Kaikoura to Waiau

It was raining at he hostel when I got up this morning. The hostel normally has a magnificent view of the bay where whales can sometimes be spotted. The highlight of the rained in view was this lovely paua shell which like so many in New Zealand doubles as an ashtray. The swirling blue and green colours of the shell are used in jewelry too and in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, I've seen paua shell listed as a precious stone used for marble inlay!






Anyway as fate would have it the rain had stopped by the time I left. Right on the outskirts of town and as a reminder of my rant yesterday I spotted this sign. Maybe a few more could be erected north of Kaikoura. (I saw one for sale in a junk shop between Waiau and Christchurch too!) Having passed the sign and pleased that drivers would be much more aware I turned off the main highway onto the Alpine Pacific Triangle, or SH70, or the Inland Kaikoura route. Instantly there was no traffic. Another day and road virtually to myself.






The first twelve kilometres is an undetectable slow climb and I was averaging about 12-13km/h. At his rate it was going to take all day, but once the road levelled off my speed picked up again. The route follows valleys up to a couple of passes and the countryside is mostly sheep stations. I even spotted some shepherds practicing their sheep dog skills, trialling being a minor sport around here. It's pretty popular and back in the 70s there was a TV show every weekend featuring NZs top sheep dog triallists - they even had the occasional trans-Tasman clash against the Aussies! The show was "A Dog Show" and had an instrumental version of 'Flowers on the Wall" as it's theme - I bet Quentin Tarantino didn't get the desired result amongst NZ audiences when Butch starts singing along to 'Flowers' during Pulp Fiction!








The road is beautiful and dips into and climbs out of river valleys. Some of the drops in and out are over 100m but generally it's a steady climb from the sea to the high point of 500m just before Mt Lyford. Only one loaded logging truck passed me all day and I don't know if it's karma or what but it passed when I was pulled off the road eating my lunch. Weird???






Mt Lyford is a skiing area and I stopped off at the lodge for a pot of tea and to warm myself by the fire. It's a lovely place (and $4 for a tea's not too bad). From there its downhill and free wheeling almost the entire 23km to Waiau, but once again the rain came back in to finish my day. Karma again???



In Waiau a new national champion chip buttie source was found. Great chips and plenty of tomato sauce. A huge feed too. Well done Waiau.

The camp ground is noce too and I had the place almost to myself with the only other people a couple who are in the area trappng possums to prevent the spread of TB to the local cattle.

And I watched one of the funniest shows I've seen on NZ TV, it featured a real gem from a guy called Gish - a takeoff of The Eagles 'Hotel California' reworked as 'Big Girl in the Corner' which I'll make today's classic and dedicate to my good mate Stu Stone who at one time had a run in with one too many of these big girls. (Note - this has a PG rating.)