Akitio and Porangahau

 There was rain and high winds overnight during our last night at Pongaroa, leaving me feeling a little uneasy with the stand of large trees towering over our caravan.  Luckily nothing untoward happened in the dead of night, and we awoke unscathed.  The weather hadn't improved at all, and Farmer Paul who looks after the camp, called around to collect the fees.  It was a 46km trip to our next stop, Akitio.  Along the way we noticed a lot of damage to roads, edges crumbling away and many cones in place after a bad storm.  Looks like there is a lot of repairs  still to be done.

There was major work being done on a hill side adjacent to the road in one area, seems there must have been a huge slip there and work was being done to stabilize the hill face.  There were two diggers hard at work, one down low and the other right up the top of the hill.  I guess all the recent rain would not be helping with the hill work.  The Stop-Go man wasn't standing out in the rain getting wet, instead he was tucked up nice and dry in the ute with his sign close to hand, and waved us on after getting radio instructions from the other end of the road works.

Hard at work in the rain

Driving over the long one-way bridge across the Akitio River we reached our destination.  

Crossing the Akitio River

 The area was originally dominated by two estates, the Marainanga Estate of 38,000 acres and the Akitio Estate of 50,000 acres.  The region has been partitioned and subdivided over the years, with the Akitio Estate now at 9,000 acres is still the largest in the area.  This is a sheep and beef farming district and the small town has a school, volunteer fire brigade, a motor camp and a freed camping area by the beach.

Welcome to Akitio

The weather was not kind to us during our stay here.  The beach was on side, and we were parked across the road from the volunteer fire brigade.  Luckily the siren did not go off during the middle of the night.

Akitio volunteer fire brigade

We found ourselves a site on the grassy freedom camping area, plenty of room here for our group.  Water, rubbish bins and a toilet block was available.

Camping at the beach

Dave and Deb joined us here in their campervan, as well as Stuart, who arrived to join his wife Helen.  We told Stuart how well Helen had been doing towing the van on her own, not something I personally would be able to do, I'm sure.  The beach, just out our door,  was covered in driftwood.  

Akitio beach

Morning tea sheltering between the vans, 

It was just one night here, so we packed up and set off again, to arrive at Te Paerahi Beach, Porangahau.  We backtracked part of the way, and then continued on, driving over multiple roadworks, the result of Cyclone Gabrielle which caused such a lot of damage about 18 months ago. 

 Along the way we stopped at the site of "The longest Placename in New Zealand".  There is a nice large area to pull off the road, and we discovered that self contained vans can stay stay for a night or two - we didn't know that.

That's a very long name indeed

The name translates to "The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as land eater, played his nose flute to his loved one".  The story goes that Tamatea was so grieved over the loss of his brother that he stayed at the battle site for some days.  Each morning he would sit on the hill and play a lament on his flute.

Te Paerahi Beach was another freedom camping area, not one we had stayed at before.  A toilet block was available, plus a drinking fountain, but no tap water available to top up the vans.  There were other vans there too, but still plenty of room for our seven vans.

The wide sandy beach was beautiful, and most of us strolled along it during our stay here.  There were no piles of driftwood cluttering up this beach, unlike the previous one we stayed at.

Te Paerahi Beach, Pongaroa

Three Days in Gore

Time to move on again, so it was goodbye to Manapouri and we headed down SH94 to Gore, 140km trip.  On the way we saw plenty of examples of the farmers “making hay while the sun shines”.  Just as well, as the rain came down later in the day, luckily it is all baled up and covered in plastic wrap.

We had stayed at Gore previously at the A & P Showgrounds, and this time thought we would try a different venue.  So here we are at the Gore Town and Country Club.  It’s a little snug when full, but very good value at $15 a night for a power site.

Gore Town and Country Club

The club restaurant was open that night,  Sunday, but closed the following two nights.  So we decided we would go over for a meal, and hopefully a Sunday Roast would be on the menu.  Sorry, no roast tonight, we were told, so we had a look at the menu and thought again.  Robin chose a steak, no surprises there, but I decided I couldn't face a big main  meal.  So I went with fish chowder (yes, once more) and an entrée of crumbed prawns.  It was all so delicious.

Dinner at T & C Club Restaurant

Gore is an attractive town with tree lined streets and pretty parks.  Named after Governor Gore Browne, it is Southland's second largest town.   It lies on the banks of the Mataura River, famed for its brown trout and is  known as  New Zealand's capital of country music and  the world's capital of brown trout fishing.

Gore, famous for country music and brown trout fishing

Generations of New Zealand children grew up eating Flemings Creamoata porridge for breakfast.  The Flemings "Creamoata Mill" is an iconic local building in town.  Production of all products was moved to Australia in 2001, and Creamoata was discontinued in 2008 after declining sales.  The building's famous "Sgt Dan" remains because rights to it have been purchased by the buildings current owner "Sgt Dan Stockfoods Ltd”, and the  building has a Category I listing with Heritage New Zealand.

Sgt Dan standing tall

We went out exploring one afternoon, driving an oval shaped route from Gore and back through the countryside, a road we hadn’t previously traveled on.  And goodness me, on reaching Clinton we discovered this sign, we had just driven along the Presidential Highway!

This stretch of highway between Clinton and Gore acquired unexpected fame in the 1990s when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were respectively president and vice-president of the United States. When Clinton visited New Zealand in 1999, a photograph of the road sign was presented to him by the United States ambassador, Josiah Beeman.

How about that!

The hot weather has moved on for a while, and we have wet and windy conditions for a few days, it seems.  That is certainly a change from those extra hot temperatures we have been experiencing lately.

Three nights in Blenheim

Where to from Koromiko?  We spent the next three nights at Blenheim, at Waterlea Racecourse CAP (charges apply parking).  Although not an NZMCA camp, it is only available to NZMCA members, at $12.00 per night, with a maximum stay of four nights, but is not available during race meetings.  We have stayed here before in the past, and remembered that parts of the grounds were flooded and Robin had to use our 4WD to pull out a motorhome which was stuck in the mud.   As it was raining heavily the day we arrived, we took care to keep away from the suspect areas. 

After choosing a site, settling in, and paying our camp fees, we had a quick lunch then set out to find a laundromat.  May as well spend a couple of hours doing the laundry on such a wet day, we reasoned.  The laundromat was busy, and one customer came in and commandeered five large washing machines!  She did mention that her machine at home had broken down and a  new one was not available till well after Christmas.  Seems she will be looking forward to many more visits while waiting for her new machine to arrive.

Then we remembered there was a Coupland's bakery close by – always exciting as the nearest Coupland's to us at home is many miles away up in Hamilton.  Purchasing  a Kiwi Cash Key from the information Centre was next.  We don’t need it at the moment but well may do so as we travel around.

The rain had departed the following day and I climbed up the grandstand to take a photo or two.  We are there in the crowd somewhere.

View from the grandstand

Our next door neighbours were keen e-bikers and had a little kiddie cart to take their Jack Russell terrier Tammy with them on trips.  Tammy was securely buckled in, and away they went for a morning ride.On their return they mentioned they had ridden 60km, that’s a long ride indeed.

Ready for a ride

A flick through the local visitor guide gave us a few places to check out.  “A Marlborough institution, the Burleigh Gourmet Pie is an absolute must-taste”.  Robin is always a fan of a great pie, so we drove out to Renwick to check it out.  The place was so busy, customers arriving, then departing with armfuls of pies.  One lady had gathered up about two dozen frozen pies, and told me she was a regular customer and liked to have a good supply in the freezer.  We decided on frozen pies as well, two for tea that night, and the other two for the freezer for a meal later on.  We chose chicken, leek and mushroom, and belly pork pies.  When we called in, the list of pies already had “sold out” stickers on several varieties, it is such a popular place.

Burleigh Gourmet Pies

Lunch in a classic English Pub “where you can be sure of a warm welcome” sounded like fun, so we stopped at the quaintly named Cork and Keg.

Stepping inside, we were warmly welcomed indeed.  With thick ceiling beams, a large brick fireplace, and plenty of brass and jugs everywhere, the Cork and Keg certainly had an English country pub ambiance.  We placed our lunch orders, and sat out in the beer garden, sheltered with plenty of sun umbrellas and a large sun shade.

Our lunches arrived, popcorn shrimp for me, and buffalo wings for him, and Robin indulged in a large glass of Guinness.  I’m not really a beer drinker but I can remember having the occasional small Guinness myself when we traveled around Ireland some years ago – it seemed the thing to do at the time!

Lunch at the Cork and Keg

What’s that sign we spotted?  Fresh strawberries were for sale – just what we needed.  Not only that, but strawberry snow freeze ice-creams too.  The car park was packed, and happy customers sat outside licking their ice-creams.  And if they were anything like me, trying to finish the ice-cream before it all melted and ran down my hand.

That’s a very big strawberry!

Hedgerows Strawberries is a very large hydroponic operation with a huge glass house that seemed to go on and on. With thousands of strawberry plants growing happily inside.

Hedgerows Strawberries

Driving around this area we passed vineyard after vineyard.  The Marlborough region is very well known for producing fine wines, and there are many well known labels produced here.  For wine lovers, there are plenty of wine tasting tours available. 

 

Vineyards galore

While driving along we spotted a couple of these interesting signs on an undulating roads.  Be careful in bad weather!

Drivers beware

80th Birthday Lunch

With an 80th Birthday to celebrate with our Super Leisure friends, we set off on the 160km (round trip) journey to Silverstream.  Road works on the top of Haywards Hill held us up  - thank goodness for cell phones to be able to communicate with our hosts so they didn't worry about our slightly late arrival.  After a meet and greet, and a cuppa, it was time to head out for lunch, to Luanne’s Bistro in Trentham.  This establishment has had many guises over the years, as a Cobb and Co, and the Game Keeper, and now as Luanne’s.

Time for lunch

What to order always involves lots of pondering and discussion, and we all seemed to pick a different dish.  From belly pork, to lamb shanks, corn fritters, beef and Guinness pie and an open steak sandwich.  All very tasty indeed, and it certainly quietened our table down while we were busy eating.

Sign in the restaurant

Fully sated, we then went back to Helen and Calvin’s home for coffee and birthday cake.  How delicious it was too, a yummy Black Forest Gateau.  Helen blew the candles out, and it was remarked that it was just as well she didn’t have to deal with 80 candles, as she probably wouldn't have managed!

Blowing out the candles

All too soon the afternoon was over and we had to think about traveling home.  Spotted a sign on the road leading over the Paekakariki Hill which is narrow and winding, telling truckers to “Ignore Sat Nav, road unsuitable for long vehicles”.  This would apply to motor homes and caravans too of course.  Obviously trucks had been taking tis road and got into difficulties.

Never seen this sign before

We turned onto the Pauahatanui Inlet Road then drove up the coast along SH1. Kapiti Island was covered in haze, so it wasn’t very clear at all, and the sea was running a little rough.

Kapiti Island

We made much better time returning home, with no hold ups along the way.  There are always plenty of roadworks happening, including this ramp being built to link up eventually with an over bridge.  These things take time, as they say.

There was no need to cook a big meal after our hearty lunch, so it was something light to eat while we sat and watched the evening news.  It was a lovely day out, catching up with our SLG friends, and wishing Helen well on her Big Birthday.

Cape Palliser

I must admit that I found a portion of the drive around to Cape Palliser a little challenging.  Wouldn’t you if you came across these road signs?  So we slowed right down, taking our time as we drove along this part of the road, well aware that the seaward side of the road had been falling into the sea, taking some of the coastal homes with it.

Once past the active slip, the cliffs were bare and crumbly, starkly beautiful in their own way.  Then it was around the coastal road to our POP for the night, we were staying on a rather windswept farm. Cape Palliser is the southernmost point of the North Island, and believe it or not, is in fact considerably farther south than either Nelson or Blenheim in the South Island.

Driving around to Cape Palliser

We all slotted into the paddock, trying to keep our van doors on the leeward side of the fierce wind.  Not that it really mattered, as the wind blew from the other side the next day.  Some hardy sheep wandered by, not at all bothered by these strange white vehicles in their paddock, and beef cattle grazed over the fence.

All hunkered down in the wind

A bit of clever parking with motor homes in a circle created an area sheltered from the wind.  During Happy Hour Bill and Val had us all play the “Money Game” for the grand outlay of 3 X 20 cent pieces.  Depending on the roll of three wooden marked dice, our 20 cent pieces were either passed left or right, kept, or put into the kitty.  It was a lot of fun, with Cathy being the eventual winner.

Cathie with her winnings

“Fish and Chips with a difference” was on the menu for dinner, ably cooked by Becky of Coastal Cove Cuisine, who brought her mobile kitchen with her to our campsite.  How’s that for great service!  Lovely battered fish, crunchy chips, coleslaw and tartare sauce were served, together with bread and butter produced by Bill, all enjoyed outside in the fresh sea air.  What could be nicer!

Al Fresco dining

The hills behind us took on a golden glow as the sun started to go down.  We had high hopes for a spectacular sunset, but that wasn’t to be, despite several of us looking out to sea with cameras in our hands, waiting…..  Perhaps we will have more luck the following evening.