We left home December 27 to take our daughter Rebecca to Christchurch and drop her off with some friends in the central city. Enroute we stopped at the old Cup N Saucer tearooms at the north end of the Waimate SH1 turnoff. It was a scorching day, too good to sit insde so we had a coffee on the shady veranda.  Ever onwards, the next stop as Ashburton to give LW Lily White ( our dog ) a rest stop, then finally Chch and deliver Rebecca to her friends address. Then we turned south to Weedons where we stayed the night, by chance, parked next to a family that had just bought a 12 week old puppy, the same breed as our LW.

The following morning, the start of another beautiful day, we drove towards the Alps, through Darfield, Glentunnel where we branched off to White Cliffs. Id recently finished a book Station Life in NZ by Lady Barker and was keen to see the valley she had lived in. The station is still there but I imagine the old sod house is long gone. Not so the hills behind, which carries her name, the Lady Barker range.

Satisfied, we travelled to Methvan stopping for a look around and coffee at he quirky Primo E Secundo cafe'. The town hosted a hot rod meet the day before, some of the vehicles were still about, we saw more of them when we stopped at the Mt Hutt Lodge carpark enroute to Lake Coleridge.  Carrying on, we took the Harper Road, travelling all the way to the top of the lake and the Harper River Diversion, where we stopped an hour or two for lunch.

Backtracking, we turned off on the Lyndon Road finally stopping at the head of the Lake Lyndon too chat with a few campers parked there for the holidays. The weather had cooled down and become quite cloudy, so we didn't stay to long before heading to the West Coast Road, over Porters pass then stopping the night at the very reasonable Kowai Pass Reserve campground, 1km east of Springfield.


 

 

Next morning, another blue sky day, we drove to Sheffield, stopping for some world famous Sheffied Pies. Not having an oven in the Motorhome, we put them in the freezer to eat at home in a few weeks time. Following the inland route our next stop was Raikia Gorge Domain where we talked to the campground caretaker a while, then did some of the walkway above the gorge bridge. Next stop was Methvan, to look over the art display at their newly built iSite building, no time the day before you see. Then a slow cruise down the Inland Route (SH77) stopping for a look see at Mt Somers, then afternoon tea at Mayfield and the quirky, bovine themed, Udder Dairy.  We thought about staying the night at Peel Forest but ended up at a very nice POP just out of Geraldine. A miniature camping ground in fact, nice owners, pet friendly too.

It cooled down late that afternoon, so no surprise when the misty cool morning turned into light drizzle as we drove to Tekapo. Stopping for a rest and look about Tekapo, I saw the township is fundraising for a pedestrian bridge between the township and the Church of the Good Sheppard. I saw a few freedom campers here, brazenly parking their tents less than a stones throw from the hotels. Another parked in between some pine trees at the waters edge. Clearly no hassling officialdom in this town.

After an hour or so we carried on south to Twizel, visiting friends at Ruataniwha Camp ground, then looking over the town, stopping at The Club POP for the night. We had a very nice meal at The Club, beautiful Blue Cod in light batter, moist and bursting with flavour, highly recommended. As we returned to the HM, another pulled up and out came two little Chihuahua's eager to meet and play with LW.






 

Next morning, we headed away to Omarama, stopping for a look around, then through the Lindis Pass stoping to visit friends camping at the Landrover Club site at the southern end of the valley, near Cluden hill. They weren't there unfortunately. While I was off to check out the site, with LW free to roam. unfortunately two dogs came to investigate LW, who took off at a great rate of knots. I could see the rest of our holidays calling out for her throughout the Lindis valley, but she had returned to our MH, hiding underneath, waiting our return.

From there we carried on to Wanaka, spending the ext 4-5 days sitting under the shady trees at the beach front, occasionally tripping to Hawea and Johns Creek reserve at Gladstone. We stayed a few nights at my favourite campsite, Albert Town Reserve. A few years back I mentioned the friendly ducks at this site, waking campers in the early morning seeking bread titbits. The family have expanded to at least half a dozen hangers on and the next generation in training. The little ducklings coming to within an easy arms reach, hence the close ups.

Our last day was spent sitting idly around Lowburn arm at the side of Lake Dunstan, staying overnight at the Collie Dog Club grounds along with a dozen or so other campers. Finally on the 4th Jan we left for home, looking forward to our next holiday, a lap of Mt Egmont, the Mt Manganui & Auckland this Easter .