Dunedin

After trying to find flying sites around the Otago Peninsula, including an awful site off Portobello Bay peninsula where the wind was 30+ knots, I decided to abort and head back to Dunedin. But here's the entrance to Port Chamlers with a ship on its way in.

And the Dunedin Railway Station.

And steam locomotive Ja 1274 parked up in a glass display

Irish pub called "The Bog"

Just before leaving Dunedein, I was parked up on the side of the road near Mosgiel in the foolish hope that I might see some aurora action. Alas, it was never going to happen, but the next morning I had another go at flying my 3D foamie in the paddock across the road. Less than successful - just too small and twitchy - but a lovely old lady came along walking her Collie and told me there's a model aeroclub field just a few km away, so.... here's the guys at Dunedin Model aeroclub on any Sunday. And a beaut looking DeHavilland Vampire powered by a ducted fan - sounded and flew great.

Taiaroa Head - Otago Peninsula

Tairoa Head - This part of the country was all new to me - and as Franky said, this place was awesome. Huge seacliffs, ferocious seas, galeforce wind, a nice lighthouse, nesting seabirds and albatross flying over head. I was a bit miffed at the price to get in and see the underground WW2 defences, but managed to wangle my way into the souvenir shop and took a picture of the model of the disappearing gun. The actual gun is still in place and I'm vowing to come back again one day with a sackfull of money and see it.

The entrance at the visitor centre had this great metal motif on the side.

The lighthouse was fairly small (well, short really) but still looked great. Of course there was no access to it but it still looked great from a distance and thanks to the zoom lens and some cropping I got this shot.

And this baby was flying around overhead. Wow, decent sized bird. Must be nearly 2m wingspan.

Larnach Castle

Ah, where would a trip to Dunedin be without Larnach Castle eh. Beautiful building, lovely gardens, and history to boot. The old buggar Larnach was an MP and took his own life in a room at Parliament. The place has been restored to its former glory by the present owners, and other than the cost of getting in, I could only admire their efforts.

A lot of effort has gone into the gardens and they were looking very pretty with plenty of staff about tending to the gardening chores. Some nice little spaces, including the "Green Room" - a reflective pool at he end of a pergola.

Taieri Gorge Railway

This was just a fantastic trip for train lovers. Was supposed to include a million passengers off a cruise liner in port - but what a shame - they didn't arrive in time to board the train, so basiclly I got a ride on an almost empty train. Here's the Dj pulled train waiting in Dunedin station.

Passed through 7 tunnels and about the same number of bridges - mostly wrought iron and stone pier construction. The line was built in the 1870's to open up Central Otago.

Pretty rugged countryside, the gorge has great scenery and the line is in places hewn from the rock way up above the river. So rockslides in the river and sheers sides in places.

Train stopped in a crossing loop on the way back to allow the train with the cruiseship passengers to come through. Considering this is a privately owned line, I was amazed at how long the trip was - 64km of line.

I rode most of the trip on the footplate between two carriages and the next day I was a bit sore and tired from all the buffetting and some windburn/sunburn but it was well worth it.

Karitane - Warrington

Not too many flyable sites along the coast since leaving Christchurch - at least none that I could get easy access to. This shot is looking back over Karitane harbour/town/beach. I tried to fly off the beach cliffs in the middleground, but no smooth air from them - just too jagged and knarley, and not very high either. That big south facing slope in the background looks tempting, but no access (unless I spent 2 hours slogging uphill) plus it probably isn't steep enough.

So I just have to make do with touristy pictures at the moment. Here's a sea cave opening to the sea where some eloping maori couple in legend were cast to there deaths. Nice.

And here's a cute little railway scene just before entering the sandspit town of Warrington.

Basicly there is nothing here in Warrington except a great surf beach with lovely white sand and a harbour that sports 12,000 tonnes of cockles with a managed commercial harvest(it's a big estuary). A really nice place with free camping facilities, including a dump station, ablutions and rubbish bins plus its got cellphone/internet reception. Many places I've stopped at have been out-of-range. Quiet and plenty of coastline to explore. Almost perfect (no shop). I tried to get a look at the Milky Way here, but it clouded over after sunset... but I did wake up half way through the night and got a good look through the window. It was amazing to see just how many stars are up there at a decently dark site. So many I found it a bit differcult to navigate, but clouds threatened so I didn't get out of bed. Been cool at night too. Finally, I messed around with some sand textures and came up with this.

Moeraki

Well this place is of course famous for the spherical boulders on the beach, but I was very disappointed to see how few there were. Maybe a dozen or more... quite pitiful when I expected a whole coastline of these things.

Moeraki, the township is a sleepy little fishing village with a history that goes way back to the first whalers in 1838. As with most of the South Island towns, I've noticed they really value their history and their are memorials everywhere. Out at the end of the peninsula is this fabulous restaurant/bar very much in the spirit of the town, er... fishing.

And just over the back of the hill, whilst I was looking for likely places to launch a slopesoarer, I came across this wonderful lighthouse at Kapiti Point. No longer manned, it now sports an LED bulb for the light source, but isn't it nice to see they have left the whole thing intact, right down to the original lens in the beacon.

Waimate

Ok I've been holed up in Waimate between Timaru and Oamaru for a few days - partly due to poor weather but also to try and slow down my spending for a bit. Interesting little town with some lovely old buildings and the usual fine array of parks.

There's also the white horse monument on the Hunter Hills overlooking the township - established to commemorate the work of the Clydesdales in the early days.

In the NZMCA park was this very new and expensive looking bus - and yes that is a sizeable windmill on the rear of the bus!!

When the weather finally cleared up, I made it out to Kelcey's Bush for a walk up to the waterfall. Pretty small and hardly worth the effort - bit like the pie I got from Deb's Bakery in the town. Oh well...

Timaru - Valley of the Moa

Timaru is a beautiful place. I spent an afternoon wandering round the huge park at Caroline Bay. It has some lovely old buildings and a Botanical garden right in the middle of town. Stayed at a free parking place right next to the Port - what a racket, didn't get much sleep that night. Here's a pic from the gardens.

Just near Temuka I headed out to see the Richard Pearse Memorial - he was the first bloke to build and fly an aeroplane in New Zealand, and although there is much dispute, he may have flown before the Wright Brothers in 1903.

From there, it was only a short drive to the Valley of the Moa - a historic place where there are cave drawings done by Maoris that are 500 years old. They're a bit faded now, but these are the best pics I could get. First one is of the entrance to the valley with the Moa's Head rock on the left. (The rock drawing photos look much better if you right click them and open in a separate tab or window)

Heading back down to the highway, I came across a nice wee spot to park up for the night alongside the Pareora River on a shingle bed. It was a bit windy the first night, but I liked the peace and solitude so much I stayed another night. Was so hot I even managed a swim in the river - pretty cold, but very refreshing. Here's a couple of the scenery around sunset.

Living on the Port Hills

The last few days I've been camped up on the Dyers Pass road overlooking both Lyttelton Harbour and Christchurch city. I managed a fair bit of sloping at both Cass ridge and at a better site at Allandale - although due to a fair amount of turbulence (caused by proximity of adjacent landforms) I was a bit disappointed. None of the sites around Chch were as good as flying the Mount in a brisk NE wind but as they say, beggars can't be choosers. What was rather nice tho, the views and sunsets! Here's a panorama overlooking Chch at twilight, and the view out each side of van windows from the Allandale saddle.

Over the last two days, I managed to fly every plane onboard! Starting with no wind in the morning I maidened the newly completed Harvard 3D foamie I built from scratch whilst on-the-road ; then, as the wind came up I got to fly the Slanky, JW, Sleek, and the MiniSleek. Later I even dragged out the Vampire for some straffing runs over the ships in Lyttleton Harbour :-) Here's the finshed Harvard. Would be nice to get some graphics on it but they will have to wait for now.

Today, I bid farewell to Christchurch and head further south.