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Articles: A pleasant surprise

Friday, March 21, 2008 - 06:08 AM, (550 Reads)

Last week from Sydney, a yahoo message from Shaun......' would like to visit soon, ok?"! Upon agreeing with pleasure he gave us the flight number for the following day!

As we had to take the caravan in to Oamaru for a COF, we had planned to go somewhere for a couple of days after that. This changed the plans and we headed early for Christchurch after getting a pass for the COF........
The first night was in a little caravan park in Mt Somers. In the foothills of the Canterbury mountains and with the usual pub and gas station and not much else.

The camp was small, had a number of chalets and some green grass for parking and alongside a small streamlet. It was like camping in somebody's back yard with plots of brightly coloured flowers and huge trees. At a 'round table' (the table was actually square) meeting the next day we suggested several routes for the homeward trip and decided rashly on Shaun's option - via the West Coast!

The first leg was a shortcut to Porters Pass and involved trekking up this back country gravel road that had a sign saying" Not recommended for towing vehicles" John figured if we got into trouble, Shaun would be able to trek out for help. However the Nissan handled extremely well and we shot out into the main Arthurs Pass route with fuel to spare. Hokitika didn't appeal so the second night saw us on the beach at Ross parked on hard sand with the rolling waves of the Tasman thundering in just metres away! A fantastic photo (right).

Haast Caravan Park was the next stop at the end of a longish day and there were not too many sandflies. The scenery was superb there, with reflecting estuaries and acres of flax and fern. Haast Pass is 563 metres and once again the Nissan (The Blue Job) didn't let us down (left).

Wanaka put on some brilliant weather with hot sun and wonderful scenery. Lots of tourists of course, but not many on the lakeside.

We had to be home early to sign documents so could not spend more than 2 nights there. Shaun is here until he goes, of course, - if anyone wants to know WHERE he is going, you can email him. He's in the address book.

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