The Motutapu camp at Administration Bay is an ex-WW2 military facility that is now used mostly by school groups for outdoor education. When it is not full of school kids, members of the public can book the old barracks for group events. One of Felicity’s colleagues has a great love of the island, and decided to hold a weekend party to celebrate her 50th birthday.
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Tag: walk
Awhitu and Manukau Heads
Even though we knew there was rain forecast this weekend we decided to spend a couple of nights at Awhitu Regional Park and go for a kayak.
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Kaikoura – Picton
After lunch in Kaikoura, we had a wander along the beach and over the rocky foreshore. There is a seal colony here, but the seals were heavily outnumbered by tourists. We had considered going for a kayak, or perhaps even a snorkel, but the weather was overcast and windy, so the sea was not very inviting.
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Mt Grey
I drove into Christchurch city on Monday morning to catch up with a long-time associate from a father’s support group I am involved with. I was a bit concerned about rush-hour traffic, but by Auckland standards the streets were practically deserted.
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Bridal Path to Lyttelton
On our way to Christchurch we stopped at Oxford for a night to visit our friends Jeremey and Noeleen. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon and evening catching up, then walked over the road to the local farmer’s market in the morning.
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Moeraki
In the town of Moeraki, just south of the famous boulders, we found a commercial camp-ground overlooking the wharf. If the weather had been a bit clearer we might have been able to see the boulders as well, but the view was limited by the low cloud.
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Trotter’s Gorge
It started raining again as we left Central Otago and drove out towards the coast. We parked up for a while in Ranfurly where there was internet available, but we weren’t tempted to stray far from the van.
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Lake Paringa
By the time we re-joined the highway at Fox Glacier we were ready for lunch, so we sat in the hotel carpark eating and doing a bit of work while we had internet available. There is no cellphone coverage south of Fox until you reach Hawea on the other side of the Southern Alps.
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Gillespies Beach
20 kilometres along a winding metal road out of Fox Glacier is Gillespies Beach. When Felicity was a teenager she and a friend rode all the way out and back on bikes, which is very impressive because this would be a big mission for me now. She has wanted to return ever since, so here we are.
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Franz Joseph
It is only a short trip from Okarito to Franz Joseph, so we arrived in time for lunch, which we ate parked in the main street. We did some shopping while we were there, and visited the information centre to ask about guided walks on the glacier.
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Hari Hari
Heavy rain forecast for Friday made us decide to hang around Hokitika so that we could get some work done using the wifi in their public library. The Motor Caravan Association has a campsite just across the bridge from town, so we found ourselves a spot there.
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Constant Bay
Just south of Westport is Charleston, which used to be bustling town with a population of 30,000 people. It was also once the demographic centre of New Zealand, ie: 50% of the countries population lived south of it. Nowadays there are less than 300 permanent residents, and the demographic centre is probably somewhere near Hamilton.
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Denniston and Cape Foulwind
We visited Denniston back in Easter after walking the Old Ghost Road, but our hostess convinced us that we had barely scratched the surface of this old coal mining area so we drove up the hill after breakfast this morning. Lerey is friends with Gary and Sylvia James who are some of few people that still live up there, so she rang to find out if the Friends Of The Hill museum was open – which it was.
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Millerton
Up a winding road from Granity on NZ’s west coast is the old coal mining town of Millerton. Like its much more famous neighbour Denniston, it had an incline which allowed wagons of coal to be lowered down to the railway along the coast.
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Six Mile Hydro Matakitaki
About ten kilometres south of Murchison is the site of New Zealand’s oldest hydro power station. We had stopped in town to do some shopping and visit the information centre and it sounded like an interesting place to visit.
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Kaniwhaniwha and Pukemokemoke
We were sorry to have missed the last Indian Ink Theatre Company production, so we decided to attend the opening night of their new play, The Elephant Thief. This meant an overnight trip to the Waikato, because the Meteor Theater is in Hamilton.
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Riccarton Christchurch
Since we are attending the NZ Skeptics conference in Christchurch this weekend, we decided to fly down a day early and spend some time checking out how the earthquake recovery is going. Last time I was here the central city was intact, so I was interested to see how much things have changed.
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Gloucester
On our way back to Oxford we stopped off to visit Gloucester Cathedral, which people have told us is one of the best examples in the country.
Culloden and Findhorn
This morning we visited Culloden Moor, site of the last battle on British soil, where the Jacobite reballion was put down by the English.
Loch Eriboll
Today we have been exploring the Scottish district of Sutherland, in the far north-west corner of the country. It is so named not because the Scots are geographically challenged, but because this area was once part of a Norse empire.
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