21 December 2016 - NZMCA Park, Ealing, South Canterbury

We have travelled a full circle in the last five days or so, now back to our safe and charming little club park over property, and enjoying the last hours of glorious weather which is forecasted to break tomorrow.

We left Tekapo yesterday morning after going for a gentle wander along the lake shore toward the village. We walked out onto a low projection, lupin covered and home to several predatory or protective shorebirds who made it quite clear we were not welcome. We persevered to take advantage of the lakeside views, admiring the snow clad mountains in the distance. The sun was warm on our banks and the wind had yet to turn up. How glorious it all was!

At the public dump we topped up with water and dealt with our waste, and fell into conversation with a young couple of Berliners who asked if they could use our water pipe. While they were filling their tanks in their cunningly homebuilt “self-contained” camper, we learned they were heading to a music festival further down the island but were making the most of the days in-between. We offered some ideas of places to visit and see and we exchanged season’s greetings as we parted company. Later in the day when we learned of the terrorist deaths in Berlin’s Christmas street markets, I thought of this well-spoken couple and hoped that this would not personally impact their lives. What a horrible Christmas that would make for!

We drove north from Lake Tekapo, over Burke’s Pass at 709 metres ASL, marginally higher than Tekapo and dropped down into wonderful farming country and lower temperatures, leaving the wider Mackenzie Basin. When we had crawled out of bed earlier in the day, we had been met by interior temperatures of 4 degrees (it was 2 degrees outside). As we crossed the Pass we came upon displaced road kill, a wallaby rather far from home, although when I checked my map, it wasn’t that far back to the Hunter Hills if you did not bother with roads.

We reached Fairlie in time to pull onto a grass verge for lunch. Fairlie describes itself as the gateway to Mackenzie Country, and while it is technically in the Mackenzie District, geographically it lies in the lower wide valley of rivers that flow down toward Timaru. We have called here before and once visited the Museum which is a real gem. Entry was through a turnpike triggered by coins and led one into an absolute treasure trove of agricultural and social history. Yesterday we did not linger in Fairlie but headed on toward Geraldine, climbing up away from the township, pausing briefly at the top of the hill to look back over the rural landscape.

Geraldine was buzzing with tourists, Christmas shoppers and the normal business of a thriving rural community. It boasts a population of a little over 2,000 but you would think it much more. We popped into the supermarket and then into the little museum which offers a brilliant resource for those with an interest in the area. We passed some time with the volunteer at the reception desk, a relative newcomer to the town, having emigrated from Christchurch. He seemed to be very happy with his hometown.

And then we came on through to this same park we are at tonight, a tried and true space and a good kick off spot for our plans for today.

Peel Forest's Emily Falls

It was a joy to wake to warmer temperatures this morning and yet another day of good weather. Having risen at some ungodly hour, we twiddled our thumbs until after 8am  before setting off back westward to the Peel Forest, 22 kilometres north of Geraldine and about the same from here, back across the Rangitata River.

Reaching the settlement of Peel Forest which is just a little store that offers café service, DOC information and yesterday’s newspaper, we picked up a walks brochure before heading the few kilometres on to Blandswood. This little mark on the map is a small cluster of houses or shacks dotted about a heavily wooded hill, such as you would wonder why anyone would want to live or stay in such shady dark huts. We parked at the base of the hill and set off on the Emily Falls walk, just 1.6 kilometres supposedly taking an hour and a half. We chose this walk over the Rata Falls walk, because this latter was described as having a five hundred metre walk upsteam and neither of us fancied wading through a stony creek in our heavy boots. Little did we know that the chosen walk was little better, except our rock hopping through the creek was reduced to perhaps one hundred metres. We struggled up one hill, down another, then up another, and so on. It was slow going and while the bush was lovely and we spotted fantails and rifleman, heard tuis and bellbirds  and the distinctive flight of the wood pigeon, the falls at the end were not so spectacular as to warrant a return anytime soon.

Chris picking his way across the creek

Back at the car park, we drove on to Te Wanahu Flat at the eastern edge of the Forest Reserve and stretched out on the divans to recover before having lunch. It took some effort to rouse ourselves from this state of lethargy, but once we were on our feet again, we enjoyed the Big Tree Walk, a short half hour walk to a large totara almost three metres across. It is not the biggest we have seen but certainly was impressive. Here along this walk there were a lot of massive aged matai, kahikatea and of course, lowland totara.

Now on a roll, we set off for another walk, this the Kahikatea Walk, described as “a flat easy walk with board walks over wetter areas”. It is indeed flat if you start it down at the camping ground, but not so when you have to descend the steep hill to access it to begin with, and then return to the car at the top of the hill. And there are quite a lot of narrow board walks, but some of the muddiest holes were left au naturel. We certainly had our exercise for the day after that walk and were happy to call it a day.

NZ Fuschia

The Peel Forest Park Scenic Reserve is the largest in the Geraldine area, covering 783 hectares around Little Mt Peel which stands at 1311 metres ASL. The area was subjected to wholesale milling and felling during the late 1800s and might have all been cleared if it hadn’t been for the foresight of a visiting British MP who was so horrified by the forest devastation, he bought 16 hectares of uncut forest. On his death, this became the embryo of the present Peel Forest Park. If you do the maths, you will realise that 767 hectares is second growth, but it has been regenerating for over one hundred years, hence it does not initially appear to be anything but virgin bush. On the walk through to the falls, we noted a huge number of New Zealand fuchsias; we had seen these fascinating apricot trunked trees years ago down in the Caitlins but these were more numerous and much more substantial.

On the way home we called back into the Forest Store, picked up the day’s newspaper now having arrived and an ice-cream. We could have decided to travel further north en route toward our Christmas preparation, but instead thought we may as well return here and deal with anything else tomorrow. Manana la manana!