Beautiful Central Otago

Tuesday 11 February

After a couple of nights at the Hampden Beach Holiday Park we hit the road again - gradually heading back to Wānaka.

We finally saw some sunshine as dawn broke over the campground, and we had a fair amount of blue skies over gorgeous sea and beach views as we headed along the coast - watching the shoreline change along the way, but sadly with no sign of any sealions.

We followed the coast road to Palmerston then turned right onto the Pigroot through central Otago to Alexandra. SH 8 got this name either from the Pigroot Hotel which was the only watering hole along the route in the 1800s or from the excess of wild pigs in the area at that time.

We stopped in Ranfurly on the Maniototo plain for lunch and a wander around this cute wee art deco outpost. We had a lovely chat with the lady with the whippets outside the Refreshment Rooms - she and the other local fella were discussing the new sculpture of the cycling man who had only been put in place the day before - I thought he was a very fine installation and I loved her whippets too! Louis went to pay tribute to John Turnbull Thomson, chief surveyor of Otago in the 1850s who is immortalised in a wine - Surveyor Thomson Pinot Noir - according to our friend Wayne Blomfield! I was naturally drawn into Bizarre Affair, a retro store which did what it said on the tin - with a randomly eclectic selection of books, goods and clothing from a bygone era.

From Ranfurly we pressed on through spectacular scenery to Alexandra, spotting many cyclists on the Otago Rail Trail along the way.

We parked up at the NZMCA for an hour or two so that Louis could swim and I could shop for supper. Wandering back into town an old fella stepped out of his driveway and asked if I would like the bunch of homegrown roses he was holding. I accepted and we got chatting - he makes round concrete & stone pavers in his back yard using wine barrel rings as moulds, and he presses natural stone into them to give character (schist, riverstone & pebbles). He explained how he applied to the council for a permit to harvest rocks for his venture and they signed off on 18 cubic metres of stone per month... he reckons he uses about 8 cubic metres per annum, so there's room for growth in his cottage industry! Such a sweet guy!

Back at Banjo, Jonny had shown up and he lead us back to his and Deb’s place in the hills above the town - wow!

What an amazing spot! We parked up and offloaded what we’d need for the night as we were going to sleep in a house for the first time in 2 months!

We watched the sunset, cooked dinner and spent the evening catching up & gossiping. I tried out a recipe from a Facebook Reel that I had saved and it was delicious... especially with the addition of wild thyme which grows everywhere around this house! Jonny took us for a walk up the hill and to the boundary line - this property has the most incredible outlook.