From Dunedin in the south to Tauranga in the north and a stop off inbetween to catchup with more 'rellies'

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The fine weather has stayed with us as Wednesday dawned and we will have excellent driving conditions ahead to Christchurch where we will catch a plane home in the early evening.



But first we have to draw ourselves away from Breakfast TV and get on the road. Watching TV in the morning as we are on holiday has been a bit addictive and our routine will have to return to normal when we get home or we will be late for work.



Anyway it’s good to do different things when you are on holiday and that is all part of the break away from work routines to refresh the mind.



With the bags in the car boot previously carrying our grocery items now all contained back to one suitcase, a small carry bag and backpack and the interior of the car neat again(things do get spread around when you are travelling in a car)we headed off to fill up the petrol tank and head north on Highway 1.



We have experienced very good service everywhere we have had the occasion to stop whether it is a supermarket, restaurant or petrol station and the guy at Caltex on Great King Street was very helpful and even washed the front windscreen, a service we haven’t experienced for a long time.



The one way system in Dunedin North works extremely well and we can think of a number of other cities we have driven through over the years that could come and have a look at what Dunedin has achieved to keep traffic flowing within the roads that have been there for years without having to tear down houses to build more roads.



The city comes to an abrupt end as the road climbs what is known as ‘The Kilmog’a name we had always thought had some Scottish connotation as after all Dunedin is also known as ‘Edinburgh of the South’.



But no, the name, although there is some dispute, comes from the Maori word ‘kilimogo’which is a type of manuka tree from which you can use the leaves to brew tea. That is what travel is all about learning about new things and setting the record straight by dispelling myths.



Unfortunately there is no lookout as you reach the summit of The Kilmog, at least not one that gives you a view back over the city. Therefore we missed getting a photo of the impressive indoor stadium that Dunedin can be rightly proud of. We did get to see the outside at street level but too close to get a full view of the structure.



We took a right hand turn off the highway at Evansdale to take in the coastal scenic route and were pleased we did that as the views from the narrow road that followed the contours of the hillside were well worthwhile on such a beautiful morning despite a fresh, cool north east breeze that was starting to make itself felt.



The road and main trunk railway line are intertwined and there are several sharp turns to straighten up to cross the railway with many of the crossings without bells or lights. Thankfully the railway line had a couple of places where there was maintenance going on so we had a good idea that there would be no trains coming when we were driving across one of the many crossings.



We rejoined Highway 1 just short of Waikouaiti and onto Palmerston, a pleasant small country town with a prominent statue dedicated to a 19^th century Otago Politian on a lone hill outside the town on the seaward side.



As the highway reached the coast again at Shag Point we took a short detour down to a rocky promontory where there is a seal colony. By now the north east wind had freshened considerably and we needed more wind protection to take the short walk to the lookout. It is still early in the breeding season and there were only a small number of seals that were ashore below us. Despite the wind there were a couple of people fishing. Where there are seals we suppose there are fish.



Back to the highway and it wasn’t long before ‘the white stone town ‘of Oamaru arrived. The town boasts a collection of heritage buildings, many of them built from the limestone quarried nearby.



However we had no time to stop with our plans to visit another cousin of mine at Tai Tapu near Christchurch before we went onto the airport.



Crossing the braided Waitaki River the land becomes very flat and the road straightens out for many kilometres following the coast fairly closely.



We were now taking in dairy cows where we had earlier been passing sheep as we maintained a good speed north. This was to continue all the way to Christchurch demonstrating how the dairy boom of the past few years has taken over farmland that sheep used to graze on.



The number of sheep in NZ has dropped from a peak of 70 million in the early 1980’s to around 40 million while the dairy numbers have risen considerably with conversion of the land to dairy pastures.



Lunchtime was on us as we drove into Timaru and it was a coin toss to head down to the town or find a bakery on the highway to buy lunch for a roadside stop a little further north. The bakery on the highway won and we were please as we found a place at Washdyke (the home of the famous Kiwi racehorse, Phar Lap) with homemade pies including a very tasty creamy pork pie,yum!



Crossing the Rangitata River the highway becomes very straight with long stretches without a bend and after passing through Ashburton we reached the longest road bridge in NZ across the Rakaia River at 1.75km.It could be easy to get ‘tunnel ‘vision as you drive across the narrow two lane bridge.



Turning off Highway 1 at Burnham we were into territory we had never driven before passing through the small university settlement of Lincoln and onto Tai Tapu where my cousin Peter and his wife Robyn were staying looking after their daughters children while she and her husband were away on holiday in Europe.



Over a much needed coffee and chocolate biscuits we relived the ‘old times ‘and swapped notes of our travels through Europe as Peter and Robyn had had several trips to the same places we have been to.



Robyn said she had remembered me as a schoolboy and that was 50 years ago!



We mustn’t leave it so long between meeting up.



It was a short drive to Christchurch, although since the series of earthquakes that severely damaged the central and eastern areas of the city since 2010, the population, businesses and traffic all seem to have moved east making our progress towards the airport slow.



We have had the problem that struck us today as we drove towards the airport before and we should have learnt our lesson. And that is the one of returning the rental car with a full tank of petrol and the petrol stations are always on the other side of a busy two lane highway!



After a couple of attempts, one failed because the petrol station we were looking for after the GPS gave us it’s location, was no longer there, we finally found a BP station and filled the tank for the last time.



After dropping back the car we headed into the terminal to find something to eat before our flight departed just after 7pm.



We were sitting waiting for the time to board the Q300 for the flight home and noticed the 3 person crew of our plane walk past us.



Now I had no problem with the older looking pilot with the four bands on the arm of his jacket and the flight attendant, who happened to be the same as the young woman who was on our flight south, but we had to take a second and even a third look at the fresh face, very young looking guy who was the first officer on our flight. He hardly looked old enough to have left school and his airline cap was too big for him have his age away too. We know that pilots have to learn the ropes but why on our flight?



However, with fine skies ahead we boarded the plane hoping that it would be the older guy at the controls but as the plane pushed back from the terminal we got the message that ‘JP’ the first officer would be flying us home.Oh well.



It was a smooth flight, unlike the one south 12 days ago with PJ touching the Q300 down smoothly, and our very good friends Ruth and Owen (complete with sign welcoming us home) were there to meet us at Tauranga airport to be chauffeured home.



It has been a wonderful holiday, all too short, but as we always do we have fitted in everything from magnificent scenery of mountains and ocean, amazing rain forest walks, native birds, historic places, curling (who could or will forget our momentous win for the North over the South at Naseby) and not the least meeting up with the rellies, many of who we had not met for years.



Now it’s back to work to save for the next BBA



PS.



Sorry for the delay in publishing this blog but times have been busy since we arrived home with a return to work, dinner with a favourite ex workmate and family, a funeral of another ex workmate(sad),shopping to restock the larder and now it’s out to prepare the spring garden.



Until the next BBA...............................................................................................................................

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Comments

[KJ]

The Kilmog is further north...
Great to get to the end of the journey and a nice wee escape for those of us at home who didn't actually do the hard yards. As a resident of Dunedin for many years I do have a point of clarification for the BBA venturers. The Kilmog is actually the big hill you missed when you turned off and took the scenic route around by Seacliff-it is the one that has lots of slumps and bumps in it because the local engineer got it wrong about where to put the road! The "motorway" out of Dunedin doesn't seem to have any other name apart from the "Northern Motorway". There is a superb view of Dunedin city in your rear view mirror about 2/3 of the way up the Northern Motorway-it always used to take my breath away to see it when I was returning to the city by road.

[Whiskers]

The Kilmog
Just goes to show you can't rely on Wikipedia.Shame there was no obvious lookout point back to the city rather than the rear window of the Nissan Tiida.

[Whiskers]

Whoops just reread Wikipedia and boy did I make a mistake.Should have read my research document better than just scanning looking for what I wanted to write about.We had always thought it started at the first hill out of Dunedin.