Clarkson's Aerodrome Farm!

Wednesday 5 February

After a fun day in Tekapo, it was time to hit the road and head on towards Christchurch.

Just outside of Tekapo we came across this interesting layby with a tall monument reaching up into the skies and a sandstone & metal plinth. The pou, or pillar is a recently installed artwork from July 2024 designed as an entry way to the McKenzie region and a Maori welcome or mihi. It is very striking and the carvings on this and the other artworks here are reflective of birds, leaves and nature. It is part of an initiative between the NZTA and local iwi to create decent rest stops to encourage travellers to pull over and take a break along the road as they zip from tourist attraction to tourist attraction.

We made the usual obligatory stops

... at Burkes Pass, where the 1872 pioneering Union Church rubs shoulders with a fantastically kitsch but blokey Route 66 Style garage and collection of mad automobile memorabilia. I love the skis fence - the only sane use I can see for those death traps!

...the Fairlie pie shop... (Louis went for Salmon & Bacon which did not appeal to me as a combo)

As we left the mountains the landscape became far more rural with fields of crops and farm animals dotting the undulating hills.

... And of course there was the Barkers flagship store in Geraldine... clearly designed for middle class women of a certain age (#GregWallaceMasterChef). We bought a couple of yummy things to eat with cheese and I was sad not to be able to purchase a Positive Potato to take with me in Banjo!

The posters on the wall of one of the buildings in Fairlie painted an interestingly prejudicial view of Kiwiana; NZ may have been the first country to give women the vote, but the ads were pretty misogynist and generally insensitive!

The car on the bottom right was an enigma - it had a rego up to Januaty 2025 but looked like it had been dragged out of a swamp in a true crimes murder investigation!

Finally we hit the East Coast and headed North, pressing on to our exclusive home for the night - a POP (Park Over Property) at a private aerodrome near Rangitata. We had called earlier to check it was ok with the owner and he’d said yes, the grass should be cut by then… we presumed he was going out with a wee ride on mower - but arrived to find about 3 enormous tractors with assorted attachments, a forklift and a large truck cutting, scooping, baling & wrapping silage/hay, stacking the bales then carting them off for storage! It was like being in the middle of an episode of Clarkson's Farm with several million $$$ worth of agricultural equipment zooming around us! In the midst of which Russell, our host got a call to check if someone could land so they had work extra fast to clear the landing strip!!!

Quiet night with just the sheep next door and three hangars full of assorted light aircraft for neighbours!