The coastal stretch of the South Island between Christchurch and Dunedin is mostly empty, dotted with small cities and smaller towns, yet blessed with long sandy white beaches and a quiet rural beauty that we quickly came to love during our too short time here.
Friday – Move Day
I began the day with a lovely early morning lake walk on the Kinloch Peninsula before starting our routine of cleaning and packing to leave Queenstown. Even though everything is marked up here to Qtown prices, our first stop was the grocery store since it’s better than no grocery at all which is what we’ll have in our next stop. Also, the “free” coffees from PaknSave are surprisingly good.
Before leaving town, we drove out to the historic Kawarau River swing bridge – site of the original and famous AJ Hackett Bungy Jump. It’s a big modern operation with almost constant jumpers and also a relatively new Swing option. Not only is it really fun to watch (and a bit gut dropping) but the scenery in this gorge is really striking.
After watching other people have fun :), we drove NE through beautiful landscapes along the river, which soon turned to desert (and orchard stands – yum!) and then to high pasture country.
It felt very strange to be making this turn. We are not going any further south or west or to any major new regions. The rest of our trip will be heading primarily north. We’ll be going to new microregions and new towns and landscapes, but the drama of not knowing at all what to expect the next week is mostly over. We know we love the places we are headed, but to me that’s not the same as the unknown.
Any unrest about that disappeared as we crested a rise and suddenly the beautiful ocean is in front of us. It hadn’t been that long since we were in the Catlins, but we realized how much we had missed the seashore.
First stop was a return to Shag Point, where initially it was a lot calmer than our last experience here with “smoke on the water” wind. But while we were there, we saw the sea change to whitecaps in the distance and suddenly it was blowing like stink here again. It was great fun to see seals again and then (you guessed it) a large group of shags out at the point.
We decided to also stop at Katiki Lighthouse where we had viewed the two Yellow Eyed Penguins last time. No penguins this time, but instead we saw a small colony of seals with their pups. The pups were older than the ones we saw north of Kaikoura (which makes sense since two months had passed) but still absolutely mirth inducing with their playful behavior and adorable hopping on and off the rocks.
Our place for these 5 nights (really – 5 this time!) is in Kakanui, a little beach town south of Oamaru (the main town in this area.) We’re staying at a beach house, which is the “family crib” and reminds me in some ways of the Bristol family camp on Lake Champlain in Vermont. Older home, family pictures on the walls, much loved furniture and carpet but clean and with an amazing view over the ocean out the front wall of windows and front deck.
Our hosts, who live next door in a remodeled house, came over to welcome us and they are lovely. After they left and we started exploring, we realized that she was a ship’s captain in Auckland and I began experiencing serious hero worship.
Saturday
Rain, rain, rain. It was raining when I arose before dawn and predicted to do so all day. I still enjoyed a long walk along the beach with only a handful of surfers and one dog walker. Brunch and then I settled in for a day of computer catch up, including planning for Fiji and our week in Portland while Hale headed to Dunedin to buy a surfboard so he can join the cool kids on the beach tomorrow.
Late afternoon I went for another walk on the beach, along the river and over to Kakanui Bay and its tiny store. I had wondered since Wellington if I would ever find my own Paua shell and tonight I was stunned to find a dozen of these pearl-like luminescent shells in my cove scrambling.
Sunday
Sun, sun, sun! It’s blinding in the house with so much sun streaming in over the blue blue sea. After breakfast, Hale took off to the beach to try his new surfboard and did amazingly well for a first-timer. He’s so lucky to be coordinated, but the kitesurfing experience certainly helps too.
I started with an explore along the rocky, low tide only beach and was rewarded with a photo album of nature’s art plus the treat of seals sunning on the rocks. My walks along the river and the northern beach were equally picturesque on this incredibly vibrant day. What a difference.
Home for a couple of hours for lunch and soaking in the sea view from the sunroom, then out for another beach stroll along All Day Bay and over the road to a hidden, deserted stretch of beach.
Monday
Such a privilege to wake to watching ship lights pass on the far horizon with the milky way and thousands of stars filling the sky above them, and then see the sky turn to pink, orange, yellow and finally blue as the sun rises over the next hour and a half.
Hale shuttled me up to the tiny town of Duntroon from where I embarked on the last leg of the Alps to Ocean (A2O) trail. (This trail starts at Aoraki and goes past the high lakes then down to the ocean at Oamaru – I’ve mentioned it several times in the last few weeks as I’ve taken advantage of it at Lake Tekapo, Ohau Lake, Lake Benmore, Omarama, etc. for both walking and biking. The whole thing is over 300k and includes a helicopter ride across a glacial river – two good reasons for me to sample rather than do it straight through!)
This stretch is just 54k at an intermediate level, plus the additional stretch I added by tacking on a road ride south from Oamaru to our home in Kakanui.
Hale spent the day with his new love – his green and grey surfboard – getting in three sessions on the water and getting better with each one at riding the waves. (With lots of falls too he assures me.)
The cycle trail was a mix of on and off road, but the on road parts can hardly be considered on road. In one stretch that I was on for about an hour, one car passed me going the other way and the only other car I saw was a parked one. Here’s the best part about this parked car – it was literally parked in the middle of the road. Someone stopped at a coffee shop and honestly just turned off the car in the middle of the lane and went in for coffee. I love New Zealand.
The trail combines plenty of ups and downs (lots of ups in the first half until reaching Peaks road where the overall descent to the shore begins, interspersed with local hills) and a grand mix of scenery. First up is Elephant Rocks, where I wandered around the area that was used for Aslan’s camp in Chronicles of Narnia. These limestone hums were created 25 million years ago and are fossil rich – including a whale skeleton since this area was marine at the time. Today it is popular for rock climbing and reminds me of Castle Rock on Arthur’s Pass.
For the first 4-5 hours, I only saw one other cyclist, although I saw him a couple of times as we passed each other heading the same direction. It was only when I stopped for a snack just short of Oamaru that I saw a handful of other bikers passing from both directions, including a Kiwi woman who stopped to chat and told me about the A2O Ultra marathon that was currently underway. Over 6 days, 135 runners will complete this entire trail – that’s a marathon every day.
I also spent time chatting with a Kiwi man I met while passing through his land. He retired from full time medicine at 47 and now still practices medicine part time, builds houses part time and farms part time – merino sheep, hazelnuts, horses and, with climate change, a plan to put in an olive grove. I’m constantly buoyed by the goodness and welcoming spirit of the New Zealanders.
Reaching Oamaru, I explored more of this town that Hale and I stopped in on our way south, found the lovely harbour area, stopped by the commercialized penguin viewing business and then made my way over the enormous hill out of town. The last leg of riding is beautiful – on a quiet road along the coast, where I paused for a very late lunch and a stroll on a deserted beach before riding home for a quiet night.
Tuesday
Another starlight spectacle during the night and another beautiful sunrise. I cycled back to my deserted beach for a long solitary walk while Hale enjoyed another day of surfing.
Wednesday
Beautiful morning walk in the rising mist, more than compensating for a too early morning. Then we packed, cleaned, and reluctantly left this quiet haven.
Wrap
What a special place Kakanui is – not a tourist town at all – just a Kiwi beach town with retirees, farmers, fisherpeople and I guess maybe people who work in Oamaru? Our time here went far too quickly, or to put it more accurately, was far too short. I had booked it as a bit of a stopgap between expensive Queenstown and expensive Kaikoura, but it turned out to be a wonderful destination.
Kakanui feels like an undiscovered idyllic beach town and we lived an idyllic life here. We were both relaxed and enjoyed the easy going pace of life, along with the ease of coming and going on our own with this central beach home base.
Hale would move in here permanently – loving the old beach crib, the beach for surfing or kitesurfing and the quiet of it all. Not forever for me, but somewhere we could imagine spending a month or a season, living slow, appreciating nature and communing with the ocean. We won’t shortchange it next time.
