We got up early this morning and took the short walk to the beach to watch the sunrise over the ocean!

Very few clouds on the horizon this morning!

It warmed up quickly as the sun rose, and very little breeze this morning!

We returned to the B&B for a great Sunday morning breakfast; eggs, fried potatoes, sliced leftover grilled lamb and toast. Yum. Robert got the bicycles from storage and we tried to fit them to our height and headed out for a ride on the local bike path along the estuary.

Tide is in on the estuary, floating the artsy boat.

Our ride was short-lived. The bikes just don’t fit us and we were getting sore shoulders and necks. We headed back to the B&B and relaxed in the sun on the front deck. It was warm enough to make use of the outdoor bathtub under the apricot tree so I filled it with hot water and bubblebath and enjoyed a good soak!

A glass of wine, some music and a view of our B&B bach, shaded by the apricot tree!

Emphasis on the ‘Beach’ part of Waikuku Beach, the small community north of Christchurch where we are staying. We finally had time and fairly decent weather to venture out the back of the B&B, over the small dunes to walk on the beach of Pegasus Bay looking east over the South Pacific Ocean.

On our walk we passed by a narrow section of the beach staffed by lifeguards with over a dozen surfers practicing on the small waves. Set back in the dune is a building, the Waikuku Beach Surf Lifesaving Club. Other than that section the long, long beach was fairly deserted.

Among the few rocks and shells at the water line we found a few thumb sized purple blobs with air balloons partially embedded in the sand.

With some research I found out to NOT touch them! They are Bluebottle Jellyfish, the southern hemisphere specie of the Portuguese Man’o’war found in the northern hemisphere. A recent influx of these stinging jellyfish have been washing up on NZ beaches and causing some problems. All the surfers were wearing wetsuits which may help them avoid the stings of the small jellyfish.

We left the beach and headed to Rangiora, the biggest, closest town for shopping. We picked up bus cards for the Christchurch metro system and outfitted Robert with some new hiking shoes and did a little exploring of the area. We returned to our B&B and grilled up a great lamb/potato/veggie/salad dinner, finished off with grilled apricots we picked fresh off our host’s tree in the garden! We walked off our dinner on the trail along the estuary out the front of the B&B.

Pampas grass grows on the dikes between the estuary and the farm paddocks.

We couldn’t tell if the tide was coming in or going out from the flow of water through the estuary.

The small boat seems to be a piece of artwork moored in the tidal flat. A signboard indicates that this estuary is home to a diversity of shorebirds! We’ll have to be on the lookout!

We woke to rain, rain, rain, cool and rainy. But we had to provision! Our host told us about the local farmer’s market in a nearby town and we figured that if the farmers show up, we might as well too. No pictures today, but check out their website. Just imagine in all the pictures about half of the visitors, rain jackets, umbrellas and rain, rain, rain!

Ohoka Farmers Market

Travel Day! Heading towards Christchurch today. We drove through the small town of Murchison where we got some coffees and decided that would be a great town as base to explore more of Kahurangi National Park! Just past town going south is Maruia Falls, the first of several ‘Maruia’ named places. all on the Maruia river we assume!

Something to think about as we approached the falls!

An impressive waterfall!

The highway follows the Maruia river upstream through Maruia Valley, passing through the townsite (no ‘town’) of Maruia, curves to the east past Maruia Hot Springs resort and heads up to Lewis Pass. At 907m (2975 ft.) the curvy road with one lane sections was quite the challenge! At the summit we spotted a few patches of snow on distant peaks, but couldn’t catch a shot of it.

As we descended down from the pass we had beautiful views of the mountains, and the lonely little cloud between them.

We continued down into the Amuri Plain along the braided Boyle river, a huge river bed full of cobble rocks, scoured and rounded by erosion.

We got an eastern Oregon/Nevada vibe with the rocky slopes and dry grasses.

We made it to our AirBnB with time to unpack then go out to dinner!

Fabulous fish & chips!

We returned to Tapawera today to walk part of the Great Taste Trail. A sunny warm day and a trail out in the open, alongside a busy road, the walk didn’t turn out to be what we expected! There were great parts, but we called it quits after almost 4 and a half miles!

We crossed the Motueka river with the many ranges of the Tasman mountains to the west.

We passed an alpaca/goat farm, none of the residents curious about us.

Back in town I read more history at the gateway near the little museum.

A link between the Maori culture, represented by E Kehu (a Maori guide) on the right post, and the Pakeha culture, represented by Thomas Brunner (a pakeha explorer) on the left post, this gateway (Waharoa) and an explanation panel are very interesting.After the inspirational reading we headed home over the gravel road to our last evening at this B&B and a last visit with the mare & foal!