Heading Inland to Terako Downs - the Funkiest POP

Tuesday 9 June

It had been a wild & windy night, but we were fairly sheltered at The Pier POP - only the odd buffet here & there. The sea was pretty rough out beyond the peninsula - the waves so big you could see them arcing & crashing along the horizon 5km or so away. Luckily our friend the seal was all good as it was already snoozing on the jetty a few metres along from yesterday’s spot! 🦭

We’d changed our plans and decided to head along the inland route to Terako Downs campground by Mt Lyford, so after packing up and having a lovely chat with our neighbours Jan & Warren and swapsie viewings of each others vans (they had a new Jayco Destiny moho having been holidaying in their Jayco caravan for over a decade) we hit the road.

First stop was the dump station and McKeown’s truck stop in South Bay. Here the extent of the howling gales was apparent - the sea was raging, the whale watching boats were moored up & going nowhere, the gulls were hunkering down, the shags were nestling in a high tree and I nearly got blown off the walkway!

Since the last earthquake, several spherical boulders, like the Moeraki ones, have been thrown up out of the earth along this coastline, and it was fascinating seeing several of them here.

Fortunately once we left the coast road a few kms south of Kaikōura, heading inland, the winds died down significantly and it was a steep & winding but not windy. We passed Mt Lyford and pulled in at Terako Downs which turned out to be a really cool POP run by Debbie & Frits and their Jack Russell/Foxy, Django. Several times a year they run music festivals on the property, Frits was once a Dutch pop star and Debbie ran retro stores in Dunedin prior to moving here.

We had a late lunch of red cod (reduced to clear at New World in Kaikōura) which tasted delicious but made Banjo a bit stinky for the next 24 hours!

We chilled out then lit the fire in the funky barn, cooked ourselves a roast beef dinner and ate it under Chinese lanterns and I boogied to some 80s CDs to get my Fitbit steps for the day! Album covers adorned part of the walls - this one for "Sheikh Yerbouti" made me laugh 😆 What a vibe!