World New Zealand Akaroa

Backpacking Pensioners

Lake Tekapo to Akaroa to Christchurch South Island 14 to 19 February 2008 25 Feb 2008

Jeff

I will start this blog entry with a formal apology to Mark Thomson and his friends. On the 13th of February Mark e-mailed us to ask, "Why are the lovely Scottish boys from Creeksyde Park not mentioned in your blog". The failure to mention the 'lovely Scottish Boys' was an unfortunate omission which I will now rectify.

At the end of November 2007 we were parked at Queenstown on the Creeksyde Park camp site and were alongside 4 Scottish young men who were great company; one gave me a can of beer disproving the mythical reputation of the Scots. The lads had bought a small old caravan and car and were contemplating purchasing some form of heater after a very cold night. They also needed to seek work and had several plans in mind.

Mark failed to tell me in his e-mail what he and his friends have been up to since we met, but informed they were about to leave Queenstown and head for Sydney, Australia. They seemed to be a resourceful bunch who are a credit to Scotland and we wish them well.

How about that? I keep seeing the newspapers and TV having to make apologies and I have now been able to make one myself. Is there anybody else who feels we have missed them out or would just like a mention anyway?

Today is a dour day and it is raining. Before leaving Lake Tekapo we visited an Internet Shop, and then set off on the road we traveled a week ago to Timaru. Once again it was raining as we drove through Burkes Pass but this time we could see the views. At Fairlie we stopped for shopping and took another photograph of a statue to James Mackenzie, (the first known white man to visit the Mackenzie Basin), and his dog. What is it about thieving Scots, (this one rustled a 1,000 sheep), that makes people want to put up statues to them? The Rob Roy of New Zealand?

Fairlie is a small nice town built both sides of the railway track and to my surprise it does not have an ATM. The nearest ATM is 27 miles away along our new route, number 79, at Geraldine, a town which proved to have an interesting shopping centre. After obtaining cash from 'a hole in the wall', we tasted and bought some interesting jars of paste to flavor our stir fry's, and some unusual cheeses.

Our destination tonight is Peel Forest, a nature reserve in the hills about 17 miles north of Geraldine. By the time we reached a general store 2 miles from Peel Forest where we had to pay our site fees, it was raining very hard and Sylvia felt unable to leave the van.

Peel Forest is a lovely area with a large variety of short, medium and long walks and we intended to stay two or three days. I reserved judgment and only booked the one night. At the camp there were a few unoccupied caravans whose owners must pay a ground rent, several motorhomes and quite a few tents. The rain continued beating down all of the night and into the morning. I blame the government. A few days ago they officially announced that the land was in a state of drought; they ought to keep their mounts shut.

Those in the tents spent their evening in the camp kitchen and I suspect they all joined up again early in the morning. We decided that the trees would be dripping water, and the forest walking trails were going to be very muddy for some time as rain was predicted for the whole of the weekend. Our next journey was to be a trip over Arthurs Pass. At the end of September we had enjoyed the scenic train journey and now we wished to experience the views from the road; but not in this weather. With a change of plan we drove north along SH 72 with the big hills on our left. After passing by Mount Summers we came to Mount Hutt. To our surprise the Mountains were covered in snow which came over half way down them, an event which made the evening TV news. (Yes, it is still summer in New Zealand).

Before reaching Mount Hutt our road had joined SH 77 which worked its way east to Christchurch. Our new destination is the Banks Peninsular to the south of Christchurch, and Akaroa which is the main tourist destination of the area. Akaroa Harbour is another centre of a volcano like Lyttelton where we spent our first few weeks in New Zealand; Lyttelton is also a part of the Banks Peninsular and the area we are now in was formed by three volcanoes. To get to Akaroa our van had to climb up the longest windiest highest road yet and once down the other side we still had a couple more hills to go over; the views were great despite the poor day of showers and high winds.

Before joining our new camp site, situated on a hill overlooking the harbour, we drove around the bottom of the town. It again rained all night and we awoke to find the local ducks sitting on the site puddles. The weather was still stormy and when the rain ceased, with extra layers of clothing and water proofs we walked down the steep path and perused the town. Despite the sheltered inlet the water was very rough and the only activity in the town was indoors. The nights news reader informed the winds on the Banks Peninsular reached 78 miles an hour.

Akaroa is a French town. That is to say French people arrived on 16 August 1840 and settled, creating the town which has many of its streets named in French. Unfortunately for them the British had learned of the intentions and sent a boat claiming New Zealand before the settlers arrived; no doubt the settlers Rue'd the day. We fortified ourselves before walking back to the van.

Next morning it was like being in another world. The wind had dropped, the sun was shining, and people were sitting under sun umbrellas outside the many pavement cafes. At the jetty's boats were leaving to take trippers to seek out the fur seals, little blue penguins and the endangered Hectors Dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the world which we had seen when at Lyttelton. One trip provides wet suits and you can swim with the wild dolphins; a unique experience.

After again walking round the town again, we collected our van from the car park and took the tourist route away from Akaroa. This entailed going high into the hill along the summit road and right round the tops, including along a ridge at one point. Traveling on the road was a bit hairy in places and the views were terrific, even if it was the same view for most of the 12 mile journey. Whilst on the north side of the ridge there was a 6 mile road down to Le Bons Bay which we took. The bay wasn't up to much but we are unlikely to forget passing a big double lorry full of sheep on the narrow road down. After lunch we climbed back from the bay, finished our trip around the hill tops, and drove down the long hill down to the flat ground leading to Christchurch.

You might think we would have had enough of hills for the day, but no. At Motukarara we left SH 75 and climbed over Gebbies Pass before turning north and following the hilly bay road to Lyttelton. First we visited Todd's Café, our haunt for many a meal during our first 3 weeks in New Zealand. We were not disappointed as amongst the items for sale was his home made cheese cake. After renewing our friendship with Todd we visited our hotel bar and met former acquaintances, eventually meeting up with Adie who had befriended us when we were forlornly waiting to gain possession of our van from the docks. She invited us to a meal at her home on Thursday and we were pleased to accept.

After fish and chips, (every where seems to make lovely fish and chips), we drove right round the bay passing Diamond Harbour to the camp site 2 mile beyond at Purau Bay where we booked for two nights. Today we had driven about 84 miles round many bends with only a few straight roads; tomorrow is a rest day.

Although overcast Monday proved to be a warm day and we enjoyed a 3 mile walk along the headland until we were overlooking the last dwelling on this gravel road. It was nice to see at close hand the opposite side of the bay from Lyttelton. Two school parties arrived at the site today and they will learn camping and kayaking skills.

Tuesday; we branched off the harbour road at Governors Bay, 4 mile before Lyttelton, and took the high road to Christchurch over Dyers Pass. This entailed climbing high over the volcano rim and we did not bother stopping at the viewing spot as the weather was overcast and the cloud base low. Once over the top we were driving on the outside with steep drops alongside Sylvia and it was a bit scary in parts. When we got to where there were crash barriers along side of us we knew the drop must be sheer; there is not a lot of crash barriers on the New Zealand hills.

We have several tasks ahead of us at Christchurch, one of which is to seek out a daughter of one of Sylvia's cousins who is taking a post at Christchurch hospital; but first we must find our chosen site which is a 30 minute walk from the centre of town and have lunch.