Tekapo to Timaru - via Burkes Pass & Fairlie Pies!

Monday 17 November

A quieter day as we head slowly back to Ōtautahi Christchurch in a few days. Nothing but bird song and the odd quack of a duck to wake us in the morning. The grey overcast skies had sucked all the vibrant colour out of Lake Tekapo, but it still had a haunting beauty. We packed up in a leisurely fashion and hit the road to the coast shortly after 10am - waving goodbye to our new friends next door who were having an even more laid back morning.

First stop along the route was Burkes Pass, gateway to MacKenzie Country, which is a fabulous fun historic village rammed with old settler huts and buildings, but the big attraction is the Garage. This is a bunch of old shacks and sheds crammed full of retro finds with a Route 66 vibe - old car wrecks, ironwork, vintage petrol pumps, genuine old advertising panels, juke boxes, one arm bandits and sooooo much more! It also has a pop-up coffee cart which Louis loves! There's also a cool installation commemorating the Māori who used the pass and created pathways that later became SH8 long before colonial settlers arrived. Along with the HQ of the Mount Cook Road Board, responsibile for the creation of the settler roads along these original tracks.

Moving on, we stopped in Fairlie for refuelling - diesel for the Pajero and a “world famous in New Zealand” pie for Louis! The pie shop was rammed with queues out the door, and a bunch of pie flavours had already sold out… but not Christmas turkey, sausage & gravy with cranberry sauce which Louis chose! 🥧

Trekking northwest we paused in Pleasant Point at one of the best dump stations around (surprisingly pleasant) then soon arrived at Phar Lap Racecourse in Timaru - our base for the next two nights - just in time for lunch. Turns out there’s a race meet here on Wednesday but we’ll sadly be on our way before the excitement starts 🏇

Popped into town so Louis could swim and I could do laundry and food shopping (yay, a Pak’n’Save!) then donned our Monday best for dinner at The Oxford - a very fine restaurant we discovered back in March and have been keen to return to.

Such good food and excellent staff - we will definitely have to celebrate there with Abby & Jez when they get down here for Jez’s new role with Alpine Energy next month 🥂🍾

Swung by Caroline Bay on the way home to check on the penguin situation - they come in on the waves around 30 mins after sunset at this time of year… so that’s tomorrow evening’s entertainment - watching & waiting, all wrapped up in much warmer gear! 🐧