Loving Lowburn & Lake Dunstan

Tuesday 24 March

To quote Leo Sayer “the sun is out, the sky is blue, there’s not a cloud to spoil the view”… but in our case, it’s not raining in our hearts… quite the reverse.

It was another stonkingly hot day so we hopped in the kayak and paddled up the lake's twinkly waters to the NZMCA park up near Pisa Moorings.

Had a wee elevenses picnic on the beach there - peacherine seconds from Webbs, which were absolutely delicious - took our shadow selfie in the clear lake waters, then paddled back. Unsure how we ended up paddling into the wind in both directions! Though the wind died down as we approached our freedom camp - just the odd ripple from a passing boat disturbing the lake.

Lovely lunch by Banjo then said goodbye to our neighbours - Jo, Gary & Ellie the dog. They are an amazing combo - Jo has visual impairment, Gary has hearing issues and Ellie is just a soppy old lab! They have a tandem E-bike on the top of their ute and Gary steers while Jo pedals behind; and they've taken this tandem all over the place including the Lake Dunstan Cycle Trail which scared the life out of me in places! Maybe not being able to see it all properly makes it less nerve-wracking!

We popped into town for a couple of chores and another visit to the fruit orchards - Webbs for the cheap stone fruit seconds ($5 per kg for seconds with their lumps and bumps - absolute bargain!) and Jackson’s for yet another real fruit ice cream for Louis! So predictable… 😋.

We arrived back to find a fabulous red retro car & caravan driving into the camp which really raised the tone. The glorious red & cream Fairlane's owner told me that it does about 10mpg and he has to fill up every 100kms - even without the caravan - so probably not ideal in the current fuel crisis!

I popped over to the camp toilet block and was very taken by the idea of getting a tan while you did your business - not every campsite can offer a dual purpose facilities block!

Also found we had new neighbours on one side - a family of 5 having an amazing 6 week adventure round the South Island, trying to decide if van life might be for them. They’d just spent a few days with the Leopards Go Wild family who would have been a great sales pitch for the concept having been on the road for 4 years with their 3 kids.

We had a dip, went for a cycle ride up to Pisa Moorings - much quicker by bike than by kayak - and enjoyed the evening sunshine.

Got back, freshened up then had drinkies with our other neighbours (Neil & Jackie, Bill & Viv), a long chat with Nigel in the family van and then burnt chook for dinner as we’d spent too long nattering & ignored the BBQ - oops!