Banks Peninsula

December 23, 2011

Banks Peninsula

Thursday and Friday November 24-25, 2011

Laundry for the last time of the trip this morning. We had two bicyclists staying at the campervan park last night. One was on a conventional touring bike, but the other was on a Penny Farthing – the big front wheel, little back wheel Victorian era bicycle. David Wilson, the Victorian era garbed rider, was from Oamaru, and was peddling his way from the southernmost point in NZ (on Stewart Island) to the northernmost point (Cape.Reinga), a distance of over 1700 km, or a bit over 1,000 miles. We hung around the campervan park so we could see him leave, and I got a few pictures of him as he got on the bike and started out.

Headed north through Timararu, and on up to the Banks peninsula. We drove along the Summit road, which follows the edge of the old crater rim (it’s an extinct volcano). A beautiful drive. Very steep green hills, with sheep and cattle grazing, and gorgeous views of the bay. We camped at the Okains Bay campground, a pretty primitive campground, but we are in the pine woods right next to the bay, so we aren’t complaining. We walked the beach for an hour tonight.

On Friday, we continued our drive along the summit road, heading down to Akaroa, a French provincial town on the bay. It was a very busy tourist town, especially so when we arrived, as a cruise ship had just disembarked its passengers for sightseeing and shopping. The cruise ships used to dock in Lyttleton closer to Christchurch, but that harbor suffered major damage in the earthquake, and do the cruise ships were now coming to Akaroa. We walked around a bit, and were at one last stop before moving on, when we bumped into Rob and Mieke, the dutch couple we had met two days earlier searching for yellow eyed penguins. Mieke seemed so pleased to see Donna again (there’s that Donna magnetism again) – after chatting a while they suggested we go have coffee somewhere. Rob graciously treated us and we had a wonderful and relaxing visit. Rob had worked for years at the Netherlands department of defense, and he had been to Denver on business a number of times. He liked Denver, and that seemed to be the consensus of the three couples that we ran into on the trip that had been to Denver. Rob lost his job in February of 2011, but they gave him a buyout of full salary for two years. Too good a deal to pass up. We said our goodbyes after exchanging e-mail addresses, and after Donna went back to the market and purchased a necklace from a woman from Columbia that had emigrated to NZ 7 years ago, we headed to a hiking spot for one last short hike.

This proved to be a mistake, since the trail, although not long, was steep, and a bit muddy, and unfortunately on the way down, Donna slipped and had her nastiest fall of the trip, falling off the trail into a small ravine – pretty horrific from the viewpoint of the spouse watching her go over, but not close enough to stop it from happening. Not so great from Donna’s point of view either! She was a bit shaken up, as was I, she was a bit more bruised and suffered a few cuts, but thankfully no additional damage to the already damaged shoulder. We inched our way down the last bit of the trail, and bid our farewell to the Banks peninsula – a very beautiful area. (just one hike two many).

We drove on into Christchurch where we spent the night at a campervan park near the airport.