Eerily, I woke up this morning after sleeping for almost exactly the same length of time as it took us to drive from Auckland to Wellington. Judging from the number of cars that had parked up in the night, we had experienced almost as much traffic. Okay, so we experienced more than 4 cars while travelling most of the length of the North Island, but my point is we had a good sleep. To celebrate, we took our time getting ready to leave. After which we left. Our first stop was Blenheim to find an internet café so we could find a kennel for Palin while we gallivant around Stewart Island and Milford Sounds.
We parked up in Blenheim and wandered began our search. One place had a large sign outside that read “Free Computing”. It sounded good, but the sign on the door that read “This is not an internet café” quickly eliminated any hope of it being an internet café. Not long after that though we found what we were after, jumped on the internet, found what we were after and wandered back to the car. As I drove off it dawned on me that the entire time I had only seen 2 people of the non-white persuasion. Now I’m not saying anything, or implying anything, or judging anyone, it just struck me as something different. That’s all.
I quickly misread the map and headed off into the beautiful, if a little dry looking, hills surrounding Blenheim thinking I was on SH1. When the road narrowed to one lane and I came to a small bridge, I rechecked the map and headed back to Blenheim. Once on the real SH1 we headed for Lake Grassmere, next to the Saltworks. As pink as it was, it was not a lake. I guess it had something to do with the Saltworks, which we could see in the distance. I imagine in a place like that there would have to be someone employed solely to throw salt over their left shoulder with their right hand all day to avoid bad luck. Or is it right shoulder, left hand? My point is there was a lot of salt. Enough to make us forget Lake Grassmere as a viable lunching spot and Palin dunking hole, and head straight through to Marfells Beach. It was a very nice beach, but we decided to head for the Flaxbourne Tearooms in Ward for lunch instead, and leave the Palin dunking for later. This was just the start of our ever-changing plans for the day, as you will come to see.
The Flaxbourne Tearooms were nice, and can be read in the Tearooms Journal. I can recommend the diesel, and the steak & cheese pie is not too bad either. It was early to mid-afternoon at this point, and the weather was getting better by the minute, so we decided to head straight for the campground in Kaikoura, or rather just outside Kaikoura in Peketa. On the way we stopped off at Ohau Point and saw more seals than I could, or may ever want to, shake a stick at. These included some very small seals that I can only assume were pups. As cute as they were obnoxiously malodorous. On we drove to Nin’s Bin to contemplate whether to get some crayfish which, while extremely cheap by Auckland standards, was still a little too pricy for our budget, and we had just eaten. We decided against it and drove on to Kaikoura. Our big plans in this town were quickly eliminated. The peninsula walkway didn’t allow dogs, and the Maori Leap Caves, whose name provided few clues as to their function, were only accessible via paid tour. Campground it was. Or was it?
We arrived at the Peketa Beach Holiday Park and were promptly told they did not allow dogs during the weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years, despite saying no such thing when I had called days earlier stating that I would like to book a tent site for 2 adults and a small dog. And so started the drama. We quickly thought of other options. We were planning on staying with my cousin Matt who owns a backpackers in Hamner Springs the following night, so heading to far down SH1 would mean more backtracking the following day. So I called Matt and asked if it was alright to head on up a day earlier. He had no idea I was heading on up at all, but had no problems with us heading on up at any time. Almost straight after I had hung up the phone and started the car, one of the owner’s of Peketa Beach Holiday Park, whose carpark we were parked in the whole time, came up and told us that a place in Goose Bay, twenty minutes down SH1, allowed dogs at this time of the year. A little too late, we thought, and so headed for Hamner Springs.
About 20kms along the road to Hamner Springs I realised the fuel gauge was on empty, and that we had forgotten to fill up in Kaikoura. New plan. We’ll head to Goose Bay, get a campsite, call Matt and tell him we’ll be there tomorrow, then tomorrow morning fill up in Kaikoura and be in Hamner Springs by lunch-time. Turns out the campground was a Kaikoura District Council equivalent to a DOC campground. Goose Bay housed the booking office, but the campsite was further down SH1. Since the fuel light had returned to mock me, I thought it better to head back to Kaikoura, fill up with diesel, then drive back down to the Omihi campground. It was a tense drive back to Kaikoura, the kind of tense I had felt heading for Dargaville that day so long ago. With the fuel light fading in and out, and eventually fading in for good, we managed to make it to Kaikoura and fill up. I was still hesitant to get a full tank since diesel was almost 10¢ more a litre, but I thought it better to ease the tension completely. So I swallowed my budget and filled up my truck. Then it was back down SH1, along a stretch of road we were now driving along for the fourth time today. We found the Omihi campground and hunted for the perfect spot. Eventually we settled for the first spot we picked, which was not perfect by any means, but slightly more so than any other spot. Being 5m from SH1 with no fence, we thought it best to keep Palin chained up.
Since we had very little to do, and it was still relatively early, despite fate’s best attempts to help us kill time, we decided to use the time to strip Palin. That may sound a little disturbed, but I assure you it’s standard grooming practice. ‘Stripping’ is where you pull the long undercoat out, leaving the smooth, short top coat. It is required for a lot of breeds, such as the Border Terrier, since shaving the dog will not do the trick. Unfortunately we were not able to offer this explanation to all passers by, and as a result were on the receiving end of a number of ‘why do those strange people have their dog on the table while they pull all its hair out and laugh’ kind of looks. It’s a very specific look, and we felt privileged to receive a number of them. Now we sit and wait for the sun to disappear, and the forecast 12ºC to take it’s place. I shiver in anticipation, and because it’s getting colder.
|
