What a Grey Day!

Sunday 5 July

With a miserable weather front rolling in across the South Island, it was only a matter of time before it got to us… we made it to Birdlings Flat under very grey skies and had a chilly, windy walk on the beach with a few other hardy souls. Birdlings Flat is at the eastern end of the Kaitorete spit, a flat pebbled beach which was pretty breezy on this visit - the aquamarine sea providing the only colour on this dull grey day. I found an almost complete, stunning crispy black mermaid’s purse - which would once have contained a baby shark or a baby skate. There were several of these scattered along the beach - quite special.

Then we hopped into ELLAMY to drive out along the Kaitorete Spit which extends around 20kms out between the sea and Lake Ellesmere. It turned out to be rather a dull drive - straight down the middle with no view of either body of water!

We were excited to come across Tāwhaki - the National Aerospace Centre… except there wasn’t much to see there either! Apparently it’s all about the airspace above which is dedicated to aerospace testing rather than Cape Canaveral or Mahia Peninsula style rocket launches! 🚀 But it was good to see that it had disabled parking!!

Rabbit culling along the peninsula is a big thing - I wondered why they were culling flying rabbits?!?🐇 Beach access was via an interesting rabbit proof gate - there was rabbit proof fencing up to the gate on the right and after the gate on the left… kind of odd!

After our quick trip to the beach halfway down the peninsula, off we went to Little River for lunch at the fabulous cafe there. Sadly, when the floods came back in February, the place was washed out and red stickered.

Fortunately they’ve been able to reopen a few metres down the road so we enjoyed lunch in the smaller space, which was still serving delicious food. The cabinet was jam packed with yumminess - we opted for pie and cheesecake brownie for him, Turkish bread toastie & caramel slice for her - outrageous! It was quite a tight squeeze on a grey winters day - I wonder how they will cope with the summer crowds.

Fascinated by these silos which have been converted into accommodation at Little River. I've previously checked out prices, and although they are fairly basic, they charge quite a bit for their novelty value.

Tootled home through the rain which had really hit by now and spent a busy afternoon on admin and Class 2 licence swotting.

Picky bits kinda dinner in Banjo - cheese, crackers, cold meats & dips - then headed into Riccarton in the evening to see “Minions & Monsters” which was heaps of fun and had so many call backs to old Hollywood movies! It easily passed the six laugh test… more like sixty good giggles! 🍿🎥🎞️💛