Success is getting what you want; happiness is liking what you get

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Monkey Island via Riverton

A quick call in to the Winton Bakery to purchase a couple of their delicious meat pies for lunch, and we were on our way.  The pretty town of Riverton was our next stop, originally known as Jacob’s River, and settlers started to arrive in the late 1830s.  As the land was cleared flax milling, sawmilling, gold mining and boat building, together with farming and fishing  all flourished.  We stopped and ate our pies at “The Rocks”, a reserve along the coast from the Riverton township.

P3271664 The Rocks Reserve, Riverton

We watched the waves as they rolled into the beach, and a large flock of shags gathered on a nearby rock.

DSCF0176 Shags sunning on the rocks

Our stop for the night was 30km further along to coast to the quaintly named “Monkey Island”, a free camping area, with toilets available.

DSCF0187 Follow that sign

Everybody knows that there are no monkeys in New Zealand, so how did it get it’s name?  In the late 1860s this area had numerous homes, stores, a hotel and a butcher’s shop.  Before the  road from Riverton was formed, a slipway was built at the island so that the cargo from boats could be unloaded.   A “Monkey Winch” was used to haul boats ashore and this is presumably the reason it is called Monkey Island.

DSCF0180 Monkey Island

P3271684A view up the beach

There are only two of us staying at Monkey Island tonight.  Dot and Derek are over-nighting in Invercargill and will rejoin us in a couple of days.

P3271680 Only two of us here tonight

1 comment:

Derek and Dot said...

Hi you two
Interesting to see your parking arrangements tonight. Our neighbour here is the fifth wheeler from Gore:-)