Venturing out of the campervan, it immediately struck as being the first Autumnal morning so far. There was dew on the ground and a chill in the air as I ventured to the shower block. Last night was predicted to be a mere 7degrees, although it did not feel that cold in the van. Having devoured breakfast and dumped our waste, we were on our way to the supermarket and the butchers to replenish supplies as we did not anticipate reaching Dunedin, our destination for the day, until late this afternoon. With fresh supplies on board, we headed out of Te Anau on the West coast bound for Dunedin on the East coast. On the way out, we past this rather futuristic church on the lakeside. How do you think this would go down as a new design for St Michael’s in Shirley???
Our route took us the reverse way we entered Te Anau, back through Mossburn, then onto Lumsden. From there we stayed on highway 94 through to Gore, an interesting town, which like many others in the area, have a distinct ‘Wild West’ appearance about them. You could almost be driving from Ashbourne to Buxton as the countryside is quite similar in that there are rolling hills with fields littered with sheep. Except here there are thousands of sheep – and cattle – and deer!
The road between Gore and Dunedin is without any doubt the busiest stretch of highway that we have encountered to date.
Again it’s similar to the Buxton Road, in that there are a lot of heavy stock lorries moving sheep & cattle around as well as some huge articulated transport lorries. It’s also difficult to overtake them as the speed limit here on the open road is 100Kph and most of these lorries achieve that speed with ease on flat ground, but struggle up hill. Fortunately, there are overtaking lanes, but they tend to be a good distance apart and often only a couple of vehicles can pass in the space allowed.
Perhaps we have not been paying attention, but today is the first arable farmland that we have seen in New Zealand. I thought we were just about to enter a huge wheat growing area, but we only saw about half a dozen fields that were being harvested. Not sure what the reason is for the lack of arable farming, whether the ground is not suitable or whether it’s too hilly or perhaps it simply isn’t economical.
Stopping for lunch at Balclutha, we’re well ahead of schedule, due mainly to two things. Firstly that the roads are flat and straight,so our average speed is kept up. Secondly, compared to where we have been the scenery is quite ordinary and therefore considerably fewer Kodak moments. That’s not to say that I think Derbyshire scenery is ordinary, but I’m just saying relative to the Southern Alps this route is ordinary.
By just after three o’clock we arrived in Dunedin and all we had to do now was find the campsite. After a quick tour of the city centre we followed our sixth sense and headed out of town and stumbled across the site about 5kms from the city centre. As we parked on our pitch and I got out of the van, I noticed that the front tyre appeared to have a lump of tread missing. We decided to go to the approved tyre repair centre and get it looked at. After careful consideration by the mechanic and a visit from the depot manager, it was decided that the tyre was perfectly safe, so it went back on the van and we returned to the campsite.
As the afternoon was just about over and the glorious sunshine had given way to a more cloudy scenario, we decide to plan the remaining period in South Island and get some bookings in place for when we move to North Island in 10 days time.
Having spent some time working out the final details of our itinerary, it was time for a drink and dinner. On the menu this evening is a chicken Balti, again courtesy of Mr Patek.
With diner out of the way it’s time to write this blog and catch up with any emails. Apologies for the short news day, but it’s been a driving day. More to say tomorrow after a tour of Dunedin.
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