Mt Cook to Dunedin

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Rach's blog

The weather was still fine as we left our first non-powered site at Mount Cook. For the first time, I took the wheel of the campervan. I was rather nervous at first, and Ian’s gestures suggested that I was driving in the gutter, but anyway my road positioning improved, I think, and I navigated us safely to Oamaru. After laying anchor at our new campsite, we set off to explore the town. We didn’t get far before the sound of live music coming from the pretty public gardens attracted us towards it. Before our eyes stood Oamaru’s Food and Wine Festival in full swing. How fortuitous, I thought, as Ian paid the entrance fee and sped towards the first wine tent!

Before long Ian had his snout in a glass of Riesling and was chatting sugar ratios with the vintner, who generously was charging our glasses with little tasters of this and that. The sun was beating down, and all seemed very well with the world. Oamaru had made a very good first impression. By mid afternoon our fellow fair goers were showing signs of inebriation. Adults were wobbling, and not a kid was left without a tiger face-paint job. We’d made at least three tours of the fairground, including stops at various food stalls, and naturally further wine sellers. On the sound stage some kind of poetry competition was kicking off, and if that isn’t a queue to leave a party, I don’t know what is. We headed back to the camper base for showers and relaxation.

In the evening we walked into the heart of Oamaru which seemed to consist of one single shopping street plus, very incongruously, an opera house, and we dined in the most quiet and moribund restaurant that can possibly be imagined. The few diners spoke in the lowest of whispers, as if the place didn’t have a license for any kind of public jollity. We ate up and headed back to the camperbase again for digestifs!

Morning came and with it the greatest challenge of our camping careers so far:- The first emptying of the euphemistically named ‘toilet cassette’. The experience was as unpleasant as anticipated, but Ian handled the event with manly stoicism, and I stood by delivering concerned and supportive nods. At one point I held a hose.

Onwards and to Moreaki, the sight of the famed boulders. The almost perfectly spherical boulders lie on the beach and are (according to received wisdom) formed 6 millions years ago under the sea from limestone forming around a hard core, or are (according to recent speculation) counterweights from a fleet of Chinese ships which went off to discover things in the 15th century. Ian and I patted them for a bit, took and picture, did the gift shop, then moved on a mile down the road to a nice beach where we had a cup of tea and set out the deck chairs for a quick read in the sun. Philistines as we are, we enjoyed this more than the boulders. Our next stop was to be the southern city of Dunedin…

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Photos

Rach '2 glasses' H.
Enjoying herself greatly at the Oamaru Food and Wine fest.

Ian displays a boulder
Yup, it's a rock alright

Rach verifies the rockiness of the boulder
Yup, it's still a rock