Heading South

It's been a busy time since we travelled South in the first week of December; hence no blogger posts - but they're on the list of things to do and they are a WIP (Work in Progress).

In the meantime to bring you up to date:   We left Ngakuta Bay in the Marlborough Sounds at 9.30am on 23 January 2024, having spent nearly four weeks there with family over the Christmas/New Year period.  We're now on the road heading for a overnight stop at Ealing (near Geraldine).  

We stopped off at Cheviot for lunch and then took a 15-20 minute detour out to Gore Bay on the coast.  Lovely beach, clean and tidy public toilets, smallish campground and an eye catching fence between the road and the beach hung with handwritten/decorated beach stones.  

There are quite a few quirky fences around NZ, but three we've personally seen are:  the bra fence near Cardrona, (apparently rebranded as “Bradrona” in 2015), a bike fence just out of Alexandra and a toothbrush fence near Pirongia - to name three of many!  If you go to  Stuff.co.nz you can find out more about NZ's quirky fences.

Anyways, back to reality:  it seems the lovely summer days we've had in the Sounds gave up on us today around Waipara, followed us down to Ashburton and continued until we reached Ealing at 5.30pm.  Ealing NZMCA POP (Park Over Property #7861] is a small park [70 vehicles max] set in an old churchyard,  Self- containment is the key as there are no facilities, but it's within half an hour drive north to Ashburton and a half hour drive south to Geraldine.  

Geraldine is where we caught up with Wendy McCormick, a lovely friend and fellow caravanner from previous years.  After lunch we had a quick trip to Barkers of Geraldine; said our goodbyes to Wendy and after a short reconnaissance mission to the Rangitata River Mouth, back to the caravan for our last night at Ealing.  Off to Tekapo tomorrow!