Geraldine to Blenheim

It’s been two weeks since the last posting, and though we have been mainly travelling over roads we have previously travelled, it has been a busy time. We left our home sit in Kaiapoi on the 2nd of August and travelled south to Geraldine stopping at Weedons and Ealing. At Geraldine we stayed the night at Peski’s, a fantastic stop over. The purpose of our trip  was to visit Barkers Store in Geraldine to top up some supplies and to send a package home filled with goodies.

We took this opportunity also to drive past our previous house sit on Te Moana Road to observe some of our animals we looked after. They were looking fantastic. Great memories there. Travelling further down the road we entered  into the exotic forest where we used to exercise the dogs and observed some logging operations.

Hauling the Pine logs up the hill to be loaded onto the logging trucks.

Unloaded and ready for the next. The wire runs from the top of this tower and acoss the gully. The yellow travelling winch is controlled from above and descends the wire to where a couple of workers hook it onto the next log.

From Geraldine, up to Methven where we stayed the night with my great neice and her husband, and were thoroughly spoiled. Lovely meal, sleep in a real bed, and some good company. Methven is close to Mt Bruce, and a cold wind blew down from there. Before we left in the morning we observed some of the sheep being drafted.

The sheep being drafted. They are weighed individually on the scales, and automatically drafted three ways. Correct weight and off to be sold, under weight and back to the paddock to gain some more weight and over weight.

The yards filled with sheep. There are 5,000 on the cropping farm in various paddocks during this period of the year.

Mount Hutt in the early morning. The source of the nasty cold breeze. Before we left Methven we visited Encounter Museum. A very interesting display of activities around the district. Well worth a visit. A final coffee with my great niece and off up towards Blenheim our next home sit where we are at the moment. A short stay before they return on Monday.

On the trip north we stopped at Weedons again, Peketa Beach Motor Camp just south of Kaikoura, Ward Beach and then Blenheim.

On the beach at Peketa looking towards the Seaward Kaikoura Ranges and the road that was so severely damaged in the Kaikoura Earthquake. I was hoping to get some photos of the Banded Dotterals here where they nest but none to be seen. Probably all gone north for the winter. Plenty of Black Backed Gulls present and somone had dumped some fish, minus their fillets for the enjoyment of the gulls.

The camp ground is adjacent to the air strip where sight seeing planes and helicoptors leave for the tourists to observe whales and dolphins. The flight path took them right over the camp, both for taking off and landing.

The entrance into the Ward Beach CAP (Charges Apply Parking). Lots of small stones with messages left by previous travellers.

A closer look. Some of the rocks are works of art.

A crayfish boat leaving early morning. A bulldozer is used to launch the boat from a trailer. No wheeled vehicle could manage on the loose stones on the beach.

The beach here was raised during the earthquake and what was once beach is being slowly colonised by hardy plants

Sea life is also slowly returning.

And the surveyers are keeping a close eye on land movement.

And finally we are at Taylors Dam in Blenheim. The dam was built to alleviate flooding in Blenheim and now has this freedom camping area for 10 vehicles. All pretty cramped in I would think. We read up the reports on the NZMCA App which were all good but we found the bird noise which continued all night to be a nuisance and the young hooligan who was practicing his burnouts and donuts on the hill past our van very disturbing. I lay there hoping he would crash and put his activities to a stop, and then lay there hoping he wouldn’t crash into us and put our tripping to a stop. Finally after what seemed to be an hour of mindless activity he grew tired  or maybe thought what his bank balance would look like after replacing his worn tyres, and disappeared into the night. We were left with the raucous bird noise.

Taylors dam is a beautiful area and it does have flush loos.

A couple of the wildlife. A Black Swan and its young. Were these innocent creatures the beasts that kept us awake?

We had a night at the Blenheim Racecourse. They have upped their fee to $12.00 a night per vehicle from $10.00 and included the dump station into the fee. After our last stay here when we returned from a shopping trip into town to find some disreputaple looking people had been sussing our van out, we really don’t feel very comfortable leaving our van unaccompanied there. It will probably be our last stay, unless we decide to do our washing there.

Our last couple of nights we camped at Rita Tuckermans CAP. $5.00 per night per van or $12.00 on power. Nice grassy area and Rita a lovely person. We will be using this area again if we stop here in Blenheim.

We are now half way through this house sit. 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 birds and 2 rabbits. One more house sit planned for three weeks in September. It will probably be our last sit as the temperature is getting warmer.

Yay, spring has sprung, blossom and daffodils.