Golden Dawn at PharLap & a cold evening at Cave

May 15
2 min read

Monday 11 May

Cold but clear and golden morning at PharLap - I went off wandering in my PJs & gumboots so that I could catch the morning light before the sun was high in the sky. Gorgeous golden light bathed the grandstand, the old stables (?), the entranceway and the beautiful galloping PharLap statue. I love this tribute to the most legendary Kiwi racehorse, who sadly had such a tragic ending.

A while later today’s racehorses hit the track for their daily exercise and I treated myself to a grandstand seat to watch them cantering and galloping past. So beautiful seeing the snow capped Southern Alps in the background.

Jez was at the office, Abby was working hard in the Moho and we sorted some admin, had snuggles with Harley then set off on a round of chores before we left Timaru again. Naturally had to stop by U-Bake to load up with pies and other deliciousness, then dropped a pie off for Jez at his office. Abby was looking pretty special in her new Oodie from Esther - we love that Harley did his best to recreate one of the greyhound poses on her Oodie!

Back at Banjo, Louis had already scoffed his pie so I made myself a salad for late lunch; then we had a surprise visitor! We first met Peter Vaughan in Temuka last July - he had wanted to know all about our rig (ELLAMY & Banjo) and how we found the nomadic lifestyle, as he was keen to hit the road as soon as he retired. He’s followed our blog and knew we were at PharLap so swung by to say Kia ora and update us on his progress. He now has a caravan and ute and is about a month away from setting off around the South Island… very exciting!

We said our fond farewells to Abby & Harley, looking forward to seeing them again in Kaiapoi in a fortnight or so, and headed back inland about 30km to O’Neil’s Reserve freedom camp just outside of Cave. It’s a simple spot by the River Tengawai (or Te Ana Wai as it was originally named) with a his & hers long drop and plenty of flat parking. The Central Southern cycling trail runs close by so we may hit that tomorrow.