Labour Weekend 2011Click a picture to see a larger view.
We left home Friday evening, in light rain/drizzle, heading for
Oamaru. With little traffic, we made good time arriving just on dusk. Stopped at
the Star & Garter for dinner. A themed restaurant in that they have pictures of
wedding receptions back to the 1920s. Interesting to see how the styles changed
through the decades. Before dinner, I took Lily White on a walk,
discovering a riverside walk which went from the train station to the wharf and
return.
After dinner we drove into Oamaru Racecourse, hoping to spend the night, but
Helen spotted a No Dogs sign, so we turned around and headed up the road to
Duntroon and parked on a riverbank, just meters away from the high and dirty
Waitaki.
We woke up at 6:30, Helen took LW for a walk, when she returned I did the same,
checking out the
Duntroon Domain camping ground and back streets of the community. About
9am we headed towards Omarama, taking in a back road detour to view Campbell
Park Estate. We only caught a glimpse of the stately home through the trees, the
community surrounding it must have been reasonably large judging by the number
of houses about. It was all marked private property so we looked no further.
Arrived in Omarama about 1030, the sun finally breaking through the clouds.
Walked the familiar streets, had a coffee, then headed to Twizel. Stopped to see
a few friends there, looked over the town centre, then drove to the shores of
Lake Pukaki where we parked up for the night. I took LW out during the moonless
night, there were thousands and thousands of stars on view, no trouble spotting
the Pleiades, which is almost impossible from home.
An overcast morning, do we take the road to South Canterbury as planned or head
to Albert Town. The coast seemed clagged in low cloud, so away to sunny central
we went.. Stopped off to see the old
Lindis Hotel ruins but couldn’t make it across the
high and dirty river, will leave that for Xmas time.
Tarras was the next stop,
looked over the small arcade of stores, goodness me, a tee shirt selling for
only $250, time to leave and quick!
We thought about staying at the Tavern POP, but the DoC park over the river
looked much more appealing, so we found a quiet spot close to the river and relaxed
in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. Well, I did a few short walks with LW but it
was getting almost too hot to do the full 8km return tracks. A sunny Monday
morning, we did an hours walk along the newly opened Elfin Bay track, then went
into a much cooler Wanaka for a fossick through the shops, finally heading for
home at midday. A very nice weekend.
Highlights for me were the starry vista in the early hours and the beautiful
locations of Pukaki and Albert Town.