Maureen was first out of bed this morning so it was up to me to unmake the bed, replace it with the breakfast table and get it all ready. Todays forecast had been grim. So imagine the elation when I stepped out the door to be greeted by sunshine. With a spring in my step, I strolled across to the shower block, but on the way, I noticed an old chap asleep outside his caravan. Bit early for sleeping as it’s only about 08.30 in the morning. Oh well never mind. As I turned the corner to the showers; imagine the cold shiver that ran down my spine when I realised that they were unisex!!! Suddenly the thought raced across my mind of not only finding mens M&S smalls, but supposing someone’s left a lacy thong!!! What a dilemma! Should I a) just leave it. b) wait around to see if someone claims it or c) be like Price Charming in Cinderella and go around the site seeing who it fits? Cor – supposing it belonged to either Heidi or Trudi, one of the Swedish girls in the Jucy campervan, next door. Conversely, it might belong to thunder thighs from Bolton, in the van opposite, but that doesn’t bear thinking about. Fortunately the dilemma did not present itself, nothing more than an empty shampoo bottle this morning. As I left the showers, I glanced across at the old boy still asleep - not natural for this time of the day. After breakfast it was necessary to return to the toilet/shower block and he was still fsat asleep. I was now starting to worry. On leaving the shower, a new dilema wqas presenting itself. Should I go and give him a prod to see if he was still with us or leave it to some one else to worry about? With that he awoke from his slumber, shuffled in the chair and went back to sleep. Problem resolved, it was back to the van to decamp.
Our journey today was to be very short, having done Mount Cook yesterday. Just up the road from Omerama is the town of Twizel which we thought we would call in at to kill a bit of time and stock up with a few essential supplies, like a wine etc. Like many towns out in the sticks it took us two passes before we found the centre of town. This morning, we would be returning past the end of Lake Pukaki, so if the weather was good at Mount Cook, we should get a great photo with a reflection of it in the lake. As we approached the viewing area, it was obvious that the weather at Mount Cook was not the same as we were enjoying. It was completely shrouded in heavy cloud and completely invisible.
No sign of Mount Cook Today
However, as the sun was shining where we were, we decided to have brew up and devour the giant muffins that we had bought in the bakers at Twizel. I also took the opportunity to break out the sketch pad for only the second time this holiday. Whilst Mount Cook was nowhere to be seen, the lake and some of the other nearer mountains where just about visible. As we sat drinking, an Australian chap struck up a conversation as he was also sketching and we sat talking for 20 mins or so before moving on. The roads are flat and straight so we made good time in arriving at Lake Tekapo, where we stopped for lunch before heading to our destination of Fairlie. Fairlie is one of those places that you could pass through without realising that have done so, yet you have to go through it to get to most places in this area. The camp site is a quite park location off the main road through town. Not that it needs to be off the main road as only a handful of cars pass through every hour. We strolled through town to the museum and tea shop for afternoon tea.
There were some pictures of the museum contents outside the building and decided that we would just settle for afternoon tea – and very nice it was too. Fairlie is an unassuming, attractive little town, but we have no idea what everyone does or how the empty cafes and coffee shops make a living.
Perhaps it’s really busy in the summer high season and again in the winter, as there are a number of ski resorts around. We ambled back in the afternoon sunshine, got the table and chairs out of the van and relaxed.
We made an executive decision to head straight up to Arthurs Pass (careful how you say that) tomorrow and stay for two nights to enjoy the mountain air. That reminds us, somewhere we have read that the air in Fairlie is the cleanest air in New Zealand!! Arthurs Pass is where the Trans Alpine Railway goes through en route from Christchurch to Greymouth and back again. Hopefully, the weather will stay kind and enable us to enjoy the scenery. After that we head back to Christchurch and return the campervan on the 18th. We also finalised the itinerary for North Island for the third time and can now start booking some accommodation as we will not have the campervan in the North Island.
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