Wednesday 14 October 2020

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The weather turned overnight and we woke up to a cold wind and rain. We went for a drive through Clarence – it’s the first little place we’ve come across where there is a church but no pub. It literally consists of 4 houses and a church!

on our way to Blenheim we spotted some salt pans and a salt processing factory so we stopped to have a look at it. The factory is not open to the public but we could drive all along the salt pans – quite fascinating.

Just before Blenheim we took a detour at Sneddon to visit the Yealands vineyard. It’s a self drive tour through a 15km stretch of vineyards. It’s really quite spectacular. Sadly as with so many other places, the cellar doors were closed 😢

Once we got to Blenheim we stopped at a cafe for a cup of tea and then at the Chocolate factory to get our dairy fix 🤪🍫

We saw a nice camp site on the banks of the river so decided to check in to make sure we got a nice spot. After we had checked in we went to the Dobson Street Beer Garden where we did a taster paddle and had some tradition German food for dinner.

Tuesday 13 October 2020

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We had an early start as we were booked on a 8:30am Dolphin cruise. The weather was perfect and we saw lots of dolphins. We stopped and was surrounded by a mating pod of over 100 Dusky dolphins. They put on a beautiful display for us. Some of the people on the boat went for a swim with the dolphins but we decided not to as it was still quite cold. After 3.5 hours on the boat we made our way towards Clarence.

Along the way we stopped at Ohau Point to view a NZ fur seal colony. There were lots of moms with pups –  it was quite something to see!

We discovered a beautiful camping spot on the beach at The Store just before Clarence. Unfortunately The Store wasn’t open but we could still enjoy the beautiful garden setting. If ever we renewed our wedding vows this will be the place where we will do it!

Just before sunset we went for a long walk on the beach. We saw a massive work up in the water with thousands of birds diving to catch the fish. If only we had a rod so we could drop a fishing line!

Once it got dark we enjoyed the beautiful night sky and the view of the Milky Way. With no lights the view of stars was spectacular.

Monday 12 October 2020

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We were woken up by lambs bleating across the road from our camping spot. After breakfast we went to Kaikoura town centre and spent the morning exploring the town.

At 12:30 we checked in for a 3 hour whale watching tour which departed at 1pm. We saw sperm whales, dusky dolphins, fur seals and lots of marine birds. It was such an amazing afternoon out on the water!

We decided to round the day off with drinks and dinner at The Whaler Bar & Restaurant and then checked in to the Kaikoura Top 10 Holiday Park for the night.

Sunday 11 October 2020

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We woke up to a lovely 16 degrees! After breakfast and a shower we started the 3 hour drive to Kaikoura. We stopped in Cheviot for lunch and to refuel the van. We took a detour to Gore Bay which is a beautiful little settlement just outside Cheviot.

Unfortunately the camp grounds were closed so we continued our drive to Kaikoura where we parked up at Jimmy Armers Beach for the night. An added bonus was the seafood bbq van right next to our camping spot so we had whitebait fritter and crayfish for dinner – delicious 😋 🦞

Took a sunset stroll along the beach and got up real close to a fur seal. He put on such a show – what an unexpected treat!

Saturday 10 October 2020

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Our day started with a very lazy morning – made salmon and cheese  omelette for breakfast and then drove to Twizel where we stopped at the NZ Rowing academy. It’s a little town of its own! From here we made our way to Geraldine via Fairlie – there were still no flies in Fairlie 🙃

The plan was to go to Ashburton from here. We stopped off at a little river along the way where the road goes through the river! Decided to kick off the socks and shoes and walk through it  – it was freezing 🥶

In Geraldine we stopped at Valley Brewing Company and had a sample paddle. It’s the first craft beer we had that didn’t taste all hopsy! 🍻

We continued the drive to Ashburton and saw a sign board that says Long Beach and decided to stop here for the night. We took the turn off and followed the sign boards but it turns out Long Beach is the name of a little town and although there is a looong beach, you can’t get anywhere near it as it is part of a farm!

So it was back to the original plan and we continued our journey to Ashburton and spent the night at Rakaio River Holiday Park.

Friday 9 October

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We had a nice sleep in and after a nice hot shower we made our way into Oamaru town. Our first stop was the Steampunk HQ. They have some really cool gadgets and sculptures made from old engineering bits and bops. The best part of the exhibition  was The Portal which was  mirrored room (walls, ceiling and floor) with a lights display.

Next we stopped at Whitestone Cheese Factory. Sadly we just missed the last tour as they only do 2 a day. We bought a fig cake to have with our cheese and also got a cool cheese baker, can’t wait to try it out when we get home!

From here we made our way to Makikihi where we stopped at the chips factory. We saw beautiful canola fields in bloom just outside Makikihi. From here we made our way to Timaru where we stopped at Bernie’s bakery for lunch. Had a pork and apple  pie and a big afghan biscuit – it was delicious!

We then made our way to Lake Tekapo via Fairlie. We didn’t encounter any flies in Fairlie! They must be hibernating and breeding in preparation for their January en masse comeback!

Just  a bit further along the way we found a quaint little place called Three Creeks with the most unique furniture and engineering arty souvenirs for sale. They also had some beautiful classic cars on display.

Still a bit further we drove through the most picturesque little town called Pleasant Point – It really is pleasant on the eye!

Our next stop was Lake Pupuke where we parked for the night. It was packed with campervans! We did a sunset walk along the lake and just enjoyed the beauty and serenity. We saw lots of rabbits hopping around in the grass 🐇

Thursday 8 October 2020

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We woke up to another chilly morning. At 10am it was still only 3 degrees. Our first stop was Larnach Castle. It’s a beautifully restored building with amazing gardens where we did a self guided tour through the castle and the gardens. A very unique setting was the stables and outbuildings that have been converted into a hotel. Would love to stay here for a night. We had coffee and custard slices at the café – it was delicious!

From here we went to the Speight’s Brewery for a 2 pm tour and some beer tasting. The beer was definitely much nicer than the tasters we had at Emerson’s.

It was 4pm when we finished at the brewery so we made our way to Oamaru where we parked up at the Top 10 holiday park for the evening so we could do our washing.

We are still feeling the cold so grateful to have electricity and the heater running as it got really cold when the sun set. The thermometer says 4 degrees but the wind feels much colder!

Wednesday 7 October 2020

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Had a lovely sleep at the haunted St Bethans. We could hear the wind blowing during the night but it didn’t quite get to us as we were surrounded by mining mountains. We didn’t have any supernatural visitors or if we did we slept through it!

We had a coffee and made our way to Ranfurly where we stopped for brunch. We had salmon hash cakes and cheese rolls at Moniototo Cafe.

From here we drove through central Otago to Dunedin via Mosgiel. We passed through a little place called Middlemarch – not sure if we want to rewind or fast forward from middle October to Middlemarch!

Once we got to Dunedin we parked up at the Dunedin Holiday Park and took an Uber to Emerson’s Brewery where we did a brewery tour and had Otago lamb ribs for dinner.

Tomorrow we are definitely sleeping in as it is a crisp 3 degrees outside!

Tuesday 6 October

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The wind died down in the early hours of the morning and we woke up to rain. By the time we checked out (10am) the rain had stopped and we went down to the lake. The view was amazing! We stopped at the General Store &Cafe for a coffee and a home made sausage roll for brunch. Glenorchy is a must do for sure for anyone visiting Queenstown!

We made our way back to Queenstown where we refuelled and from here we went to Cromwell. We stopped at a cider brewery to do a tour but they were closed.  As we got our the car we could smell ribs being smoked.  We decided to follow the smell and ended up having smoked ribs at The Stoker Room Bistro & Bar instead of cider as the brewery was closed.

After a delicious meal we made our way to St Bathans via Alexandra.

We had coffee at The Vulcan Hotel which is said to be haunted and then went for a walk along the Blue Lake where some locals started chatting to us. They recommended that we park up at the lake for the night so we decided to do so.

Early evening the wind died down so we did another walk along the lake and took some amazing photos.

Below is a link to the story of the St Bathans ghost . We didn’t get to see anything out of the ordinary … but then we haven’t checked all our photos yet 😇

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/86949270/offbeat-new-zealand-st-bathans-central-otagos-ghost-town