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The bright start to the day that we'd hoped for eluded us and so we decided not to hang around as there was a long drive ahead plus Lake Pukaki had shown us glacial lake splendour instead of Tekapo so it was pack the van and go. We are proud to say that our record of never quite locking everything away or strapping it down remains intact. Can we manage to get through the next few days still missing something out on our pre-departure check?! We'll see!
We stopped at Tekapo for free Wi-Fi and coffee and to visit the Church of the Good Shepherd, a lovely little church in an amazing setting - it's altar window is the mountains and lake behind. It reminded us of the sea-side church in Port Douglas, Australia which has a similar window and outlook. Whilst in the Tekapo church a UK couple arrived from their Church of the Good Shepherd with a gift of two of their churches centenary mugs and a small print of their church. We passed on the nearby memorial to a much loved dog - even if he is famous.
As we left Tekapo we drove through large wide plains of dry flat scrub surrounded by the mountains, at first they appeared lifeless but as we drove further we began to see sheep in camouflage and further on sheep hiding in long grass out of sight - but not smell - of any passing sheep dogs. It reminded us of an earlier drive that took us past huge flocks of sheep - all penned into one pen and then in an adjacent field 3 sheep all alone - the naughty pen?
It's so hard to describe the vastness of the country, England has no comparison that we've come across at home. The only way to judge the size is to look at the smallness of sheep, cows, cars, houses. In some of our photos the cars / boats are there but you would only see them if you zoomed in. This journey saw us in our first moving road block (traffic jam) when we were stuck behind a digger, a milk lorry, and a Contiki 18-35's coach with a car following us. Positively claustrophobic! We also came across the first traffic light we've seen in weeks and stopped for a train at a level crossing - the first level crossing since Arthur's Pass.
As we progressed though the Canterbury Plains with the tempting mountains in the distance calling us back, the countryside became greener and rolling with hills gradually replacing the mountains, the fire risk dropped from extremely high to high, and between Fairlie and Geraldine it was a perfect scenic drive.
We saw the beautiful cream topped, black bottomed cows that look like they've been dipped in paint and familiar curly coated Aberdeen Angus; all alone in one large field we saw two young cows snuggled together and in the middle of another we saw cows 'in conference' together - haven't you herd?
Somewhere after Geraldine the Sat Nav threw a wobbly and we ended up on back roads which took us through very wealthy areas where large palatial homes hid shyly behind large manicured conifers in gentle hills and glossy ponies grazed contentedly in the hot hazy sunshine. This is horse country and we passed a racecourse and three horses with trots a la Prince Phillip.
The gentle hills gave way to the high volcanic hills and mountains of the Banks Peninsula and soon we were weaving our way through countryside reminiscent of Wales and opened up into an amazing view of Akaroa harbour which was quietly spread out for us in a fantastic panorama that you could sit and gaze at all day. Imagine how happy we were after the dry tired Tekapo campsite to arrive at our penultimate campsite on a hill overlooking self same mountains - our home with the most amazing view for the next two days before we re-enter the reality of a City - Christchurch - and our last day in NZ....on this trip at any rate!
But first of all - tomorrow will bring a new adventure!
Observations en route:
- A hairdressers in Geraldine - 'The Curly Temple'
- Our microwave makes a good mirror in the absence of the real thing
- A house name - 'Daly Lama'
- A Durchelle school poster - 'Learners today, Leaders Tomorrow'
- Cafe advert for a coffee stop - 'Driver Reviver'
And we must mention the many different types of mail boxes all over NZ and some of which are American style with others completely original pieces - metal sculptures, little wooden chalets, bright colour schemes - and of course the Postie's who deliver the mail into the boxes from the comfort of their vans!
- comments
Ellie (pilates) Sounds like you are having a brilliant time. Enjoy, we are forecast to have more snow here! The Wednesday night ladies were asking after and I'm keeping them informed! x
Shirley Hi Ellie, good to hear from you, please say hi to the ladies for me? I shall have to do some serious Pilates when I get back and get back into shape lol. Hope all is going great with you? Thinking of you and sending good thoughts, not long now! :-) x