Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

Monday 17 March

The hottest day since we started travelling!

Louis had an MRI booked in Christchurch to investigate his ongoing issues with sciatica so he set off mid morning for the 2 hour drive up the coast… leaving me & the Ebike to our own devices!

We tootled into town along the cycle track stopping to admire all the tractors and marvel at all the many bizarre pieces of equipment they could be attached to (wondering what on earth most of them actually did!) Ford New Holland tractors always remind me of a former life when I took their premier salesmen from the UK on incentive trips abroad - New Orleans/Key West, Bangkok and San Francisco/Hawaii for their Italian dealers.

Stumbled upon an SPCA op shop & stocked up on merino sweaters for winter. Got a purple one to co-ordinate with my trainers!

Finally joined the coastal track for a few minutes at the old lighthouse, before dropping down to Caroline Bay for a stroll. The Bay is a lovely wide arc with miles of flat sand at low tide (and penguins at the right time of night & year) - but looking South all you see is the infrastructure of the port which looks so industrial and uninviting. To the north, the rather posh residential streets and the domain over the cliffs by Dashing Point made for a much more inviting backdrop. Crossing the park behind the Bay took a while as there was a lot to see. The rose garden was a little past its prime at this time of year, but the design of the gardens was cool with arches and tall thin trees pulling it all together. The war memorial engraved onto the ground showed a map of the world with plaques indicating where the Anzac soldiers have been involved in conflicts over the last century & more. A little further along was "The Face of Peace" - a fascinating sculpture by Margriet Windhausen - created to celebrate the glory of peace between nations. It was pretty cool, but I have to admit I got serious Dr Who vibes from it!

Moving on, there was a "Slow cycling only" path alongside & over the railway (I was only too happy to oblige!) and from there I followed the map to visit the St John op shop (2 tops for me for $1 and a couple of things for Ella & Josh).

By now my pannier was rather full so little room for the Paknsave shopping on the way home, but I managed to cram an unfeasibly large amount into our foldable backpack so we did not go hungry!

The warm day had turned scorchio and it was blowing a hot dry gale so had to seek out some shade behind Banjo and rearrange the solar panels on my return. The clouds overhead were very dramatic and photogenic - a hint of the change in weather fronts which was on its way.

Louis got back late afternoon, sadly with a huge chip on the Pajero windscreen thanks to some truck screaming through the roadworks and flicking up the loose stones.

By the time he arrived our fairly exclusive pitch on the outer field at the Phar Lap Raceway had really filled up and suddenly we were sandwiched between a huge big caravan with slide-outs on both sides and a large bus! Watching the huge caravan park up and try to find the most level space possible was a riot - the wife (who we had met at Tekapo) popped a large spirit level on the back bumper and stood right behind it with her head down checking the bubble and yelling "a bit more", "more", "further", "stop" and gesturing to her husband... however when the car & van turned in a bit of a jack knife he could no longer hear or see her and I was sure she was about to be clonked on the head and fall under the caravan wheels!!!

BBQed a chook for dinner and retired to bed in high 20s Celsius - which only dropped with the rain at 2am. Bizarre weather!