FAMILY SUMMER HOLIDAY TO GLENDU BAY, WANAKA, AND BEYOND

 Famous wild lupins... we picked a few which had gone to seed and brought them home to scatter in the garden. We did this before many years ago at Harewood Road and they grew fantastically!

 Such gorgeous vibrant scenery we have in NZ!! 

 Some old machinery which Mike and Heath played around in...

Tekapo (I think!!)

Arrowtown - good pose for Guy, and Kent's car!

 Crown Range 

Dad and Marilyn took us to the Lone Star for Mike's birthday! 

A Very Special Dessert for Kent and Guy

ABOVE: VIDEO

There is something worth looking at, it seems, with this land rover (hmmm, Mike said it's not a Land Rover but some other make... will find out... and there is only one such in NZ and this is it!!! Wow! No wonder they pored over it!) ...which is actually on somebody's front lawn, but never mind.. lets just go and inspect it...

Sadly, out of 8 days at Glendu Bay, we had 3 days fine sunny weather! The rest was rain and even cold.  So a lot of time was spent in the various caravans playing games, reading books, talking  .. etc...

Olivia Gibb, Lousia Craig and Guy...

 Heath, Lachlan Murray and Angus...

 Kent barbecuing outside the tent front.  Our caravan fridge (20 years old) died, so we had to buy a new one in Wanaka!  This is the old one waiting to be taken to the recycling centre!

 New Year's Eve... Felicity and Hamish and kids did their thing, and set up shop selling Glow Sticks.. and their various 'cousins'.  The shop still had people queuing up, long after it was 'closed' for the year!

 Ryan, Andreas, Angus, Rupert, Lachlan, Jono - New Years Eve does strange things to people...

 With Abbie from Auckland..

 Quintin, Fiona, Steve, us, and our kids (and Rebecca Williams) all went to Cardrona for lunch on Sunday. This is the most famous pub in NZ and used in TV ad's! It is very old.

 A gorgeous old truck parked over the road which everyone felt would make a good pose picture!!

 I love this picture of Fiona and Steven

 Early one morning ('early' for vacation!) on Kent's last day, we all went to our fave cafe in Wanaka for breakfast.  Kent set the camera... I think we all look as though we could have done with another hours sleep!

Our Wanaka holiday together is now finished! Kent flew back to Auckland... Guy stayed on camping, and Mike, Heath and I left with the caravan for 5 days travelling where the wind blew us... further south...

The dam... 

 We stayed at Gore in a camping ground for the night.  Breakfast outside in the morning... cool and sunny. 

 Wound our way down to the Catlins. We parked our caravan (will see where shortly) and discovered we had run out of gas. The nearest place to get gas was 90 minutes away in Invercargill. So we found this cute wee tiny fish and chip shop just down the road from Curio Bay (Waikawa I think!)

 We stayed two nights in Curio Bay. Paul and Celia Watson have built, on their farm, a Community Centre which is used by the Council for meetings, is used by DOC for meetings and they also have a local church service in it every Sunday. They invited us to stay there and we were delighted. The views are breathtaking. Imagine waking up in the mornings to see penguins, sea lions, seals, and the most glorious ocean views.  The sun rises and the sun sets were glorious... although the sunrise wasn't too good as the weather was too dull.

Heath had the air rifle and set up a tin can and did some target practice.

The following sunset pictures  were so beautiful it almost hurt!!

 Paul and Mike taking photos of it.  Not sure why Paul was, as he lives here and has lots... but I can actually understand... as you NEVER get tired of watching them!

 Paul and Celia's property is partly on that rock knob..

 We went to the nearby Curio Bay camping grounds. SO old and cute. 

(Right mouse click and go to a new tab to see the site:  

http://www.curiobay.org/curio-bay-camping-ground.html)

These were the showers... unreal!!

Paul and Celia took us tiki-touring for a day... en route we visited John and Sheila at their home. We were made so very welcome.

 Caroline, Mike, Paul, Sheila, Celia and John.

 This is the southern most place in New Zealand!

 Amazing sight around the roads.. the wind has been so strong  that the little forests have all been blown in the same direction for years and grown that way!!  

 This is where we camped overlooking the ocean...  the little Community Centre/Church is there beside us. 

 Purikanui Falls - a little walk to beautiful falls..

 Overlooking Lake Waihola.. we camped here for the night.

 Mike, doing a little housework along the way...

 Standard 10 for sale... 1953...

 Moeraki Boulders... lunch in the cafe first, then we walked down to the beach to see them.

 Not sure why when we are walking down, Heath seems to be walking back up.. hmmm

 The boulders are basically, in a word, petrified mud! 60 million years in the making, in the cliff walls.. and as you can see down further, once in the open, over a long period of time, they break up and go back to mud again!!

But more are being made all the time.  Hang around a few more million years for some more.

 Going back up..

 Waitaki River - we stayed for a night at Waitaki Waters Holiday park
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g255677-d1953288-Reviews-Waitaki_Waters_Holiday_Park-Oamaru_South_Island.html
We reckon it was so awesome we are definitely going back asap!  It was so far off the beaten track that you really felt you were hidden away somewhere.
The river was a ten minute walk down an amazing track... and the sea fed into it, an amazing sight. We loved it!!


Below, Heath standing by the ocean, but the river was about a 10 minute walk along the stony foreshore. So strange to be standing on a stone beach, a river stopbank, yet it was the sea!

 We were allowed to go down the back way through a farmers paddock to the river, but the track is flooded over! Dead end! 

 Waimate for breakfast... thought this was a hilarious name for a Jewellers Shop!!!