Back to Christchurch

It's Sod's Law isn't it. you find somewhere you could easily spend 6 months on the penultimate day of your trip! Onuku was one of those places. It was time to leave far too early and I longed to stay a bit longer but I had to get back to CHCH to catch a flight in the following few days. Following Steve's advice, I took the back roads backs to civilizations via one of the amazing secluded bays that makes the Peninsula such an attractive destination. The steep climb out of Akaroa seemed to be endless as the coastal town gradually got smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror. The road slowly deteriorated into a dirt track as I neared the watershed. Once on the top I almost immediately dropped down the other side into Le Bons Bay. This beautiful unspoiled bay housed an amazing beach with a handful of homes behind the dunes. The weather today was nothing short of superb and the sun made the beach just perfect. These steep roads had taken their toll on my poor little car and had to let it cool down in the shade of a tree before attempting the steep climb back out of the bay! I spent a while just sitting on the beach thinking of the amazing time I have had here, in NZ.


On my way out of the bay, I had a huge oil delivery truck on my tail - obviously with more power than I had, even with my foot to the floor, i could hardly maintain 20mph. He was always right behind me. I felt bad for holding him up, so I pulled over as soon as possible to let him pass. With a friendly toot of his horn, he sped past. Once back on the backbone, I made my way reluctantly back towards CHCH. The back road was blocked due to a slip (surprise surprise) So I had to cut back onto the main road (SH75) and retrace my tire tracks back to the city, passing the hexagonal cafe once again.

Akaroa - Banks Peninsula

The transition from city to nature was almost instantaneous upon leaving CHCH. My aim was to get to Akaroa - the largest settlement of the region and have a snoop around. The drive out took me past some ace scenery. The rivers that drained to the Pacific Ocean were lined with many little fishing shacks - dilapidated caravans, tin sheds, scrap houses. These were the only thing breaking up the horizon for bland field after bland field. In the distance, the high ground that makes up the backbone of the peninsula could be seen beneath the threatening grey sky. I stopped for lunch at a conveniently situated cafe about an hour outside CHCH centre. This hexagonal building was at a dogleg in what was a very straight road and seemed to be very popular for somewhere so remote. I ordered a BLT bagel and eaves-dropped on a conversation between two civil engineers on the adjacent table while pretending to read a paper. It was the suits coupled with work boots that gave away their profession.

The road snaked its way into the valleys of the peninsula and slowly began to climb up, passing through tiny hamlets as it did. The weather was quite bleak now and soon I was inside cloud which obscured my view of the landscape. Akaroa is a coastal town and the road twisted it's way down a steep hill to get to it. I wondered how supply wagons coped with this brake-testing decent. I parked up and donned m Swannie as it was a wee bit chilly. Akaroa is a sleepy little place with a few things to keep the traveller entertained during the winter months! I had a good look at the local museum and a wander round town, before calling Steve at Onuku Farm hostel to confirm my bed for the night. A short drive out of town and up a hill and I pulled though the gates to the farm. Before I could even get my bag out of the boot, Steve had come out to greet me and offer me a brew. Top bloke. He told me the place was very quite at the moment and they had only just re-opened after winter. He introduced me to the German girl was acting as a manger for him and we sat around the fire drinking tea. I was given the guided tour of the place, including the infamous outdoor showers and his 'stargazers' (think a wooden tent with a perspex roof to view the stars). The hostel was build by his father and occupies an amazing position overlooking the natural harbour. Before sunset, another traveller arrived. amazingly, it was someone I had met over a month earlier while exploring Golden Bay. She was still living in her campervan! We spent an enjoyable evening drinking homebrew joined by a friend of the management from the village. As I snuggled into my bed that night, I thought how awesome this place and these people were.

Christchurch take 1

The Old Countryhouse is a benchmark. This is how city hostels should be. Based around two suburban villas, this place ticks all the right boxes. As I waited to get checked in i got chatting to Steve as he was pinning up a poster of a hostel on the Banks Peninsula. I mentioned that I was thinking of heading that way the next day and asked if his place was open. It would be if I turned up! I got on well with Steve so I shook his hand and said I'd come and stay if I ended up that way. The were no dorm beds left so I took a discounted twin room which ended up being in its own cottage in the garden! Central heating!! Wow! The owner was an ex-pat Welsh bloke who missed central heating so much that he ended up buying all the old radiators from the old city hospital as it was being demolished and went about plumbing them in to the hostel. It turned out to be a bit of a reunion as there were about 6 people I knew staying that I had bumped into at previous locations! R+R turned up later and we had a good evening cooking and catching up with old faces.

Before I heading out to the Banks Peninsula, I wanted to try and get rid of my show chains that I had purchased in Greymouth. Seeing as the were unused I thought I could get a good price for them, even if Spring had sprung and the snow was melting fast. A few phone calls to the Jucy Rentals and ski shops around town resulted in a dead end. No one seemed to want them. I didn't have the time to sell them privately to another traveler or local so I headed into town armed with the bag of chains and ploughed my way around the various likely looking establishments dotted around Christchurch's Cathedral Square. Nothing. Getting increasing frustrated I decided to try and get a refund from the original retailer. A quick flick through the local directory and I found the CHCH branch of Repco and headed off into the wintry winds. No worries, A refund was given with not so much as an inspection of the chains! Happy as Larry with a full refund I headed off to the Banks Peninsula with a smile on my face.

Getting back to it

It has been a very long time since I posted on this blog. I have had a few inquiries as to why I have not continued, or finished my tales. The answer - laziness.

I am now back in the UK and have been for some time. I am in the process of completing my degree in Engineering Design and am already planning and dreaming of future trips. Realizing that I have left this blog unattended for a while, I have decide to fill in the remaining gaps and complete my tales from NZ. I shall also add a few photos to previous posts to break up the monotonous text.

The Road to Christchurch

All three of us were headed to CHCH but R+R had booked a bus before I had offered them a lift - not such a bad deal as it was a very cheap ticket. It was due to be a 6hr drive so I set off in good time to allow myself decent stops en-route. I headed out of Wanaka passing the airport complex where the driving range and Beerworks Brewery are situated. The first skydivers of the day were heading Earth bound. The road headed north east and was unexpectedly flat to begin with before heading skywards to get over the Lindis Pass - I wasn't expecting to climb to 950m and was unprepared for such an alpine crossing, but the snow was thin and I was descending before the snow started to fall. Soon I was in Twizel, a small town constructed in the 1960's for the workers who built the nearby hydro power station. Few people decided to leave once the construction had finished and clung on to the community that had been created. Further north was Lake Tekapo - a lake full of 'rock flour' that gave it a wonderful blue hue. The snow was coming thick and fast now but luckily was not settling. I took a quick peek at the 'Church of the Old Sheppard' that takes and idyllic location at the head of the lake. Beside this is a small memorial to sheep-dogs. As was walking back a tour bus of Japanese people packed into the tiny church - not sure how they all fitted but origami must have been employed! From here to my lunch stop in Fairlie I passed thousands of cairns that had been erected at the side of the road. This strange feature must have stretched for 10-15km. My guidebook did not shed any light on this but I guess it was something that passers by regularly add to. In Fairlie I stopped at the Old Library cafe and was greeted by a Scottish accent. I gorged myself on the biggest plate of potato skins you have ever seen, smothered with tomato sauce, cheese, cream cheese and chives! With the stuff I couldn't eat in a doggy-bag I headed on to CHCH passing merino sheep farms with signs proudly declaring 'Your ICEBREAKER comes from here!' Wearing mine, i smiled at this. The Canterbury Plains from Ashburton to CHCH are boring by NZ standards so I pushed on to make the city by dark. Of course - this meant hitting the city at rush hour. Without taking a incorrect turn, I was outside The Old Countryhouse before long.

Wanaka revisited

I met up with Rhona for the final time before heading to the mechanic to take a look at my brakes that were sounding bad in Dunedin. After hanging around for a while he said they were fine so I continued on my way. First stop of the day was Arrowtown, an old mining community that has kept its 'historic' buildings and consequently its charm. I wandered around in the drizzel and had a healthy lunch of roast vegetable salad and freshly squeezed OJ. Just what I needed after a few days of takeaways. Back in the car I drove to Wanaka via Cromwell. The wind had picked up and was buffeting the car quite a bit. R+R were waiting for me in the hostel when I checked in. We went out for a coffee and cake before heading to Cinema Paradiso to watch a British comedy called Grow Your Own. It was another good evening in the best cinema in town!


We woke up to glorious sunshine and took the opportunity to scale the dizzying height of Mt Iron. The 549m peak took some 45mins to accend and got us very warm in the sun. From the summit we could see the bad weather coming in over Treble Cone and decided to head down. We made some sandwiches and headed to the lake shore for a picnic in the sun. We went to the small brewery - Wanaka Beerworks and sampled their 3 brews before going on a brief tour of the tiny brewery. Hitting some balls at the golf driving range entertained us for the afternoon. Back in the hostel we cooked tea and then headed to bed for an early night.


Today we went to Puzzling World. This is a place full of optical illusions and a giant maze. It was a great place to spend the morning, getting lost for over an hour in the maze and trying to find our way out again. Despite the rain and my lack of waterproof I still had fun. Lunch was taken care of in a small whole-food cafe which filled a hole after the maze.

Queenstown

I left 'Dunners' and drove north up the coast for an hour to reach the Moeraki Boulders. These are large, spherical boulders that lie on the beach, averaging about 1m in diameter. It was an awesome thing to see, there is one that seems to be emerging out of the sea-cliff - as if the cliff is giving birth to the rock. From here I headed inland on my way to Queenstown. The drive took me longer than expected. On the way I was overtaking by a large group of motorcyclists out of a Saturday ride to a pub. I later past all the bikes parked up outside a rural pub. I drove through miles and miles of Otago's old goldfields and eventually made it to Alexandra. From here it was just a short drive on to Cromwell and then on into Queenstown itself. I parked up outside the Butterfli Backpackers and headed off into town to meet Rob. I found him, beer in hand sitting outside Dux de Lux. Dux has a craft brewery and brews 8 beers including a loverly ginger beer. Rach, Shelley and a friend were off having some skiing lessons at Cardrona. In the evening we all got a takaway curry and sat in their holiday apartment gorging ourselves. We headed back to Dux to try some other varieties of beer.


I spent the following morning wandering around town then walked up the Ti Ki Track to the skyline complex. I large mountain-top restaurant and gondola station. The views were awesome and the sun was warm as paragliders took off to land in the valley below. I dodged having to pay and caught the gondola back down for free. Back in the town I treated myself to an ice cream (which I later dropped on the floor by accident) and rendezvoused with the others. We sat in an irish pub and had mulled wine as the sun dipped behind Ben Lomand. I had a Fergburger for dinner. Ever since my previous trip to NZ I have been pining for one of these. It was good. I faught through the crowds and took my burger to the waterfront where I found a bench to enjoy it in solitude.