Instead I cycle as usual with my friend and as we're cycling through the olive groves we hear 'gobble, gobble gobble' muliplied lots of times. It's Xmas dinner on the hoof!! Leap off my bike quick, get the camera out quick (which I had with me cos I was supposed to be at the start line for the race to take piccies), and just managed to get a picture of the gobblers as they were heading off into the groves. What a site, what a noise, they won't be so chatty in a month or so!!
Anyway back to the race - Mark said they were starting at 10am so I was in plenty of time - oops, he got it wrong and as we were cycling along the north edge of the lagoon we could see sails up - bugger, I missed the start, but this is the picture I did get......
It took them a punishing 23 hours to complete the race, they were second over the line and first on handicap - victorious again. I was so pleased I wasn't with them!!
Glaciers to Chrishchurch NZ Part 5
May 27th, drive north towards Hokitika. The landscape is more gentle and rolling on this coast, but in complete contrast the coast line is seriously dramatic. In true Kiwi style, 5 km south of Hokitika we come across a surprise. A ONE LANE combined rail and road bridge over the river Taramakau...
Believe it or not, this bridge forms part of the NZ’s National Rail Network and it’s disturbing to know you have to share this bridge with trains!
Hokitika is a small, not particularly attractive town, known now for it’s jade, gold and glass arts and crafts. In the mid 1800’s it was the gold rush capital of the West Coast and it’s home to NZ’s largest gold nugget. Unfortunately we don’t have time to plan a heist on said nugget so we continue north to Greymouth.
Greymouth is also not a particularly attractive town, it’s wealth originally came from gold and coal. Now it’s more forestry and tourism. The camp site we picked was lovely and right on another of the west coasts long dramatic beaches. Had a lovely walk along the beach at dusk as the tide was coming in. We walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner and the best way to describe the place would be to say, someone was trying to hard to make a chic minimalist look but they failed miserably and the result was dull and bland. Food was just OK, but just like the decorations it was trying to be pretentious and also failed. I had Elephant fish – never heard of it, how bad a Kiwi am I!
May 28th, today we go over the Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass back to Christchurch. Weather is closing in behind us and we’re wondering what we’ll find when we get up high. We climb for an hour before meet the snow, at first it was just a light covering of snow on all the trees, it looked lovely. Higher we went more snow there was, snowing heavier and settling. Carry on toward Potters Pass and signs are telling us snow chains will be needed – yikes!! It’s a shame for Mark because visibility is minimal, but on a clear day there are stunning views across the Alps. At the bottom of Potters Pass, sure enough they’re stopping everyone and insisting they put their chains on. Mark looks miffed, puts his jacket and hat on – it’s snowing quite heavy now – and gets out to put the chains on. I do an unusual girly thing for me and stay in the van and give encouragement through the window!
As it happens we didn’t really need them we would have made it down OK. They come off again when we get over the pass and continue onto Christchurch. Next stop Springfield – all of you Simpson’s fans will understand the significance of this. We love the Simpsons. We stopped for lunch at Simpsons café and had the most lovely homemade pies, baked on the premises. It’s still cold here and the lovely little wood burner makes it feel really homely.
Onwards to Christchurch, and it’s grey and drizzling, we decide to take the little old tram ride around historic Christchurch which is beautiful. It’s over 30 years since I was in Christchurch and it’s changed so much with all its modern high rise buildings that I hardly recognise it.
After a wander around the catherdral we have coffee at ‘The Bike Thief’ café. It’s beautifully decorated with post war pictures of Rome and with such an unusual name I ask the owner how he chose it. He had named it after the famous foreign film ‘The Bicycle Thief’ a story set in war ravaged Rome where a father, desperate to feed his family is offered a job putting up posters, however he needs a bicycle to do it. With his family he takes everything he can from him home to the porn shop to reclaim his bike that he had hocked some time ago. On the first day of his new job his bike is stolen and from then on the film follows his desperate attempt thru poverty stricken Rome to find his bike. The café owner is a real enthusiast of the film and will chat at length to anyone interested enough to listen. After the most chocolaty hot chocolate I’ve ever had we set off to find a campsite for the night. We ate at the pub across the road where the food was fine but they wanted to shut as soon as we had eaten - about 9.30pm - they close early on the outskirts of Christchurch!!!
May 29th, take the camper back to base – today it’s freezing – news says it’s snowing heaving in Queenstown where we’ve been and due to snow at lower levels around Christchurch, many roads are closed, we’re leaving and moving north at just the right time. Check camper in – mosey onto the airport. A friend of Marks from the UK now lives in Wellington so we ring him and ask if we can stay a night with him if we can get a flight. This bit wasn’t planned and we’re playing it by ear. A couple of hours later we land in Wellington, it’s blowing hard and raining. News that evening, ‘snow closes the passes from Queenstown to Wanaka and Arthurs Pass. Cars stranded, lorries stuck, cars run into each other and off the road’. We’ve managed to leave a carnage of weather conditions behind us. Lets see what we can do for Wellington.
More piccies of that trip here
1 comment:
Once again great commentry Maureen, methinks there may be a novel in there waiting to get out!
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