Lots of travelling to do today so we are on the road by 10 to 9. It is reasonably easy travelling because, being Easter Sunday, there is very little heavy traffic on the road except for milk tankers. It is still a grey day.
We had stops for diesel and gas for the caravan and then we had a late morning tea "Nosh" which has lovely food. It was just south of Waimate. At Ashburton we made ourselves a sandwich in the caravan. We wove our way through the chaos of Christchurch roads. The day is now gloriously sunny.
Finally we set up at Woodend Beach. Just a slight hitch to our usual slick set-up as our hose won't reach the tap and we have to reattach the caravan to the car and move it back a couple of metres. Very hot sitting down with our cuppa after set-up.
After reading the paper we go for a walk on the beach in the last of the sunshine. Night is coming much earlier as we move north, and with the clear night sky it starts to get chilly.
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| A very apt name for our block. |
Who knew that little Woodend Beach is in the flight path of jets leaving and landing at Christchurch airport throughout the night???
We have decided to play 9 holes at Kaiapoi as I am likely to be all over the place with my golf after my lesson altered my grip and backswing - and this indeed proves to be the case on the interesting, undulating course. We also go for a drive through the extensive new subdivision there. It seems to be just houses - I can't see a school or supermarket anywhere. However when we go into "old" Kaiapoi we find a supermarket. We also check out the growing village of Woodend before heading back to the camping ground for a late lunch.
The camping ground has lots of semi-permanent caravans - lots of people seem to come up for the weekend to get away from Christchurch. Our site is huge and I love the fence post people that dot the camp. Duncan is on cooking tonight and I win the Scrabble!
The day dawned fine but misty and quite damp and dewy. This delayed us in setting off but since we are only going to Goose Bay (South of Kaikoura) we aren't too concerned. We have morning tea and fill up with diesel at Cheviot. We are now back on roads that we have already travelled - the hills look a bit greener and the trees look more golden.
We settle in at Goose bay. The sites are generous, the showers free and the laundry $2 (not $4 like other places). Duncan gets his fishing gear ready while I do the laundry then we head to the beach.
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| Mother and offspring Black Back gulls |
I take a walk along the narrow road edge watching the seabirds, the waves crashing, the occasional seal to the bay where is there is a collection of cairns - little rock piles. I find later that people are not encouraged to build these structures in National Parks as they are not natural structures. I think they are quite endearing.
The fish are biting, but not being caught and we head back to the camp ground for left-overs on pizza while we plan our exit strategy from the South Island
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| I wonder how long these will stay here?? |
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| Some of them have been very carefully crafted. |
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| A red billed gull is hoping for some bait bits. |
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| A sleepy seal.
We are close to trains and the main road again. Given that the kitchen is set up like a bar, with a huge BBQ, large TV and honkytonk piano it looks like in summer most of the guests make sure they don't hear a thing when they go to bed!
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