Last view of the NZ coast

Its our last day in the van and we’re looking to head up to spend the night near Christchurch ready to return the van early next morning. The sardines have been eaten in the night, probably by a possum, saving us the task of cleaning them up and we breakfast on porridge before heading back up the coast. I pull in at the Tin Shed to again look for potential presents, but despite the range of sheepskin and wool products they stock nothing springs to mind except for some very cute cowskin Ug boots which look very cute against my now tanned legs. Resisting the temptation to buy them I satisfy myself with feeding carrots to two very fat greedy pigs with huge teeth and two very cute donkeys they have on the petting farm out back. Even Rob gets out of the van to view them.

I suggest camping again on the coast near Lyttelton, south of Christchurch but after driving up and down the steep windy roads to get there, there is nowhere obvious to free-camp for the night so we stop in town to enquire at the tourist information office for the nearest campsite. The town is tiny and looks quite inbred plus there are no campsites near by so we grab some fish from the local chip shop, which is very good and then head to North-East of Christchurch near to a place called Scarborough for the night.

Finding a spot in the shade we set up, sort through all our stuff so we’re more or less packed for the morning then I persuade Rob to go for a stroll along the beach. It’s a pleasant evening and while walking back down the beach we stop to pet someone’s dog (or rather it launches itself at me and nearly knocks me flying with wet sandy paws) and we stop for a chat with the rather eccentric owner who has lived his whole life in this particular town and has some fascinating insights into the changes he has seen, not to mention a few funny anecdotes. We finally make our excuses and part, but he has suggested that we take a scenic walk around the other bay rather than back along the road or beach so we head off in that direction. By this time the wind has picked up and once we’re over the dunes and onto the other bay it is positively howling. We battle our way back along with the sea coming up over the boardwalk in places and finally spot the campsite through some trees as the rain is starting to come down.

I think it is funny but Rob swears never to take my suggestion of a nice little walk again so I have to placate him with chocolate and crisps from the shop. After a somewhat odd tea of our leftover food in the van, (in which my soup turned black after the addition of my field mushrooms but actually tasted quite nice), we settled down for a read then bed.