This is the last post I'm going to be making on this blog. I can hear a collective sigh going up from around the world :) I don't think I'm about to take a career change into writing, but before you get toooo comfortable, I am considering one addendum page. We shall see.
Anyway, since my last post Duncan and I have had what I think was the perfect end to our time in New Zealand. We started off on our travels almost 3 months ago, in South Africa, with my dear friend Paula and while we have spent a lot of time fending for ourselves since then, it was such a joy to spend our last 2 days with a very old Grossart friend: Anne Weschenfelder, and her daughter Amelia and boyfriend Sam. Long ago, before living in Halsmere, where Duncan grew up, the Grossarts lived in Yorkshire, and were great friends with the Weschenfelder family. Anne was the same age as - and best friends with - Jacqui, Duncan's older sister who tragically died in a riding accident at the age of 41, 14 years ago. Jacqui had visited Anne in New Zealand not long after she had emigrated, and was considering moving there herself, so spending these last few days with Anne wasn't only a lovely (re)connection with her, but with Duncan's lost sister too.
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| Surf's up dude! |
We arrived at Anne and her partner's gorgeous house in Herbert Forest (which is actually in a forest - it's not just a name) in time for dinner. Amelia is a great cook and after a tour of the extensive grounds we settled in for dinner and wine on the deck. Lots of catching up and chatting to do led to a late night. Luckily for us, the Weschenfelder's aren't early risers, and while Anne had a big weekend planned, we went at a fairly leisurely pace, leaving for their bach in Kakanui around 11am. The bach is on the beach, which is deserted apart from a few dog walkers and surfers, and Anne's plan was for us to join them in the water. Wet suits donned out in relatively appropriate sizes, boogie boards velcro-ed to our wrists, we clambered down to the beach (for those wearing tighter wetsuits it was more of a John Wayne walk than clamber). Amelia headed straight in through the surf so we had no option but to follow and copy. Neither of us had ever boogie boarded before; basically you force yourself and your board through the oncoming waves, including the breaks, until you're out just ahead of the break (which, by the way, is in my view quite big). Then, when you see a big roller coming you turn around to face the shoreline, grab onto the board, hauling your chest up on it and ride the crest of the wave back towards the shore, trying not to be smacked off it and smashed around as if you're inside a washing machine. It's brilliant fun when you get it right, and utterly exhausting trying to hang on when you don't. Both of us loved it.
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| Fleur's Place |
We couldn't spend too long in the water, as D&I had booked a local intsitution, Fleur's Place in Moeraki, for lunch. Quick showers, and off we went. Fleur's Place is apparently almost impossible to get a table, but I'd somehow been lucky enough to book one on only a few days notice. It's beautifully situated on the water, and looks like a ramshackle barn, but the food is divine. Plates of fish and some really indecent puddings, and we even had a lovely chat with 78 year old Fleur, who is an institution in her own right. (Thank you Duncan at Mount Edward vineyard for the recommendation!) Since we were in Moeraki, we had to go and see the Moeraki Boulders, which are huge, perfectly spherical boulders, each weighing several tonnes and up to two metres high. Scientists explain the boulders as calcite concretions formed about 65 million years ago. According to Maori legend, the boulders are gourds washed ashore from the great voyaging canoe Araiteuru when it was wrecked upon landfall in New Zealand hundreds of years ago.
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| Views of Oamaru |
On Sunday we all jumped in the pick-up to go to the local town, Oamaru. Oamaru is an historic town, and, bizarrely, the steampunk HQ of NZ. It has gorgeous old buildings, many of which are now shops, galleries and cafes, a lovely old centre and market and lots of steampunk features - the playground, random train tracks and engines and more. We spent hours enjoying it, and remembering that with only 10 days til Christmas, we really should buy a few presents! A further amble along an enormous pier, almost getting knocked off by the big waves and walking withing a couple of feet of the hoardes of seagulls and their chicks was all part of the fun, followed by more seal watching a little further up the coast. I have to say, for all the wonders we've seen in New Zealand, if I was to move here, Oamaru would be my first choice.
BBQ for dinner, Duncan and I started the tedious process of packing ourselves back into 1 bag each. What seemed inmpossible at first, slowly started to look more do-able until finally we had managed it. More or less. We still have a couple of bags in Christchurch which we have to pick up on the way back. I'm quite sure we will be well over our total weight limit, but we'll deal with that problem tomorrow.
We said our goodbyes early on Monday morning. We'd had such a relaxing weekend we felt very ready for the journey ahead. We leave Christchurch at 7pm on Monday, and arrive in Gatwick around noon on Tuesday. [Total flight time (not including plane changes and touchdowns): 24 hours.] It's going to be hard swapping long summer days for dark winter ones, but I'm looking forward to coming home. And Christmas. Ding dong. 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
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| Saying goodbye to the Hilux, and New Zealand... |
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