17 January 2015 - Ouruhia, Canterbury

Last night we left the curtains open until very late, quite alone to enjoy the evening and splendid views as night fell. The ribbons of water glistened like silver strands stretching far to the west and we listened to the cries of the pied stilts and more distant sounds of the terns settling further up on the shingle banks. Then came wind gusts, blasting down the river valley, swirling and obscuring our peaceful views. We were backed into the wind and quite secure, but I did wonder about all the birds I had seen settling down for the night.  It continued for several hours making the viewing of our film of choice on the television rather erratic. I was confident that rabble-rousers would be out off by the inclement weather and remain far away from our little hideaway, and so they did.

We decided we were rather taken with this Regional Park, an area that warrants further use and exploration. The Park, established in 2006 and covering an area of 15 square kilometres, starts about halfway across the Canterbury Plains and extents eastward, out to the river mouth at Pegusus Bay. Much of the land within the park comprises old river channels or islands in the lower river. Stopbanks and engineering constructed in the 1930s closed off the southern river channels, so that the islands are now part of the south bank.

The river offers boating, kayaking, swimming and fishing, while on land there are spaces of 4WD vehicles, trail bikes and mountain bikes as we found, horses, walkers and runners. The park is divided into five sections: McLeans Island, Kaiapoi Island, Templars Island, Te Rauakaaka and McIntoshs. We are only familiar with the first two parts.

We emerged from our posse mid-morning and made our way back along the dusty road, having established with our smart-phones exactly where we were for future reference. Soon back on the sealed roads, we drove east to Kaiapoi, dumped, shopped at that expensive New World and made our way to Hamilton Jetty on the Waimakariri River. Here Chris once again made use of the easy water access to wash the motorhome and I watched the comings and goings of the jet boats.

After lunch we decided to return to “our” chestnut orchard, where we were soon set up and Chris happily snoozing with the earphones on, semi-listening to yet another cricket ODI. We will stay here through to Monday when there might be some movement on the new camper. Chris wants to sort out a sign writer at the very least, but in the meantime there is Sunday, and beautiful sunny weather which all makes for an opportunity to do some walking or sightseeing. I will have to organise something for tomorrow apart from cleaning windows and worrying how I will jam all my clothes into a reduced wardrobe!