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| Beach art - Gemstone Beach |
With plenty of time before our next sit date, we decided to head back to the family in Dunedin - taking the scenic route of course! We had been having trouble with our solar unit since the beginning of our South Island journey, exacerbated by the fact that we were supplied a dud part from Kings. At least they finally agreed to send a replacement part, so we got them to send to Dunedin. We often have an interesting time deciding where to get our packages sent as we can't always be sure to receive them before we move on.
First stop was Monowai Power Station for a bit of R&R, swimming and (unsuccessful) fishing. What a magic place this turned out to be. So much so, we stayed a couple of nights just enjoying the peace and quiet.
Leaving here, we fished our way down the Wairau River heading south. Any fish we did catch were released.
After one of these journeys up river, we got back to the van for a snack and were immediately surrounded by this friendly bunch.
Onto Tuatapere where we stayed at the domain while James spent many hours with his metal detector, digging up heaps of old coins, with a few spendies thrown in.
Gemstone Beach was up for a visit as we hit the south coast.
We stayed at Monkey Island for a night and although it was a bit busy/touristy for our liking (middle of the school holidays!), we did enjoy a hot shower at the pub in the village.
Onto Colac Bay for a night, then a quick look at the beauty that is Cosy Nook.
Finally hit Dunedin and enjoyed a couple of nights with these munchkins.
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| Jack and Ben (Clare's great nephews) having fun in the van |
Clare came away with a very special dinosaur badge made and gifted by Ben for her very special hat ... bought in Bolivia by her for her Dad 15 years ago, coming full circle back to her from his 'estate'.
Next stop Riverton to hang out with Bella, the German Short-haired Pointer, for a couple of weeks.
Bella was only 18mths old and had a wonderful load of energy, so we spent a couple of hours each day playing on the beach with her.
We harvested mussels from the rocks at the end of Tihaka beach.
We made quite a few batches of fritters which we also shared with a housesitting couple we had been friends with on Facebook for a while and finally had the chance to meet. We prefer to shuck our shell fish raw to make fritters so that they are not 'twice cooked'. So delicious!
We got up in the middle of the night to go spotlighting in the estuary for flounder. We had never done this before. It was quite fun once we got the hang of it and we came away with two perfect fish.
Walking on the beach every day we came across many people walking the Te Araroa trail - from Cape Rienga to Bluff, or vice versa. Most were on their last couple of days, next stop Bluff, and were quite rightly pretty please with themselves.
We loved our time here. It is certainly one of those wee Kiwi towns were would be keen to explore further.
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| This sculpture appeared on the riverbank partway through our stay |
