We spent Wednesday night in Timaru. We ate cheap - and American -
Burger King!
We headed out of Timaru on Thursday morning with the goal of skirting around
Christchurch and get as far as Kaikoura, where we had spent our first night on the
south island.
We stopped in a small diner for lunch and were pleased to find these meat pies.
New Zealand is known for their meat pies and these were some of the best
we had on our trip so far.
The scenery changed a lot during our trip today, rolling meadows,
snow capped mountains and then the seashore!
These snow capped mountains sit above Kaikoura.
The temperature on our level was in the 70's.
We spent Thursday night back at the Clearview Motel with
Terry and Bon Thompson. We got the room on March 2nd for $95
after negotiating with Terry. When we pulled up this time, Bon came over
to greet us. I told her we had been here a week earlier, and wondered if we
could have our "old" room back - pointing to it. Bon told me that the room
was already booked for the night but we could have the one next to it. I said "Ok,
we paid $95 for that room. She gave me a quick shake of the head, and said "Oh,
I have to get a little more for this room, it is bigger" So I said "Ok, how about $100?
She gave me another shake of the head! I said "well, that is a "little" more that $95".
She shook her head again and said "I usually get $145 for this room! I shook my head and
said "How about $105?" To make a long story short, we settled on $115.
When Terry showed up to greet us, I told him that his wife was a lot tougher to deal with.
He just gave me a big smile!
Kaikoura is an neat little tourist town. Lots of gift shops and restaurants. Reg and I
decided on "fish and chips" and found a nice little carry-out restaurant where the food
was great. The owner was from South Africa and had fled his homeland to avoid all
of the violence there. The woman who took our order was from Michigan.
When we got up on Friday morning, our intent was to go to Picton and explore some of the
small towns around the area. We had originally planned to spend two full days in Christchurch
but with the earthquake, we had two days to fill the void. Our reservation for the ferry was
on Sunday. About half way to Picton, I suggested to Reg that maybe we should go
to the ferry and see if we could go back today. He was in agreement so off we went.
This would save us a few days on meals and hotels. We got to the ferry around 11:30 a.m.
and they could fit us on the 1:10 p.m. trip.
We got into Wellington about 4:00 p.m. and by the time we unloaded it was 4:45 p.m.
The traffic going north out of Wellington was horrendous. In the meantime, Reg had tried
to call his daughter Cheryl who lives in Waiouru. Waiouru is about half way between Wellington
and Reg's home in Rotorua. It was getting darker and my night-time driving is not good, and when you
add curvy roads and driving on the wrong side of the road, it was down-right dangerous. Reg
started driving, and no offense Reg, this was not a good situation.
Fortunately, Cheryl called us back and insisted that we spend the night with her in Waiouru.
We arrived safely and met Cheryl's husband Craig, and their teenage children India and Mickey.
Craig is the operations manager for contract work at the Waiouru Military Training Camp.
The Waiouru Training facility consists of 63,000 hectares, which converts to 156,000 acres.
Most of the land within the training camp is used for live fire training. This live fire training has been
going on here since the 1930's. The area is off limits because of safety reasons. Safety reasons
including what is currently going on there and also because of 70 years of not all shells exploding
and the possibility of that happening!
Craig told us of a unique opportunity to tour the camp as a fund raiser for the earthquake
victims in Christchurch. The tour was co-sponsored by a 4 x4 club. Craig told us it
was probably a once in a lifetime experience. What the heck! I only have one lifetime!
So off we went with Craig on Saturday morning on a day-long tour of the Waiouru Military Training
Camp. There were about 70 vehicles involved in the tour, led my Major Pat Hibbs, Chief
Operations officers for the camp.
The land at the Military Training facility was vast and
changed elevation and topography a lot as we wound our
way through the property on gravel roads in four wheel drive vehicles.
Caravan of 4 x4 vehicles
Snow-capped mountains in the distance
The Military Training grounds were once used as grazing land
for sheep and cattle. This a cabin used by the sheep herders during
the first part of the 1900's.
The land was beautiful, reminded me of the deserts of Arizona.
Great elevation changes.
The topography changed from dessert like conditions to lush areas so
thick it would be difficult to hike in.
We stopped for lunch about half way through the day.
There are approximately 350 Kaimanawa wild horses within the training area.
The Department of Conservation is responsible for the management of the herd
with the New Zealand Army only managing the ground on which they roam.
organizations involved in adoption agreements.
Lake Moawhango Dam was constructed on the military grounds in the
1970's to form Lake Moawhango. The lake is part of greater Tongarior Power
scheme and feeds water collected off the training area northwards through a 19.2 km
long tunnel. The system operates a 2 mw generator. The presence of a number
of unexploded ammunition or "blinds" make fishing on the lake less than a relaxing sport!
Lake Moawhango
Spillway behind the dam
The water level gets high enough in the springtime to overflow
the top of the spillway on the dam.
At the end of the day, an area was provided on the military grounds for
the 4 x 4 junkies to try to make it across swampy areas. Of course,
they all got stuck!
Lots of 4 x 4 testosterone present here!
At the end of the day, all were pulled out of the mud and a fun
day enjoyed by all!
We spent Saturday night with Craig and Cheryl. We met some good friends of
theirs - Rick and Greta. Rick is sheep and cattle farmer with thousands of acres and
thousands of head of sheep. Greta is a pharmacist. We had a great dinner cooked by both
Craig and Cheryl.
After a great Sunday morning brunch cooked by Craig, we were off to Rotorua
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