To Bluff

After all the flying at Mandeville I had to try out one of the slope sites I'd been told about - so backtracking my way to SE of Gore, I came to a low hill at Ferndale. With a 10kt southerly I was hoping for a reasonable fly and pulled out the MiniSleek. But, typical of most inland sites the lift was weak, the flyable ridgeline was small and the dropouts from turbulence disturbing the oncoming air was pretty bad. I persisted for about 30min hoping that something might change to smooth things out but, really a waste of time. Here's a nice view out from the top - ironically all that nice view was what made the air crappy on the front side where I was. The only redeeming feature being that in a howling gale the ridge I was standing on looked like a nice steep backside for DS.

So onwards further south.... until I reach Bluff and the end of State Highway 1 with the well known sign.

At Stirling Point is nice little lighthouse.

And looking out to sea, another lighthouse on Dog Island. Apparently at 35m the tallest in NZ.

I tried fish and chips from a Bluff shop - the hoki tasted the same as anywhere else, but Bluff was still an interesting spot to finally get to. The wind was a cold southerly so everyone was dressed for winter in the middle of summer which seems very strange to me.