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Published: October 21st 2008
Hello!
(A hello photo)We finally bought a car and as a result we also bought a whole load of camping equipment and headed north to
Waipara for the weekend of Tim's birthday. Waipara is the nearest wine region to Christchurch, and at less than an hour's drive is an amazing place to have on one's doorstep! We set up camp on Saturday lunchtime at 'Waipara Sleepers' a BBH backpackers where you can sleep in old railway carriages, right in the heart of wine country. After the tent was up and all our other kit was verified as working and being complete we set off for the 25 minute walk to the Mud House Winery for a birthday lunch. Unfortunately, the 25 minute walk was down State Highway 1 and was quite a hairy experience, involving a very long and narrow bridge over a very wide riverbed with nothing but a very narrow hard shoulder which is not really designed for pedestrians (more of that later) but we made it in one piece.
The Mud House restaurant is excellent. We ate scallop wantons, ciabatta and local olive oil, Canterbury duck, a duo of pork, mini doughnuts and washed it all down with their best
bottle of Pinot Gris. Afterwards, we took part in a complimentary wine tasting. The bill was very reasonable (we tend to still revert back to converting dollars to sterling when making big purchases) and it compared favourably to a bog standard pub meal in England!
Afterwards, fearing the hike back along 'death highway' we asked whether there were any local taxi firms in existence. There aren't.
As a result, we decided to cross country (bearing in mind that there are very few public footpaths in New Zealand). The first half of the trek was fine. We climbed up onto a very high bank and followed the road in safety. We did assume however that once we got to the river there would be a way down from the bank. Luckily, there was and it would have been no problem for Bear Grylls...still in the spirit of adventure Emma headed down the slope/cliff, clinging to rather fortunately-placed Eucalypt tree, while Tim watched and cried like a girl.
Next, the bridge. We'd already decided there was no way we were going to go OVER it. So the logical next step was...yes, you've guessed it...UNDER it. Fortunately, most of the
river bed was dry with just a few narrow (and jumpable) channels of water and we only had to wade the last bit up to our waists (nearly). No problem - mountain water's pretty clean.
We made it back to the tent and rested until early evening. That night, by way of contrast, we wandered over to the local pub and ate one pie and two glasses of Speights/Monteiths whilst watching Canterbury Rugby win their Air New Zealand Cup Semi-final.
On Sunday, we woke at dawn to a fantastic morning, cooked porridge and packed up the car. Then we drove through the 'Weka Pass' north to
Waikari before heading East along the Waikari Valley and Scargill Valley roads (YOU COULD NOT PICK A BETTER SET OF ROADS TO TEST DRIVE A NEW CAR!!), through
Greta Valley and out to the coast at
Montunau Beach. We managed to take one photo before our camera battery died (hence the reason why the only photos on this blog are from the more overcast saturday), walked on the beach, spotted some flying shags, watched the fishermen coming in and then headed back to Waipara. Next, we stopped at our favourite Winery (Torlesse),
did some tasting and bought a couple of nice bottles of Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. Then we stopped at Athena Olives to buy some Olive Oil and then headed back south, stopping for lunch at
Amberley Beach and then finally stopping at 'Willowbank Wildlife Reserve' on our way back into the city. Willowbank is a place we've been meaning to visit for ages. It's full of native birds, fish and animals, plus some more exotic species such as otters, chimps and Bennett's Wallabies from Tasmania, a species that we recently learned are wild in South Island after being brought over in the 1870s. We bought annual passes, so we'll be back (and with a fully charged camera!).
All in all, an amazing weekend, and now we're set up with car and gear we're looking forward to heading up to Hanmer Springs this weekend. It's Labour Day on the Monday, our first public holiday where we've both been working (and our first day off for a long time!) so we're quite excited...
Hope everyone is well, and remember Summer's nearly here, so if anyone is thinking of heading down under...you know where we are!
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Mike
non-member comment
Happy Birthday and update!
Great to see you still updating the blog! I'm dead jealous of you guys! We tried to get Tiago to go out camping and enjoy a night under canopy on a campfire friendly site, but I'm afraid to report that he's a bit of a girly blouse and refused point blank to go, so we ended up going for a Portuguese meal. Starters were great, but the mains were less impressive. No secret of black pig has been smuggled into Liverpool. Douarnanez is........ quiet. We've not seen any boat/house paint sales on yet to put an end to that arguement, but I'm sure The Castrec is sharpening his axe as we speak. No sign of Cock dog's french counterpart. I'm sure there a chien called Claude wandering the street in a cravate, beret and with a string of Les Bonios around his neck. Happy birthday, and remember...... Jesus Loves you both :)