We left our little campsite in Roxburgh and set off in the general direction of Balclutha. I was driving today, and Bruce was chief photographer and navigator. The navigating needed a bit of fine tuning as we sailed past the turn off we were supposed to take at 90km per hour, so we found ourselves heading for Lawrence..
As it turned out this wasn’t such a bad thing. Lawrence was a quaint little place, and also quite historic. It had one very large old wooden building that was apparently built in 1863, but it is now in private hands so we could not get a decent look at it. It is safe to say that the owner needs to do a bit of work on preserving it though. We had a walk around and found a few quirky stores, but also a wonderful little butchery, which I would have to say is the cleanest store I have been in for some time.
Once outside of Lawrence the scenery started changing again from rolling farmland, similar to any you would see throughout the Waikato, to the hilly forestland, similar to that around Tokoroa and Taupo.
After refueling ourselves we carried on our trip, with the next stop being in Balclutha. The Clutha River runs through Balclutha, but a little south of the town it splits into two. It is noticeable that the river is not as swift here but it maintains its beautiful emerald green colour. Balclutha was also subjected to our inspection and although is seemed like a bustling township there wasn’t anything that really caught our eye. We refueled the motorhome this time and carried on our journey.
Just outside Balclutha is a little restored cobb cottage. It was built in the late 1860’s and has been fully restored and furnished in a way that it might have been when it was in use. It must have been a cold dwelling, because it was quite a small space but needed two fireplaces to keep it warm. I don’t think the cottage was much bigger than our motorhome, but it had no bathroom or toilet facilities.
Once through Balclutha the scenery changed yet again – more flat land and we could see sand dunes in the distance. It only took around 20 minutes to arrive at the coast and we could actually see beaches – really the first decent beach since Haast Beach. There is a gentle surf, and lots of the enormous seaweed found on the Otago Penninsula, and around Oamaru.
We are staying at a NZMCA POP stop at Kaka Point tonight along with 3 other vans. It is on working beef farm and we have already been informed that a stock truck will arrive at 5.30am tomorrow to load up with weaner beef for the first sale of the season. Oh well, as long as they don’t expect me to get out of bed to help!
Right across the road is the beach, and we can see down the bay to Nugget Point and the light house, so we are looking forward to our explorations tomorrow.
Away From Home NZ 