Northwards to Gore Bay

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Gore Bay…..?? where in the South Island, may you say is Gore Bay !

Well, Gore Bay is a small seaside settlement some 120km northeast of Christchurch with Cheviot the nearest town you turn off SH 1 and head towards the coast.

Like many coastal locations around New Zealand it was named by Capt James Cook on his map of New Zealand as he sailed the coastline. It is believed that Gore Bay was in fact Gore’s Bay on Cook’s map and that should in reality be the name it is called by.

As we collapsed into bed last night there was already a warming of the air temperature and this morning we awoke to a clear blue sky and a promise of 28C high for the day.

Picking up our Apex rental Corolla was a breeze just down the road from our apartment.

However, we should have chosen a sedan rather than a hatchback as the two suitcases plus the backpacks didn’t all fit into the boot area. Some reorganisation will need to be done to get at least the suitcases in there. That will be for later as we were keen to get on the way with a few stops planned on the way north.

We took SH74 north through St Albans and part of what became the red zone after the earthquake 11 years ago. In what was called the red zone the houses that had stood there for many years have all but gone and the red zone has become a green zone with trees, cycleways and walkways.

It didn’t take long at all and we were driving through rural land and across the Waimakariri River.

We had decided to get our shopping needs in at Woodend and were baffled as to where the New World Supermarket was.

Checking the GPS again we realised it was actually on the very edge of the town or what eventually will be the extended township.

The supermarket was virtually brand new with a spacious layout inside and a wide range of goods that suited our needs nicely.

Loaded up with wine, beer, steak pie and vegetable stuffed potato’s for the next 2 night’s dinners plus a basket full of other stuff we drove back across the highway and headed down towards the beach at Pegasus.

Here there is a fancy looking golf course as you enter what has become quite a built up are of housing where we suspect almost all the homes are under 10 years or so old.

When we were last here pre-earthquake it was mainly pine trees ready to be culled and the land to be developed for what we were passing through today. Quite an achievement and shows what can be done with flat land and a need to rehouse people that took off after being displaced by the earthquake.

A short trek through what is left of the pine trees along the approach to the beach and we stood atop of the sand dunes with panoramic views north and south of what was known as Cooks Mistake until around 1843.The name Pegasus originates back to 1809 when the South Island was surveyed by crew of the brig Pegasus. The bay is huge stretching from the Motanau River in the north to Banks Peninsula, which Capt Cook originally thought was an island, in the south.

Now a little toilet humour.

Heading back to SH1 we diverted down a street where Gretchen had seen a sign indicating toilets were nearby. One must take the opportunity when you are driving through an area where there are few townships with facilities.

At a children’s playground was a modern toilet, one of those ones which has red and green lights that are lit up showing if it is occupied or not.

Neither of the lights was lit so all we could do was try the door. The first shake Gretchen gave didn’t result in the door opening so another firm push was required.

This time a male voice from inside said something like ‘it is engaged, won’t be long’.

So we back away and sat waiting for the ‘voice’ to emerge which eventually he did. A friendly wave and an explanation that the lights were out of action and he was back to his vehicle.

Internally we discovered why the door remained shut even when a good push was made, a large and very secure looking bolt!

Next stop up the road towards our destination was another excursion off SH1 to Motunau river mouth some 15km through pleasant rolling farmland.

We were now at the northern end of Pegasus Bay which made the entire coast that we could see in a southern direction.

There was quite a sizable community squeezed into what flat land or easy slopes there was to build a dwelling. There was even a volunteer fire brigade which demonstrates the remoteness from the closet fire station in a township on SH1 and also the number of homes/holiday houses here.

We had lunch on a large carved wooden seat looking out over the river mouth to Motunau Island which was 1.2km off the coast but looked much closer.

We were fascinated by a couple fishing from the shore just along from where we sitting. They had a drone that had taken a line out to sea and the guy was heaving on a fishing line bringing in whatever was on the end of the line.

Gretchen was keen to see how their system worked and what was making the fishing rod bend so much so she walked along and talked to the couple. She reported back that the drone could take a line out for up to 2km which would have been beyond the island. The couple though that there might be a ray on the end of the line and were committed to landing it before releasing it.

There was a road that wound its way from near Motunau to Gore Bay but we decided that we would head back to SH1 and take what according to the GPS was less in time albeit not in distance.

There is a tourist route that takes in Gore Bay starting in the south short of Cheviot and going back inland from the coast to around Cheviot in the north.

We took the southern entry and found our Air BnB accommodation apartment just before the road dropped down to the beach at Gore Bay where our hosts met us as they came in on their John Deere machine from mowing grass somewhere on their property.

An inspection of the apartment above and behind behind our hosts home looks very well equipped and spacious and will suit us very nicely for the two nights.

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