The Trip to Blenheim

It was a beautiful day when we left Dunedin for Timaru, the last sunny day until we left Christchurch as it turned out. Got to love NZ weather! Canada gets arctic outflows, NZ gets Antarctic blasts, still no snow where we’ve been and the weather is getting warmer.

Our first stop on the way to Timaru was Shag Point. There is a sea lion colony there and who doesn’t want to see more sea lions! We got very lucky and saw a Fiordland Penguin too. According to New Zealand Birds Online, they are endemic to the south western coast of the South Island and are rarely seen elsewhere. This one was chilling with the sea lions on the shore

Shag Point is a beautiful piece of the east coast, and this area is protected by DOC.

Next stop was Hampden Beach for lunch. Found a picnic table on the beach and stared at the waves for a while. Nothing better for the soul than watching, and listening to the waves roll up on a beach. Going east from where we were, the next place you would land is Chile!

Next stop for the day was Oamaru and the Heritage Precinct. Oamaru bills itself as the Steampunk Capital of New Zealand and many of the shops in the Heritage Precinct play on this! Great place to wander around and lots of odd shops to explore. Found one place where I got a chance to talk to the owner, and creator, the BUGGYROBOT Gallery. Lots of weird little metal creations. His workshop is on one side and the gallery is opposite. In his words, “the gallery gives you a glimpse into my head”.

On to Timaru and our our motel for the next couple of nights, the Fitzgerald on King! Painted in bright colours you can’t miss it!. The manager was wonderful, took us to our room and made sure we had everything we needed. The “room” was a full 2 bedroom apartment with ensuite washer and dryer! By comparison, when we get to WEllington, we’re staying at a Ramada in a king room that is slightly more expensive than we paid per night for the place in Timaru.

Spent the next day doing a short walk on the beach in the drizzle, wind and cold. Found a coffee shop (of course) then went for a drive around the town, bigger than we thought. We’d earlier met a person in Dunedin and mentioned that we were stopping in Timaru after we left Dunedin and she immediately asked why! “We’re stopping there because it was halfway to Christchurch” we replied. Her immediate response was “that makes sense, it’s really the only reason to stop there”. I disagree, nice place and worth a stop for a day or more.

After a couple of nights in Timaru, packed up the car again and headed to Christchurch. So far, I think we’ve had exactly one sunny day in Christchurch over the 3 times we visited. We took the scenic route through Geraldine. Found another nice cheese factory and bought a “few” more bits of cheese. I made an offhand comment to the woman at the counter that she must love cheese to work there, and her response, with a twinkle in her eye was, yep I actually married the cheese maker!

When we crossed the town line into Christchurch, we were not surprised by the weather. It was raining on the way to town, that turned to hail, then the sun came out briefly and the wind picked up, then more rain, you get the picture. We’ve been assured by many many people that the weather in Christchurch is mostly quite nice, and my only response, based on our experience is, yeah, right….

We had a wee mission while there and that was for Cathy to find some merino/possum yarn for a cardigan she wants to knit for herself. I’ve been to a lot of wool shops on this trip, and managed 3 more in Christchurch, but she did finally find what she wanted and bought it, yeah!

Again, walked around in the drizzle, went into a lot of shops, and ended up at the Riverside Market for lunch. We’d decided earlier that we’d have a main meal around early afternoon and ended up with a nice lamb souvlaki wrap. Huge portion, tasty, and pretty cheap. The weather cleared a bit in the afternoon so we took a drive out to Spencer Beach. Didn’t walk too far, windy and cold, but did get back to the ocean again, so all good.

We left the next day for Blenheim, our last stop on the South Island. We booked an AirBnB for 3 nights, giving us a couple of days to explore 1 or 2 wineries……

We stopped at Waikuku beach on the way for a morning walk. It was cool but the sun was out and it promised to be a nice day. Watched a few surfers tackling the ongoing southerly swell that has been hammering the west coast and Cook Strait the past few days. Great waves and they looked like they were loving it.

Last stop on the way north was Kaikoura for lunch. We haven’t been there since 1999, and there was a major earthquake in 2016 that isolated the town for about 3 weeks from all land access. The seafloor along the coast raised up quite a few meters and blocked about 100 km stretch of highway both north and south of the town. The town has grown significantly, but if you drive out to Fyffe Point, it still has the same flavour. Rugged, rocky coastline, crashing surf, and stunning views.

The drive north from Kaikoura along the shore was breathtaking. You’re right beside the ocean, the waves are crashing on the rocks, it’s hard to keep your eyes on the road, and being NZ, you really need to. No crashes, not even a near miss along the way, but we did pick up one stone chip in the windscreen (spoiler, we got it fixed the Blenheim the next day). Arrived at our AirBnB, and again, the pictures didn’t really do it justice. It’s a modern 2 bedroom place with the common area in the middle (kitchen and lounge) bedroom on each side and deck that runs the length of the house out back. Perfect for sitting out on a sunny afternoon and catching up with the blog.