A Wet Farewell

After four weeks of good weather with just a few showers and a little bit of wind the drought has well and truly broken, the heavens have opened up and an awful lot of water has been dumped on us over the last couple of days. It’s hard to hear yourself think inside the van- the thunderous rain on the roof is joined by the continuous rumble of the crashing surf outside. Just a few silly buggers have ventured past on the boardwalk and the campground has emptied out. Only the hardy &/or mad are left to fight the elements including a number of young travellers in small tents, some had been pitched on the bare patches in the sun a few days ago but this morning were in ankle deep water.

Another Ultima fifth-wheeler arrived over the weekend, Brian & Pauline live locally and take a week off from their business every month to recharge their batteries. This week they’ve come to the Mount to stay, it’s a pity the weather has packed up for them.

‘The long and short of it’- the family of 5 in the cute little retro caravan  on the site beside the other Ultima have been having an exciting time camping, until today that is, when the kids couldn’t play outside.

Tonight is our last at the Mount campground, we’ve said goodbye to the family this evening   and will be ready to break camp early tomorrow morning. The energy resource manager has the van booked in for an extra solar panel to be added tomorrow morning before we leave town. The entertainment manager (and energy resource user) has had a new TV fitted in the bedroom. Ready for those long winter evenings and extra cold mornings down south next year.

And one final photo of another ship arriving in port and the beautiful red of the pohutukawas that line the Mount walking tracks. Sadly the heavy rain over the last few days will have battered the flowers, now the paths will be lined in red instead.

And I am pleased to report that after 4 weeks my camera has finally been returned. To Napier. But that’s another story……So now I’ll have to wait until we arrive there before I can get clicking again.

Time Standing Still- Langford Store

We were disappointed to find the Langford Store closed when we passed through Bainham on our way to the Heaphy Track a couple of weeks ago so I was looking forward to returning once the shop opened again for the new season.

Langford Store is thought to be the oldest operating shop in New Zealand, it opened in 1928 and has been in the same family for four generations. The original owner, EB Langford’s great grand-daughter now runs it with her partner. Before the latest family member took over, the store was run for a whopping 61 years by Lorna Langford, a grand-daughter of EB, she finally retired in 2008.

It was great to see the tables & chairs out under the veranda but unfortunately nobody having a coffee. In fact other than the owner we had the place to ourselves once again.

Stepping through the door was like stepping back in time, an Aladdin's Cave of nostalgia, a walk down memory lane. The first thing that surprised me was the actual size of the store inside, it was so tiny. And so full. There are three sections; the shop is located in the middle section, a kitchen and private area are through an opening behind the counter on the right hand side of building and in the narrow left section is the Post Office with it’s entry from the veranda.

Here’s a selection of shots from inside the store, I’ve left them single so you can click to enlarge them to check out all the familiar items.

Memorabilia, grocery items, books, handkerchiefs, gumboots, sweets, posters, old price lists and crockery compete for attention around the stacked shelves and walls in shop. Along side the memorabilia there are everyday items for sale, it was actually hard to work out what was current and what was not.

I loved reminiscing over all the old china, I once had a collection to match this lot but I sold most of it when we were downsizing for our life on the road. I kept just a few treasured pieces that belonged to my grandmother.

There was plenty of retro items for sale too, I was given a fondue set just like the cacky yellow coloured one (calf poop colour we used to call it) on the top left, for a wedding present many years ago. I love the named boxes, especially the tea cosy ones! And I bet inside the crocheted bowl cover box would be covers exactly like the ones I have that belonged to my Nana and were crocheted by her.

The “spy hole” in the wall above looks through to the “Post Office”, below. What an amazing amount of “stuff” is in there! Again, it was hard to work out what was current and what was from the past.

When Lorna started working for her grandfather in 1947 she was still at correspondence secondary school. The mail came into the shop three times a week & she was postmistress and accounts clerk. She would bike to the store and home each day with her typewriter on her knees.

The store room, to the side of the shop, has been converted into an art gallery with art work on sale from local artists. There is more nostalgia lining the walls and more table and chairs to sit at.

We decided to have a late lunch/afternoon tea at the store, I ordered a coffee & scone and David had a pie. It was great to see it served on china in keeping with the store’s history.

Some of the items on the wall in the Store Room Gallery.

I love the “midget sausages”- I wonder if those are what we now call cherrios. And Ham & Chicken Paste, I’m sure we had that when we were kids. The pàte of the past!

From the rustic and worn look on the outside to the dozens of shelves stacked with hundreds of items from today and yesteryear inside, Langford Store is definitely one of a kind and a New Zealand historic icon which I hope survives the test of time. It has become famous by standing still.

Around the Bays- Pigeon Bay

Banks Peninsula comprises of two extinct volcanoes which were active less than half a million years ago. The two craters have since enlarged many times their original size due to erosion and water flow, then around 15,000 years ago when the sea level rose dramatically, the craters were flooded, these now form the two main harbours of Akaroa & Lyttelton. Many smaller bays & coves indent the remainder of the coastline.

The Summit Road, a very popular “Tourist Drive” runs around the Akaroa crater rim affording spectacular views of the harbour and surrounding valleys and ridges. There is also a Summit Road around the Lyttleton Harbour; we are leaving that side of the peninsula for another time.

Two days after the snow fall we thought it would be safe enough to travel the summit road and visit some of the bays on the northern side of the peninsula. We stopped at The Hilltop, a hotel & cafe at the top of the long climb (from both directions; Christchurch & Akaroa) A light covering of snow still lay on the ground and the surrounding peaks. We started along Summit Road and straight away became concerned at the possibility of black ice. In fact this wasn’t black it was just plain old ice (bottom left), sheltered from the elements it had started to melt and then refroze. We eased our way through it carefully and were then relived to see that most of the snow had melted further on.

There were many vantage points along the road to check out the spectacular views of the harbour and bays down below, including Duvauchelle Bay and our camp ground.

Our first port of call was Pigeon Bay, the road dropping sharply down to the bay from the Summit Road. The roads down to the bays may only be 6-8kms long but they take a while to navigate. Steep, narrow & with dozens of hairpin bends you have to take your time & hope that you don’t meet anybody coming up.

Pigeon Bay is a small settlement, just a few baches & farm buildings at the head of the bay. Oh and a church. We drove around to the end of the road where we could see a jetty & some boat sheds, coming across this deserted camping ground on the way. It was like stepping back into the 1970s with these closed up old retro caravans, an overgrown tennis court complete with rusty fence, an old wash tub set up with wringer in the centre, concrete table & chairs arranged to watch the sunset and a notice board informing us we could stay for $10 a night. I’m sure in the summer time this place would be pumping but today it was deserted, it was quite eerie wandering about. Like everybody had been nuked! 

At least the boat club had a decent building but still nobody about, the holiday home right on the side of the road looking straight down the bay was closed up, we were tempted to sit and have our lunch in their Cape Cod chairs but thought better of it.

Instead of heading back up the road out of Pigeon Bay, David drove around to the otherside of the bay, the camp caretaker, Glen, had told him about a road that would take us out to the head of the bay on the west side. The road we were on continued on all the way through to Port Levy, it was another narrow, steep & winding road and not recommended for motorhomes or towing.

After a few kilometres we turned off onto a gravel road, actually more of a gravel track. It climbed steeply up the side of ridge, with a sheer drop on the drivers side down into the valley below. This is at the top looking back towards Pigeon Bay settlement at the end of the bay, the jetty and boat sheds are across the water.  I spied this house out on the point, what a fabulous place to live, looking straight down the bay.

Once on the top we weaved our way back & forward across farm land crossing many cattle stops heading for the small point we could see ahead of us.

As we got nearer we realised that there was a tiny sheltered cove with farm buildings on the left of the point. This bay is called Little Pigeon Bay. We stopped at the top of the road just through the gates. Even though it was a public road we didn’t want to disturb the people we could see down at a house near the beach getting ready to go sailing.

The view over Pigeon Bay to Wakaroa Point was breathtaking. Right along the otherside we could see the tiny track of the Pigeon Bay Walkway which is a five hour return walk through farmland out to the point.

Looking back towards Pigeon Bay settlement, with mussel floats from a mussel farm in the waters below.

After a short while we headed back up the road passing the young farmer & his wife driving in. Luckily they were at the top of the steep road otherwise that would have been fun. No passing, a 100 metre drop & him with a trailer on the back. He told us the house at the beach was a bach & was rented out for holidays. We passed a large homestead along the way, all closed up and overgrown but not that old, well probably 1950ish but still in good condition. We’ve seen a few like this on our travels, obviously just too far away from civilization.

This sheep must have one of the best views in New Zealand. In the background you can see the walkway track cutting through the slope just up from the water.

After safely negotiating the steep road again, this time with me on the scary side, we stopped in the valley to watch dozens of wood pigeons (kereru) in a feeding frenzy amongst the flowering tree lucerne. Great big bumble footed clumsy birds jumping from bush to bush bending the tiny supple branches over under their weight. Pigeon Bay of course!

Bird on a Wire