Indeed up north to Oamaru for a night then up to Hanmer Springs for a night before a two night stay in Murchison. We are pretty much just making our way to the top of the south island where we haven’t been before.
Steady run up to Oamaru and an old Hotel is the base tonight – Empire Hotel BP. Very nice it was too big and roomy in quite an interesting town leaning towards the victorian era. You can imagine who this pleased. Oooooh yes, Mrs D was well pleased. We dined out in another hotel which did Victorian B & B, serving you breakfast in a lovely victorian room which you could look at. Good food, beer and victoriana was enjoyed.
The penguin set up here was a little different. It was an enclosed area near the harbour and nests had been built into the hillside for the little guys to come and go from. These are not endangered but under a conservation scheme to ensure they don’t become so.
Again as before the chicks appeared first lookin for some grub, with the parents coming just after dusk in rafts of 10 to 12 at a time. The sea was choppy, the waves were crashing, they are only 23cms tall and it was amazing they got to land at all. However they did and it was once again a wonderful sight. Unfortunately due to the usual minority, photos and video were not allowed due to folks using flash and upsetting the penguins. Understandable but a little disappointing.
We wandered back to the digs in the dark via the old harbour to the sound of penguin feeding time all around – wonderful…….
Another moving on day, this time to Hanmer Springs, a resort built on a thermal hot spring. We visited here last time but the weather was not too good. This time the weather is hot and relaxing a hot pool around 40 dgs sounds like a good idea???? The BP here is excellent, run by the French and topically called Le Gite.
The run up was let’s say interesting as we decided to take the inland scenic route up to avoid Christchurch. It was very beautiful but sadly very long. We racked up 425kms today and a chipping crack in our windscreen. It went with a right bang as we heard it when a 4 wheel drive passed us in the other direction at break neck speed. Like the UK all council funds have to be spent before the end of March to get them again next year. Here at this time everywhere you go there are roads being resealed (resurfaced in’t UK.) You can imagine the dust and chippings. Oh well, on we go.
The stay at Hanmer was very good and the local house cat – Janet – was very entertaining. After a good soak in the varoius sulpher and mineral based pools we decided to get out as we were in danger of shrivelling away – well past dried prune stage!!
The next day we were heading for Murchison and back onto two night stops. Also it was not a long a drive!! The good news at the moment is that we have lost the sand flies!!!!
Pix are from top - birds and buildings in Oamaru and the Rakaia river.
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