Nowhere else really, so off we go again. 11:45 just had brunch (bacon and eggs and mushies - in other words, the usual!) parked up beside the beach at Morven beach and sat at the intersection giving us the choice of SH1 or Waihoa Box for a couple of minutes while Mike's brain had a discussion with itself as to which way we were going to go.
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Weird rock formations near
McCullough Bridge |
In the end, we headed back to SH1 - joined it for about 2 seconds because there's a sign saying "McCullough Bridge" so of course, we have to go there and see what that's all about. And that led us straight to the spot in the Waimate Gorge where we stopped last time we were here to check out the Moa Site. So now we know where that road goes! Did some shopping in Waimate (how the hell did we end up here again!?!) and it's now 13:15 and we are heading north on SH1 again. And off SH1, because at St Andrews we saw a likely looking "take-us-to-the-beach" road - Galletly Road - and sure enough, awesome spot! Until we got out of Maggie that is, and went "what's that AWFUL smell?" Turns out we are down wind of the local (at Pareora) freezing works and the stench was just horrible. Roxie did have a wee run on the beach and got completely confused by the cormorants she went to chase - they just turned and looked at her and didn't move - so she got scared and backed off. Very funny to watch, because she really was completely bamboozled by these birds that stood their ground! So, to carry on - we kept looking for potential places along the coast (and upwind of the freezing works!) but found nothing, and so we ended up driving through Timaru,
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| Lunch stop |
when all of a sudden Mike swings us off the main road, down a side street, with such speed that Marielle was left wondering what had happened. Well, nothing really, just that Mike had seen a Noodle Canteen so we had to stop and find a park so that we could go and buy afternoon tea and dinner!
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Sunset at Orari
River Mouth |
Had combination soup and combination fried rice sitting at the bottom of the spiral on way to Caroline Bay, and had the rest for tea! YUM. Love, love Noodle Canteen. After filling ourselves we realised we still needed to find somewhere to park for the night (we are NOT going to sit in the carpark beside the skating rink in Caroline Bay - you might be allowed to park there, but only in an emergency, for us anyway!) so off down more roads that lead who knows where. Went all the way down Seadown Road, 'til it became "no exit" and looked promising as a place to park, but it got too boggy and we had to turn around.
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| NZ Fur Seal |
So we ended up sitting at Orari River Mouth (all set up by 16:29) - we've been here before - in the company of a NZ fur seal and beautiful sunsets! Did the normal "rest of afternoon" routine (reading, relaxing, x-stitch, playing with Roxie!). We did think "bugger!", as the winds never happened (but then we did hear later that Dunedin had had pretty bad winds, so who knows what happened 100km south from where we are now?). The good news is that the forecast for tomorrow is good!! Went and sat on the rocks overlooking the sea at 21:45 - could hear the waves really crashing in, awesome. 8°C but because there's no wind it wasn't too bad. Had left overs for tea (see earlier on today!) and bed at 22:30.
12 May 2011
Up at 07:37, 16°C (!!!!) and blowing a NW - suns' about to come up so it might be the nice day that was forecast - certainly warm enough already! At 10:30 it was 18.5°C and a glorious, glorious day. A bit of a NW blowing, but not enough to annoy you. Took Roxie for a walk along the beach (too hot for her with all her fur!) and had muesli for breakfast, showers and now deciding what we are going to do for the rest of the day. Ended up doing nothing - too nice to spend the day inside, so decided to stay put. Did all the normal relaxing things - sitting outside, in T-shirts, wishing we'd bought shorts! Middle of May!! Took Roxie for numerous walks down to the water to cool her off! And then the wind turned to an on-shore breeze which cooled things dramatically. So Marielle moved inside, had chip sandwiches for lunch and went for a walk to check out the Katipo Spiders further up the beach, by the lagoon. Saw a couple. And on the way back we saw Hector's Dolphins! These things are supposed to be rare as hen's teeth, but it seems to us that we can't go to either coast without seeing them! Not that we're complaining because we both think they are awesome creatures. And then, as we were reading/x-stitching on Maggie, a falcon flew by. What a trip for wildlife this is! Watched TV, and then the wind went from nothing to a mean southerly with a vengeance - even the G3 shocks on the satellite dish had trouble keeping the dish still! Had chicken breast and 4 bean mix (to which we add chopped spring onion, finely chopped red pepper, finely chopped tomato and also a handful of crunchy combo - absolutely delicious!) for tea - YUM! Can't remember what time we went to bed, but it was definitely after 22:00.
13 May 2011
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| Rangitata Huts |
Up at 08:53 (!!!), very overcast and 8.5°C. Left camp site at 10:17 to find somewhere to dump and fill - and it's just starting to rain! 10:56 - checked out the Rangitata Huts, which is another place not mentioned in the Travel Directory. A big settlement with numerous huts and a camping ground. Carried on and filled up with diesel in Ashburton (37L, 290290kms) and ate fresh butcher's saveloys while we wondered round the campervan place checking out what's available. Mike fell in love with one of those big American RV things - Lotto, help!!! The saveloys weren't enough, so we ended up driving round to see if there was a Noodle Canteen - No, bugger!. So ended up having a grand angus burger from McDonalds (better than last time, which was dry and cardboard like - this one was juicy and tasted good.) Then off to find the Hakatere Mouth (which Marielle tried to find when she went to see her Dad, but due to the lack of signposts in Canterbury couldn't find! This time we'd googled it and had instructions!). Had a look around both the lower level and the upper terrace, but it just didn't do it for us, so headed back to Ashburton to try and find the possible spot on the south side of the river (also googled and have instructions!).
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| Wakanui Beach |
But, on the way out we saw another possibility - going down to the beach by Seafield - but before we even got there we saw a sign for Wakanui Beach, where we are now (15:00) parked up - it's the best beach spot we've found to date on the whole length of this coast! AND, it's not in the book - again! Sometimes you just need to drive and forget the book! Relaxed as per usual, Roxie very happy because there's no traffic, no worries (apart from the electric fence behind us!) and the door is open because the weather's quite nice, so she can just come and go as she please! Very pleasant afternoon. Had Harvest Sauce (see Annabell Langbein's cookbook "The Free Range Cook"! Mmmmmm) and tortellini for tea, watched TV and bed just after 21:30.
14 May 2011
Up at 08:10, 4.5°C and sunny. Such a gorgeous spot - apart from the smells! We did notice it a bit yesterday, there's a field full of chowmolia behind us, but this morning it's mixed with definite cowshit smells! Such a shame, as it's not a bad spot, but it might explain why there's no-one else here. Did have a couple of boy-racers scream up during the night, but they left pretty quickly again too, so no hassles. 09:56 - have had showers etc, ready to get away from the smell. Did what we're getting good at this trip - just drive and see where you end up. To be fair though, we always aim to end up on a beach somewhere, and it quickly became apparent that, once again, the map and reality are two different things - we are after all, in Canterbury! and when we got to an intersection where neither road took us in what felt like the right direction, we finally (why haven't we done this earlier!) turned Mike's phone into a GPS guidance system - comes with the phone for free - and asked it to take us to the Rakaia Mouth.
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Beautiful day at
South Rakaia Huts |
Which it did, perfectly, and we concluded when we got there that there was absolutely no way we would have found it without the GPS. Well, maybe we might have, but it would have taken us a tank of diesel and the rest of the day (got here at 11:00)!
The South Rakaia Huts is another huge settlement with 74 cribs, not in the book, with $5 per night camping ground behind a massive macrocarpa hedge. Which means it could be very sheltered, but not needed on a day like today - it's absolutely beautiful weather (was meant to be NW gales today) and this place is stunning.
And one of us (or maybe all of us together) is a dolphin magnet - because we saw another couple of Hector's - much to the delight of the people from Tutukaka we spent well over and hour talking to - they'd never seen them before! We had brunch parked on the beach - the usual bacon, eggs and mushie mix! Walked around all the time here in T-shirts - not a breath of wind and just gorgeous! Left at 13:10 to dump, which we did in Rakaia, and it was 21°C. Now heading south along SH1 to put some more diesel in the tank in Ashburton at the truckstop as that's the cheapest with our RD card (17L, so that's what we've used just tiki-touring round here!) and then intending to head inland as we do have to start heading home at some stage.
Did check out the south side of the Hakatere - glad we didn't do it yesterday as it's yuck - bog holes cut up by 4WD's and motorcycles and no view of the sea, so carried on a little further and now (15:30) parked up at the end of Williams Road, right on the beach (well, on a decent ledge well above high tide mark!).
Another lovely spot, awesome views and sheltered from the NW that is starting to pick up. Best spot so far, we reckon! Did the normal routine for the rest of the afternoon, had Tuscan pork, broccoli and mashed spuds (mashed with some sour cream and chives dip - YUM!) for tea, watched TV and hit the pit at the end of the film (about 11-ish?).
15 May 2011
Up at 08:00, 9.5°C, after a somewhat restless night because the southerly arrived much, much earlier than forecast (like about 12 hours!) with a vengeance and made a racket at 06:00, which woke both of us up. The sea had crashed on shore all night, which occasionally woke Marielle up during the night, so not the bestest sleep! Had muesli for breakfast and showers and now 10am and rolling, and letting the GPS guide us outta here! 11:10, just done some shopping at Temuka New World. And then, because the GPS is guiding us home, and didn't send us inland where we thought it would, we ended up in Timaru again, so guess what we're having for lunch and dinner?!? Put some more fuel in at the Truckstop (13L, 290514) and washed all the poop and salt off Maggie there too. Ate Noodles (garlic prawn, combination noddles and combination soup) at the Beach at Caroline Bay. Walked Roxie along the beach, watched a big container ship leave and now (13:20) we are on our way again - letting the pommie girl on Mike's phone tell us where to go! :) She sent us onwards via the backstreets of the industrial area of Timaru (we'd never been there before either!). We have set it to the "shortest route" home, and we are currently a bit puzzled as we're still heading south along SH1, and have not turned inland at either Geraldine or Cave. So where is she sending us? Well, we finally turned inland at Waitaki, just below the bridge, onto McPherson's Road! And then, along several dirt roads and numerous turns, we ended up back on the main road to Kurow.
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| Coming back to ground level! |
But not for long, because the next thing we're being sent up Glen Settlement Road, which is a climb and a half - and as we are climbing up we come to the realisation that the "shortest route home" is via Dansey's Pass! So we change the setting to "fastest route" at which stage she guides us back down the hill and along the main road. Very, very entertaining afternoon and a great way to kill a few hours - just go where the GPS tells you. Stopped at the Otematata Pub for one jug and now (16:15) parked up at Loch Laird. Not bad weather most of today but now very windy (as it was coming up the valley, really had to punch into a fierce head wind!) and getting very grey. Ended up with cold, gusty wind and rain, so spent rest of afternoon and evening inside (except a short interlude while Marielle walked Roxie around trying to dry her off as she'd decided to get a drink the spaniel way - walk into the water until it reaches you mouth!). Left overs for tea (oh, we LOVE these left-overs!) and bed at ???
16 May 2011
Up at 07:45, 5.5°C and a clear day with cold winds. Had bacon and eggs for breakfast and started heading home at 09:38. Fresh snow on the hills all the way home! The forecast is for winter to arrive anytime now, so probably good that we are off home. Got home at 11:41 - 290842 kms on the odometer, so that's another 1084 kms travelled!
So then off to Woodend, so we could exchange money, have him microchipped etc. Met his Mum and Dad, got his pedigree and left there about 13:00. Stopped to buy some puppy food (Sheree (his breeder) had given us some, but we needed more) and headed off back down SH1. Got to Ashburton to put some diesel in, but the pumps were empty, so had to fill up at Mobil instead. Bugger - costs more, but still a saving doing it at Mobil. Good trip so far, considering we have a 10 week old pup on board. One wee accident, and he did have a chuck not long after we left, but apart from that no problems. 
