Estuary Reflections

Early on our first morning at Weir Beach Reserve in the Catlins, it was very misty with low cloud cover on the surrounding hills. I could see that the estuary was as flat & still as a millpond & even though it was very nippy & wet underfoot, I grabbed my dressing gown & wandered down to the water to take some photos of the reflections.

My photo motto is "never miss an opportunity", too many times in the early day of my photography passion, I used to think I'll catch that later or I'll take those another day and quite often it would never happen. For whatever reason; the moment was gone, the light had changed, the weather took a turn for the worse or we never made it back to that spot. Now I grab every opportunity then & there.

And because of that you can now enjoy these early morning reflections, I love the simplicity of them & the muted tones (remember to click on them to enlarge)-

Slope Point & Weir Beach, Catlins

We called around to the family to say our goodbyes and at long last said farewell to Invercargill and headed back on up the coast towards the Catlins, we stopped in for a coffee at the farm and then waved them goodbye too. "At last" we said, "We're now on our adventure proper" 

Since leaving Tauranga we have been travelling to visit family in Hawkes Bay & then onto Invercargill to be with family for Christmas. We've taken our time & enjoyed the journey but we've always had in mind that we need to be somewhere soon. Now we are free & easy, we can do anything we choose, we can stay for as long or as short as we want. We only have ourselves to consider. Famous last words.

This time we were able to stop as we passed over the Mataura River so I could get some shots of the dozens & dozens of little ramshackle huts & whitebait stands that line both sides of the river. The photos don't do it justice, but you can see that river twists and turns quite a number of times by the position of the huts along its banks.  The huts stretch way back into the background here and there are also dozens more huts further up river for a good few kilometres.

Once through Fortrose at the southern end of the Catlins coast we were back onto a gravel road travelling through mainly sheep farming country.

I wondered about the story behind this road's name. Imagine if you lived on it, explaining it every time you gave it out. How many would believe you too.

Not too far along we then turned into Slope Point Road. We were headed for a site, Weir Beach Reserve, on the edge of an estuary that allows CSC (certified self-contained) vehicles to freedom camp. And what a great spot it is, a large grassy area with a single toilet (a contained long drop) and a small water tank with a continuous supply of crystal clear spring water.

The site is located beside a huge estuary that drains out into Haldane Bay, it really is huge and very shallow, at low tide it is one great mud (in the upper reaches) & sand mass. It's hard to imagine that so much water flows through the very small entrance out into the bay. This is just the bottom end of the estuary looking towards the mouth. 

It's a great area for exploring & bird watching; there are dozens of Royal Spoonbills. They are becoming a bit too common now that we've seen so many! Unlike up north when there are just a few dotted here and there.

There were 3 other lots of campers here but the best spot was still vacant so we were thrilled to finally set up the fifth-wheeler bum into the wind (for when it returns, which it will) instead of broadside as we have been at the camping ground in Invercargill. The day had started out overcast but the cloud cover burnt off and by early afternoon it was a brilliant sunny day with not a murmur of a breeze. At last, we'd found the sun.

I bet you thought the Bluff was the southernmost point in the South Island. Well it's not; it's Slope Point an isolated & windswept site overlooking the Southern Pacific Ocean & the eastern side of Foveaux Strait. Slope Point is 7 kilometres further south than Bluff and is just up the road from where we have set up camp.

This fabulous view of Haldane Bay is looking north from the top of the hill behind the estuary which you can't see as it's tucked out of sight behind the greenery at the middle left foreground. The expanse of deep blue water you see just above it is called The Reservoir, a manmade coastal lake tucked into the rolling farmland. Curio Bay is further behind. I love the thistle foreground and the sheep in the middle. Along with the surf beach, it's quintessential New Zealand!

Later in the afternoon we drove out to the end of the road before returning to walk down to Slope Point. It was getting late in the day otherwise we would have given the sandy track at the end a go. I had visions of getting stuck & having to spend the night out here or having a very long walk home.

Up on the exposed cliffs the wind was whipping straight through us, the sea was wild and the waves huge as the tide pounded them onto the rocks. Most visitors to this area would pull in at the walk to Slope Point, if they drove a little further on they would find this huge sea cave tucked in beside a narrow canyon.

We could not get too close to the cliff edge here as the covering tussock was flat and slippery! One miss step and I'd have been on my bum and over the edge!  I felt a bit safer taking this shot further down the edge as there was a bit of height between me & the edge. I love how the hebes are growing thick & wild here & in their right environment! Another expensive plant from the garden shop.

Looking back towards Slope Point; it obviously got it's name from the gentle slope down to the edge. A tiny white dot on the point is the marker, you can also see a few cars parked on the road at the top left, this is where you walk from across private land. The walk is closed during the lambing season

Following the pilgrimage down to the Point.

The plants around Slope Point itself were quite unusual, a mix of spongy groundcover & tiny silver tussock grass (sold for around $5 a small plug at the garden centre back home) The ground cover, which I had growing in my garden in Tauranga, has tiny little white flowers. The exposed dirt & rock was smooth and rounded probably from all the salt spray & wind. And that would be a tarn if it was in the mountains.

You don't get a sense of scale here, but these are big cliffs & quite scary to be near, the noise was terrific as the waves crashed and thundered onto the rocks below.

You can tell that it's a harsh environment in this area, the trees grow at a 45 degree angle.

Underneath and on the off side of most of these macrocarpa shelterbelts which dot the landscape, are the remains of old homesteads (you can just see the roof edge here); the trees were planted to provide shelter for the early settler's  homes.

This scene reminds me of the megalithic stone passage tombs we saw in Ireland.

Haymaking; the grass has been cut and then turned by a tedder to dry, it is now ready for the baler to come along. The baler arrived just as we passed and by the time we returned the paddock was dotted with big green hay bales.

WOF & Rego

We headed off to the Testing Station early to get a warrant of fitness (WOF) on the fifth-wheeler, there was a good queue of trucks waiting for their COFs (certificate of fitness) and a couple of cars for their WOFs. Luckily the fifth-wheeler is classed as a "light trailer" so we were able to pull in behind the cars. As we were waiting to be called, we had a chuckle as one of the elderly inspectors tried a number of times to back a car & trailer ahead of us out of the building. We decided we know what happens to "old mechanics" when they leave garages & workshops, they get a job at a testing station!

 

While waiting in the queue we could see a couple of the COF inspectors having a discussion over by the trucks & then walking over to check the gross laden weight rating on the fifth-wheeler which is 3490kg. It did look rather large to be in the car queue.

 

 

 

This was one of the reasons we chose the Ultima over other larger fifth-wheelers. We only need a light trailer WOF once a year, not every six months as a lot of motorhomes & heavier fifth-wheelers do & the best bit, it only costs $29 as opposed approximately $100-120 per inspection. 

 

It was also a great feeling last week when I went into renew the registrations on the Ford & the fifth-wheeler, the ute was, as expected $450+ but the van was only $35! Thirty five dollars registration plus twenty nine dollars for the warrant equals $64. Sixty four dollars for the year & I look at that as the "rates" on our home. Our rates in Tauranga were $6000 plus!

On The Road Again

Finally after a few false starts we will be back on the road again this morning a little over five weeks since arriving in sunny Invercargill. Those first brilliant sunny, calm, blue sky days lulled us into a false sense of promise; it's been downhill all the way, and fast, since then. Even early this morning as I type at the table watching the camp come alive, the wind is still strong & gusty & the rain has begun to fall.  But we will pull out of camp this morning, we've made that decision and we are more than  ready to go. In preparation we pulled off site yesterday to empty our tanks as usually the camp dump station is busy in the early mornings as other vans empty before heading off so we decided to do our ablutions in the relative quiet of late yesterday morning. Our camp ground host, Doug had rigged up some extra pipes for us to use because as some of you might remember, we couldn't quite get to the sump before and had to use a Public Dump station when we left for the farm on Christmas morning.

We are once again stocked to the gunwales and have completed all our last minute errands, all except one that is; we do need to get a WOF (warrant of fitness) on the 5th-wheeler which will be our first port of call but after that it's be around to say a last farewell to the family, point the rig north east back towards the Catlins and with a brisk tail wind it shouldn't be too long before we can set up camp again. We have a tentative plan for the next few weeks; the first step is to complete the Catlins before moving inland. But as we're finding out, and the beauty of not working to an itinerary, plans can change from one day to the next so who knows where my next post might come from.

 

Despite the weather we have loved being in Invercargill, I now know why it is such a lovely city; that's to distract you from the weather- although Southerners are quick to point out that they had a glorious summer last year - yeah, OK,  we believe you. We have loved catching up with the family and while we'll miss them we know we'll be back in May to see them again.

 

I made a few notes & took some shots of a few quirky & odd things that I came across in the city;

 

This barber shop is just down the road from the camp-

 

 

 

Potatoes are sold by the bucket on the side of the road- "Bucket of Potatoes $20" and you get to keep the bucket albeit without a handle!

 

Virtually every shop has a sign "Please remove muddy boots"- this just goes to prove that the weather is crap! ;)

 

A good Southern Man (or woman) doesn't drink & drive

Cherries are sold by the box load (on the side of the road also) at around $8kg- big fat plump juicy cherries! Yummmmm....

The standing joke was that Tim (Invercargill's colourful mayor) would turn up to welcome us at the café where we had lunch a few times. Instead of Tim we got Marcus (TV celeb) & his brand new baby!

 

 

A good Southern family mostly eats white bread, or white bread covered in cheese- yes, there are different styles & flavours of bread but nowhere near the variety & amount I've seen elsewhere. My favourite ciabatta might have half a dozen loaves or buns available if I'm lucky and that's in the large Pak 'n Save & Countdown supermarkets.

There are plenty of low flying wood pigeons around the city-

This van was in our campground-

Wine is very expensive & not available from the supermarkets, the Trust have a monopoly in Invercargill city and you can only buy from a liquor store. My usual bottles of wine are $3-$4 more expensive, and that's on special.

Cheese Rolls (that Southern specialty) are sold in the supermarket by the half dozen!

Keep smiling, see you "Out There"

More Weather Woes

Mr Met Man talks a load of crock! So does the TV weather forecaster, the radio weather reporter & my android weather app! All of them wouldn't know what day it was; "fine sunny day ahead" "high of 22 degrees"  "light breeze" "temperatures may dip overnight" "a few showers"  & the best one "all of NZ is in for a beautiful sunny summer's day".  Yeah right. All so very wrong!  Today we have a high of 14 degrees but if you add in the wind chill factor I reckon it's about 8 degrees. Everywhere people are wearing their winter woollies, beanies drawn down, thick jackets & gloves on. Small consolation but I believe we've sent some of the wind north for the rest of you to enjoy.

We are now being held captive by this bloody awful weather for which there seems to be no end in sight. After a brief respite on Wednesday when it was hot & muggy until mid-afternoon it then clouded over and ominous black clouds rolled in, we have had gale force winds and heavy rain squalls for 48 hours solid.  Invercargill can now count TWO rain free days this year, which is appalling! This is meant to be summer after all.  It was very strange to wake about 4am on Wednesday morning and lay there wondering what was wrong. It took a few seconds to realise nothing was wrong, it was the sound of silence. Not a hint of a rain drop or a murmur of a breeze. Peace at long last. Famous last words!

We were going to leave Invercargill yesterday, actually we were going on Wednesday but after the family decided they weren't going to battle the elements camping beside us back in the Catlins we stayed on one more day. Once the wind started up again on Wednesday evening we gave Thursday away & decided we'd wait to see how Friday dawned but after the horrendous time we've had this past 2 days & especially last night, we're now going to wait the wind out. There's no point in adding to the drama by being on the road towing a large wind sail behind us. A brand new caravan, around 7 metres long, pulled into camp last night. They have a new caravan because their last one was blown off & destroyed on one of the passes in the South Island awhile ago. 

The wind and rain along with the constant noise has rocked and buffeted the van continuously for what seems like days on end now, we are so over this weather. It's nearly as bad as boating in rough seas but without the seasickness which is a small bonus. We have had the side in for most of the last two days. It's not actually the side that is an issue itself, it's the awning that rolls out with the side and protects the top of the slide out from the weather. Even though it is very taut the wind gets under it and lifts and drops it and pulls on the rollers & we are worried it will eventually tear. It is worse if we have the side out just a short way as the wind unwinds the awning which then creates a balloon effect. At least we can still move about and live in the smaller space and when we do get to push the side out occasionally it feels like a ballroom!

The campground has been very full these past few days as more holiday makers take refuge from the extreme weather while there aren't nearly the amounts of tents arriving, I'm thinking that they are taking the cabin option just to get some peace & quiet as they have all been full. Although there are a still a few hardy souls arriving like this guy this afternoon, battling to get his tent up before the next downpour.

And I bet this guy wished he'd stayed at work.

Rachel says we'll now be having a last, last, last supper with the family after having dinner there Wednesday night expecting that we were leaving the next day, then dinner again last night thinking maybe today we'd be on our way. I think it'll be takeaways the next time....just in case it's another false start.

Photos Going to Good Home

As some of you know amongst many other subjects I also take photos of country churches around New Zealand and have built up quite a portfolio over the last 4-5  years. And I'm sure it will come as no surprise that once we were on the road I've been adding to the file everyday while heading south. In fact I have over 500 photos to sort & process and these will add another 100 plus churches to the list.

 

I upload and store all my photos in a Flickr photo account, a worldwide photo storage & sharing website. For awhile now, after uploading, I have also been adding my church photos to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) group account. There are thousands of Flickr Groups, if you were to think of something, there's bound to be a group for it. It's where similar themed photos are grouped together for viewing. The NZHPT have a group so they can build up their database of photos of historic buildings & items around New Zealand. For them to take a photo of every listed &/or heritage building in NZ would be near impossible, so they, with permission, use the group photos to slowly build up their national database.

 

Back in September, & because I am one of their more prolific suppliers of photos, I was approached to see if I'd do an interview for an article that was to appear in the next quarterly Heritage magazine.

 

 

Of course I was happy to and to also supply high resolution photos of a few particular churches they had picked out. Strangely enough they chose all Hawkes Bay churches. I also had to provide a photo of myself to go with the article and as all photographers know we are not very comfortable on the other side of the camera. Luckily I was able to get Sophie, my daughter-in-law, to take one of me while we were parked up at the Mount Campground. And thankfully it turned out to be a reasonable shot (you can click on the photos to increase their size I you wish)

 

 

 The magazine came out in mid-October and I've been hanging out ever since to see a copy. They were going to send one to our mail box number but of course by the time it was published we were on the road & every time we had the mail forwarded on to us it wasn't in the pile! I've been getting pretty frustrated at not seeing a magazine especially as a few acquaintances made mention of the article.

 

 

 Every book shop or supermarket magazine rack I found I'd quickly scan to see if it was there, all with no luck. It's quite a specialist magazine that is mainly distributed via subscription. But finally it arrived yesterday by special courier, our son-in-law Cameron who had flown up to Tauranga to collect a car and drive it back here to Invercargill. He checked our postal box and also did a few errands for us while he was there.

 

At long last I was able to view it. The article highlighted the work of four different photographers, here's the rest of the article. And if you'd like to look at my Flickr Church sets you can find the North Island Churches here and the South Island Churches here . I have still to add a lot of South Island church photos that I'm in the middle of processing & of course there will be plenty more as we travel around the South Island. There's a couple more of my photos in the montage on the opening page; the belfry from a Tutira church(middle left) & a special (a friend got married there) chapel on Napier Hill (bottom right).

 

 

I had another church photo requested for a magazine that came out at the end of last year too.

Everybody is Talking About It

The weather of course. Everywhere I go I overhear conversations about the weather & how awful it is and where has the summer gone (if in fact it ever arrived); the supermarket, the shops, the campground hosts, the tourists, the café and the family!  Even the newspaper did a front page article on the stormy & unseasonal weather this morning. And to rub salt into the wounds I keep getting texts from two family members in Hawke Bay updating me on how flamin' hot it is up there!

We arrived in Invercargill December 15th, just over four weeks ago when we had about three days of fabulous hot weather & brilliant blue skies in that first week and then that was that!  Up until now I have made little mention of  the weather, I figured every area has it's bad days or occasionally a week or two of terrible weather at the wrong time of the year, but five bloody weeks of God awful weather is starting to wear thin. Rain on Christmas Day, rain on New Years Day & rain every day since except one. We have had constant rain and wind with the odd lukewarm sunny hour dotted in there now & again.

And the forecast for the next 10 days is all bad news too; rain is expected every day. There's a stalled high pressure ridge over the Tasman & the North Island (!!) that's holding our hot weather to ransom & allowing temperatures from the Southern Ocean to sweep up over us. And with single digit temperatures being nearly a daily occurrence we've been able to put our new diesel heaters to good use. And we're thrilled with them, they are very efficient and warm the van up instantly. We usually turn the bedroom heater on & let that filter through to the lounge & galley, it's less direct & drying and keeps the chill off the room, cutting in and out on thermostat.

At least it's not constant grey dismal skies, the sun does break through in between the heavy rain bursts. One minute the sun is shining, the next there's deep black rain clouds being pushed on through by gale force winds. We even had a couple of  blasts of hail today. What next? Snow? We have had the side of the fifth-wheeler in overnight (and during some of the more windier days) more times in the last couple of weeks than in the whole of last year. Today the van is getting buffeted about constantly, just awhile ago a violent shake sent my drying dish pile into the sink! And we are relatively sheltered here in an inner city camp ground, I can't imagine how it would be if we were out on the coast somewhere.

I took this photo of our deserted campground this morning, there were no tents overnight and just a couple of sleeper vans & one motorhome which had left early. All that's left is us & three of the semi-permanents which are occupied down the back.

I was expecting nobody to arrive with tents this evening, the gusts have been gale force but around 4pm four guys & a separate couple arrived and started to set up camp. More entertainment for us as the wind snatched tents away and made it very difficult for them to get them up.

And not 5 minutes after the last one was up and pegged to the ground the heavens opened up and the tents were blasted with torrential rain followed by hail! They all made a mad dash for the lounge and that's the last I've seen of them. In the meantime the tents are getting pummelled, well the 3 at the front are, the two at the back are protected a little by the shed. Wise people.

While the weather has been an inconvenience, we actually haven't found it to be too much of an issue, that was until the last day or two when the winds have been constantly gale force. Sure it would have been great to have had fine sunny days to share with the family but whenever there has been a break in the rain we've done plenty of walks around the city. And we've had the kids overnight again (Ruby told her Dad that she played with a girl who spoke Germany), taken them to the pictures, and been around at their place for dinner a few times. 

 

Plus all the down time has allowed David to get my new laptop up and running. David's old laptop(which used to be mine) finally bit the dust and because he has his iPad, I get to have a new laptop & he gets my old one (again) Cool eh? Of course he has had to shift all our programmes & information from one to another to another.

 

So now I am working from my new HP 17" HD i7 one terabyte super doper laptop computer! Great for processing my photos. Which saves me from screaming at the rain fade on TV!!