Tag: photography

Moeraki

by awayfromhomenz

After leaving Alexandra we ambled out towards the coast again, spending a night in Ranfurly along the way _ there is not much in Ranfurly. There was a good frost on the ground when we woke up but clear blue skies, so a good omen for Moeraki.

Moeraki is special because of the boulders, and we are seeing less of them every year which is a real shame. The boulders are said to be formed between 33 to 56 million years ago when shell fragments were rolled in a limestone mixture (which acted as a cement) with silt stone and mudstone. They were formed into a round shape and eventually spat out of the hillside as it eroded. Over time they become buried in sand, or broken apart.

Unfortunately the boulders are also on the tourist route and we had to share the beach with a group of tourists from Singapore and Malaysia. While these people are all very nice, they have no concept of sharing spaces – being polite is also totally lost on them. They individually posed on the rocks, adopting one pose after the other so they could be photographed, before the next one took their place and so on. It was difficult trying to get a photo without them in it. They all loved the dogs though.

The tide was half in so that also restricted the photos a bit – or maybe just gave a different perspective.

The next morning we set out early because the tide was out, and I mistakenly thought the tourists might not be there early – Big mistake. We faced the same battle as yesterday. This time Bruce tried to tell them to get out of the way – no result. Instead they shoved their phone into my hands so I could film them with our dogs!

When we finally got some photos we took the dogs off leash to explore the beach. We found several of these…

These are apparently the egg cases of Ghost Sharks, and they are known to wash up on Moeraki Beach.

Ghost Sharks were not discovered until 2002, and they are actually more of a ray than a shark. They do not have teeth, but have hard mouth plates for crushing us shellfish, and they do not have bones – only cartilage.

The egg cases house the young until they hatch and the cases then float away and are washed up on beaches.

It was lovely being able to walk on the beach again, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We remember Emma and Justin gifting us a dinner at the famous Fleur’s restaurant at Moeraki. That has now closed down and the building is for sale – the end of an era really.

We are off to Oamaru next as we journey slowly towards the ferry and home.

Slope Point – and seal capers

by awayfromhomenz

Next on our list of adventures, was a repeat trip to Slope point and the Waipapa point Lighthouse. The last time we were down this way the light house was all shrouded in plastic wrap as it was being re-furbished. We hoped to see more than just the top of it this time.

Once again the weather wasn’t the best but as it was just showery, I guess it could have been worse. Once again we were lucky in that it cleared enough for us to have a wander around.

At the base of the path up to the lighthouse is a sign warning that there may be sea lions in the area, and to stay at least 10 metres away from them as they can be aggressive. I wandered around the base of the light house and was on one side when Bruce called to me from the other. He pointed out this brown lump in the grass that I had not seen at all having been concentrating on photographing the lighthouse itself. It was a large lump, and at first I thought it must have been dead, but on closer observation I could see it breathing.

We hastily moved away and left it undisturbed.

The beach down from the light house had a big rocky point but also a little sandy cove.

There was a distinct path down to the beach so off I wandered down the path, expecting Bruce and the dogs to follow. The dogs started barking, and Bruce started calling out to me. I looked behind to see what all the fuss was about, and it seemed there was another sea lion in the grass next to the path that I had innocently wandered past. The dogs had woken it up, and it was starting to get a bit stroppy, lunging towards me once, and towards the dogs a couple of times. I was stranded!

Bruce had to take the dogs away, and I kept out of its way to give it a chance to settle down, and then I gingerly picked a path through long grass on the other side of the path, hoping I did not come across any other seal lions in the process!

Thankfully I didn’t, but so much for keeping 10 metres away!

I happened to look down to the beach and saw a couple of big paua shells lying there. Bruce was keen to go down and get them, but that would have meant going past the sea lion again, so I vetoed that!

Once we had recovered our nerves we settled into the motorhome again for the short trip to Slope Point. Slope Point is the southern most point of the South Island, and although we had been there before, we had to go again as we were so close.

To get to the point you have to trek over farmland, avoiding sheep poo and cow pats.

There has clearly been some erosion since we were last here, and the place is still rugged and exposed, with steep drops down to the sea.

We wandered around a bit and enjoyed the view (and the wind) before trekking back over the farm back to the car park.

The trees around this area are legendary in that they are all bent over by the wind. Some of them were judged to be the world’s most beautiful in 2017.

Even the long drop toilets at Slope point are cute.

All done for the day, we travelled on to our resting place for the night at Kaka Point.

Twizel

by awayfromhomenz

From Tekapo we headed away towards Twizel which is another favourite place of ours. The weather remained overcast with the occasional shower, so the photos I took all looked a bit gloomy. Because of the weather we decided not to stop at Burke’s Pass. We wanted to get to Twizel in plenty of time to go to the laundromat and get the washing done, and still get to the canal in time to get a good parking place.

We managed to achieve that. It was disappointing to see that the machines at the laundromat have not been updated in years, so we still had washing strung up in the motorhome to get properly dry.

However, it all got dry in the end and we had a prime parking spot on the side of the canal.

Instead of buying a fishing license, this time, we elected to watch and see if any fish were being caught before we wasted the money. There were up to 12 fisher people at any one time, but we did not see any fish being caught. We did see several fish jumping from time to time.

We did get some salmon though – we purchased it from the salmon farm shop!

Up behind the canal is a steep little hill, that we walked up with the dogs. At the top is a lone apple tree – heavily laden with red apples with no Codlin Moth damage. We picked some, and filled my pockets, and stewed them up to have with our breakfast. The view from up there is pretty special.

The next day we walked under the bridge at one end of the park and headed out towards where the canal starts from Lake Ruataniwha. There were several fisher people there as well – people out and about, taking advantage of the Easter break. We didn’t see any fish being caught there either!

We really enjoyed sitting outside the motorhome watching the birds. There were many little black ducks, called the NZ Scaup or Papango. They are New Zealand’s only native diving duck and seem to have a little fluorescent strip at the end of their beak. Really cute!

They swim around in groups of 8 – 10 , and then all but 2 will dive pretty much at the same time. The remaining two seem to stay as look outs.

There were also birds called the Australasian crested grebe. They seem to spend quite a bit of time floating around with their heads buried in their wings. When they are awake they have a little crest on each side of their heads. They also dive for fish, weed, snails etc.

It was a relaxing time at the canals, and after a wet night we decided to get on the road again, destination unsure but possibly Omarama.

Hamner Springs

by awayfromhomenz

We have been to Hamner three times before but we absolutely love it so we had to go back again. We stayed at the NZMCA park again and while the weather wasn’t beautiful and sunny, it was still nice enough to let us do the walks and things we wanted to do.

Hamner has wonderful facilities for visitors, and one of the places we love best are the sculpture walks in the forest. We have taken Oscar (our standard schnauzer, who has since passed away) there in the past and he was a lot of fun because he really got into the sculptures, whereas, despite Bruce’s best efforts, Hunter and Beau just were not interested. The walk is about 2 kilometers though and the dogs and us really enjoyed it.

The first thing that was noticeable were all the beautiful red toadstools. There were hundreds scattered about, probably due to the recent rain. Beautiful as they are, they are very toxic – red for danger. Luckily the dogs were not interested in them.

It was fun following the “dog” signs in the forest and coming across the various wooden art works.

We managed to get the dogs to pose next to some, but it took a bit of effort.

In all, we went through the forest twice, and another walk took us across the highway from the camp, and towards the river bank. The track was very uneven, with large mud puddles and if you tried to dodge those, you had to contend with blackberry vines, but it was still a nice walk.

We arrived just in time to see the Hamner jet boat speeding by, but I didn’t manage to catch a photo of it.

On our last day in Hamner Springs, we actually went to the springs for a soak. The whole complex is a wonderful set up. Many different pools, including a full sized swimming pool for swimming laps, and at least 4 different waterslides. Bruce and I enjoyed riding the circular track pool with fast flowing water (like tame water rapids). There were foam rings and flutter boards available for anyone to use in this pool and it was a bit of fun. There are smaller rock pools, very hot pools, water jet pools and medium temperature pools. I think we spent 2 1/2 hours there and all for a very reasonable price of $22 per person (compared to $70 per person for the Lost Springs in Whitianga).

We could easily have stayed longer, but there is more to see, so after doing the various housekeeping tasks (laundry, filling and emptying tanks etc), we headed out onto the highway again. This time there was a bit of anxiety about it as there was a severe wind warning for the area, – strong winds and high sided vehicles are not a good mix!