The lost weeks … pt 2 Starting up the Waitaki

Sunday January 4th took a while to get going – we were late out of the camp and I got told off 🙁  We finally got out by mid-day, and set up in the car park at the top of the Gardens by the Alambra Ground. We did a few errands, had lunch – late as usual, and I checked out a guy with a radio-controlled model glider. If anyone was wondering what to get me for next Christmas, one of these would be fun 🙂

We hooked up the car in Howe St – nice and empty with the students all away. Then we trundled north, trying out the new walkie talkies I’d acquired to assist communication between the cab and the seats in the rear – separated by two closed doors. We stopped for the traditional icecreams at Palmerston, and decided All Day Bay would be a good place to head to. We turned off SHi at Wainakarua and headed out to the coast and up to All Day Bay. There was one other bus there, later two. We were at the other end of the beach and I didn’t feel completely secure – still getting used to being out on the road. So we left the car hooked up and ready to go – in case we had to. This meant I left the key in the ignition with the steering lock off.  Bit of a mistake but I didn’t realise that then.

The wind dropped overnight, and we woke late (9am) to a warm and sunny day. Wyn and I went for a walk along the beach, looking for interesting stones at the water’s edge. We didn’t find any lace agates, but did find other beautiful and interesting little rocks. Later Laura took some time out for a walk as well, and I went back and collected a few skimming stones. I enjoy skimming/skipping stones, but often the best places to skip stones is lacking in good stones to skip. So these days I try to travel with my own supply. I came back from the beach that day with a bag of at least 10 kgs of lovely flat and mostly round skimming stones. Things of beauty. Wyn was overcome with a more useful urge – to bake. So she occupied herself somewhat more productively making muffins.

Eventually we left All Day Bay, and headed up to Oamaru. Finding a petrol station that filled LPG bottles proved more difficult that one might have thought. When I did it only cost $18 to fill it, so I suspect that it wasn’t fully empty.  We headed on north, and turned off SHi up the Waitaki Valley.  I managed to overshoot the Awamoko Park over Property on my first attempt. In case you were not aware of where Awamoko is, it is past Peebles, and before Georgetown which is before Duntroon. Once we got turned around we got into the designated paddock and met the other two couples sharing it. I went to unhitch the car, only to find the battery was as dead as a very dead thing. Leaving it switched on the previous night must have done the damage.  I wasn’t sure what to do about it, so we just left the whole thing hooked up and set up where we had pulled up. It was a pleasant warm evening, and Laura and Andrew even dusted off their guitars and played for a while on the grass. It was a lovely end to the day… (to be continued)

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