Van Tour – The Maiden Voyage – Day 2 – Sea, shopping, art and bats

3 May 2018, Waihou Box (vicinity Waimate) to Hanging Rock (vicinity Peasant Point)

 

I slept well during the night staying warm and lulled to sleep by the waves. First thing was to have an explore and see the Waihou Box. This is a structure built in 1910 at the mouth of the Waihou River to stop the gravel filling up the mouth of the river and flooding the surrounding farmlands. I had parked beside the Wainono Lagoon which is separated from the beach by a large bank of rounded river stones.

 

As I walked to the beach there was plenty of bird life on the lagoon. Once over the bank the pebble beach stretched in both directions. There was a lot of seaweed and unidentifiable sea vegetation washed up on the beach indicating it must have been pushed by strong winds during a high tide. After a wander around on the box I headed back to the van and back along the flat country roads to SH1.

The town of Waimate is very well signposted from SH1 but I have never gone there so drove the 6km to see it. I was surprised by how large the town was. They have a very flash new recreational centre and are known for Wallabies (imported from Australia early in NZ European history) and strawberries. There are a number of hiking and mountain biking trails which I will come back to explore more. The town centre is full of beautiful Edwardian heritage buildings from the early to mid 1900’s. On the silos behind the old flour mill were some impressive murals of a WW2 soldier, Maori’s doing a hongi (touching noses in greeting) and a man and boy. Also in the town centre were murals of scenes of daily life from the early times of the town.

I headed back to SH1 on the other route and stopped at the junction for a coffee and slice at the café. Now it was a straight run to Timaru where I needed to do a little shopping. At Mitre 10 Mega (Hardware shop) I grabbed a basket and was just looking for a kiddie lock to put on the fridge to stop the doors opening and some method of keeping the fridge in place as it crept forward yesterday. Unfortunately I was distracted and ended up swapping my basket for a trolley. For some women it is shoes and handbags, for me it is hardware shops and camping shops which I struggle to just buy what I intended to when entering. There is still a bit of work to do on my campervan and I am coming up with ideas on how to do things, such as the fold up shelf on the end of my bench. I need this to be able to adjust height as well as fold up and down so have looked at a few options. Once home I will try them out. Next was a hunt for a special socket bit to undo the bolts on my front seat as I need to move it forward so I can put the cabin/back barrier in place. At the third shop I managed to find what I wanted but had to buy the whole set instead of just one. I have really struggled to get the right bit so I am happy to finally have it.

Just before three I left Timaru and headed west for 30 minutes to the site of some ancient Maori Rock Art. The comments about the site were very mixed but as the rock art is not common I thought I would have a look. The drive was interesting and the final couple of km on a dirt road up a valley filled with Cabbage Trees.

There was a pull over area at the site and steps down to a shelter with an informative display panel. The site is called Te Manunui (The Great Bird). This is because of the prevalence of drawings of a ‘bird man’ which is thought to be a representation of the Giant Eagle that used to be in New Zealand. From the information panel it is a short walk down a grass road to the fence against the cliff face. Initially I couldn’t see anything andwas thinking the bad reviews were correct. Then I saw one thing, and another and gradually the shapes started standing out. Unfortunately there had been a lot of graffiti before it was fenced off and there was a lot of weather damage but the images were clear. Apart from several “Bird men” the drawings were of Moa (a very large flightless bird, think Ostrich on steroids, now extinct), fish and some shapes that I thought looked like an insect. If you are on SH8 between Timaru and Tekapo I think the 20 minute detour is worth it.

Now I was heading to the final stop of the day 40km away. I took the road towards Cave, a very small village and headed east for a bit before heading north from the town of Pleasant Point. 10 km later I arrived at the Hanging Rock bridge and then the picnic area. The reason I chose to come here is it is a place to see the New Zealand Long Tailed Bat. New Zealand only has two native mammals, the long tail and the short tailed bat. I have never seen either type. The sun was just setting so the timing was perfect and I could see the sillhouete of the bats flitting around until it got too dark to see.

The picnic area has no signs restricting camping and has a toilet for those who are not self contained. It is right next to Opihi River so tonight it is the sound of a river to fall asleep to.

 

 

 

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