Our travels

12th October 2024 at 16:48 - Damian

Yesterday before we left Akaroa we drove up to Hinewai Reserve. A labour of love over 30 years using gorse as a nursery species for natives which eventually grow higher and starve the gorse of light. Incredible transformation of the land.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinewai_Reserve

View out to the ocean from Hinewai Reserve. We walked a 5.5km loop.

A cup for drinking from the natural spring part way along the track.

A view out over part of the reserve. Many patches of gorse are now completely overtaken by native trees.

10th October 2024 at 20:43 - Damian

Akaroa

10th October 2024 at 09:58 - Damian

Christchurch Library

9th October 2024 at 15:18 - Damian

We stayed in the Kaiapoi NZMCA site last night. Very handy to town, buses and bike trails. Nice spot.

Dinner last night at King of Snake in the city with Richard and Sue followed by ice cream in Reagent St and Uber back to Kaiapoi.

This morning a 7km stroll along the south bank of the Kaiapoi River to where it meets the Waimakariri. Then a 30km bike ride to Woodend and back via Pines and Woodend Beach for lunch with Aimee and the girls.

A still morning on the Kaiapoi River. A few whitebaiters out.

The cycleway between Pines and Woodend Beaches.

9th October 2024 at 07:26 - Damian

Sheffield Pies are excellent. Our favourite flavour, pepper steak, happened to be the special ($3.00 instead of the usual $7.50) when we visited.

An almost-eaten pepper steak pie.

8th October 2024 at 07:46 - Damian

Various fungi or lichens spotted yesterday on Mt Thomas. Submitted to iNaturalist to help with identification and I'll add their descriptions if and when they're identified.

Trametes https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/47378-Trametes?locale=en-au

Berggrenia aurantiaca https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/381380-Berggrenia-aurantiaca

?

Pixie cup? https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/49490?locale=en-au

7th October 2024 at 08:57 - Damian

Early start to the day with a walk up Mt Thomas in North Canterbury. All the Canterbury Plains are covered in cloud.

Sally heading along the ridge after the summit.

5th October 2024 at 17:56 - Damian

Absolutely stunning day on Banks Peninsula today for our bike ride. Me, Sally, Matt, Andy and Charlotte.

Sign of the Kiwi cafe does enormous double scoop ice creams for $6.50 (cheap considering they have a captive audience). Caught up with Aimee, Megs and Baby Meira there.

Last night ramen dinner at Richard, Nicole and Baby Hugo's place. They gave us a heap of home-grown veges some of which we used for tortilla wraps for lunch today.

Andy and Charlotte at one of the many viewpoints along Summit Road.

Fresh salad and van-made tortillas.

Tortilla prep. Note the rolling pin wine bottle.

The route from Godley Head to Sign of the Kiwi.

4th October 2024 at 16:28 - Damian

We've been relaxing and hanging with family in Rangiora for the last week. It's been nice even though the weather has been a bit all over the show.

Tonight and tomorrow we're basing ourselves at the DOC campsite in Godley Head on Banks Peninsula. Tomorrow we hope to cycle to Sign of the Kiwi along Summit Road and back (40km).

We plan to hang around Christchurch/North Canterbury for the next week before heading south again.

View from Godley Head looking south west back into Lyttleton Harbour.

View from Godley Head looking north east toward... South America, I guess.

Lighthouse keeper's house. You can stay here with up to 4 people for as little as $76. Cute!

28th September 2024 at 05:47 - Damian

Mōrena!

Kaikoura sunrise.

27th September 2024 at 19:29 - Damian

13km walk around the Kaikoura Peninsula today. Heaps of seals. Lovely weather.

We're parked up at Jimmy Armers Beach and there was a film crew plus a drone filming a family walking four llamas along the beach. No idea what that was about.

Exposed seabed.

View from the cliffs near the end of the peninsula.

27th September 2024 at 10:19 - Damian

Swaddled water dogs.

Seals north of Kaikoura. Lots of pups. A few family dramas.

26th September 2024 at 16:31 - Damian

Bike ride around some vineyards today starting in Renwick. Forrest, Framingham, Nautilus and then Allan Scott for late lunch.

Nice cycling apart from the return along Old Renwick Rd which featured cars too impatient to slow down and squeezing past us between on coming trucks. Felt like we might die.

Another highlight of the day was popping in to Thymebank, a herb and lettuce hydroponic operation on the outskirts of Blenheim. Lovely people and fresh produce.

Sally's fancy lunch at Allan Scott.

Damian's fancy lunch at Allan Scott.

Sculpture at Nautilus Wines.

Bags of fresh-picked spring salad, coriander and parsley from Thymebank.

25th September 2024 at 20:11 - Damian

Some numbers for the North Island leg of the campervan trip for posterity:

8 days on the road.

923km total averaging 9L diesel / 100km = $193 = $24.13/day (incl RUCs).

Accommodation = $41.50 = $5.19/day.

Food = $676.40 = $84.55/day.

Total = $113.87/day

Hidden costs are the food we have in our pantry, the DOC campsite pass we pre-purchased and of course the investment in the van itself.

Edit: just topped up the lpg and we're averaging 570g/day = $2.21/day.

https://travel.peterson.nz/nz.html

Our route for the North Island segment of our trip.

25th September 2024 at 13:20 - Damian

The South Island at last! Home for the next 14 weeks. Next stop, Renwick. I have an appointment with the first pub I ever had a proper beer in back in the mid-90s. The Cork and Keg.

First stop Queen Charlotte Drive for a pie.

25th September 2024 at 12:33 - Damian

Do tugs always chaperone the ferry into Picton's dock or have we broken down or something?

A tug boat guiding our ferry in.

25th September 2024 at 06:49 - Damian

On Monday we attempted to walk the Northern Path with cousin(ish) Andrew. Starting at Wellington Station and ending in Johnsonville. 17km.

But Sally got a flat tyre on the way around Oriental Parade so we had a cronut at Uncle Leo's Bakery instead.

Replaced the inner tube back at the van and cycled to Andrew's place for pizza dinner.

25th September 2024 at 06:05 - Damian

Yesterday we cycled to a tour of Wētā Workshop in Miramar. It's correctly pronounced 'weytaa'. The way we have been pronouncing it means poo.¹

In the morning we also dropped in on Sally's cousin Michael to check out his workshop where he runs a small EV classic car conversion company. Pretty cool.

Awesome kebab from Kilim in Petone!

1. https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=weta

Hobbit Feet

A converted 1971 MG.

22nd September 2024 at 18:55 - Damian

Last night we parked up in Evans Bay Marina in Wellington so that we could meet with a friend to walk a section of the Te Araroa. Our preference would have been to base ourselves in Ngati Toa Domain up in Paremata but with train line maintenance and strikes it was all just too hard. Evans Bay is only 20 minutes bike ride around the waterfront to the CBD.

We're going to base ourselves here until Wednesday when we sail to Picton.

Today we walked 10km from Oriental Parade to Island Bay.