Oamaru

After packing the tent and loading up the cooler with baguettes and salad from Pak'n'Save for lunch, we hit the road by 10am and headed for Mount Cook. Not far outside Timaru, a hitchhiker with bulging rucksack was standing with their thumb out, so we stopped. It turned out to be a French girl on her way to Alexandra to start work as a berry picker. We took her as far as Lake Temuka, where we stopped for lunch. The lake was picture-perfect: vivid blue water surrounded by snow-capped mountains, with a foreground of beautifully scented wild lupins. Our picnic lunch in the sunshine went down a treat, and we were well refreshed by the time I got back behind the wheel.

Next stop was supposed to be Mount Cook, but after driving most of the way there and realising that we were driving into a rain cloud and visibility was next to nothing, we decided while only a few iles away that we'd be better off saving our petrol, so we turned around and headed for Oamaru. The whole region was very mountainous, with lots of lakes and dams down below, but I got a rude reminder to keep my eyes on the road rather than on the scenery. Coming down one steep and twisting cliff edge road, we saw an "Accident" sign, and very shortly after that the police, a fire engine, and a car and touring caravan. The caravan was upside down, the roof completely caved in and all the windows smashed, and the car had its windows broken and was also half way over the edge. Thankfully the occupants weemed to be fine - we could see them talking to the police - but it must have been terrifying. it certainly reminded me where my priorities should be.

Somewhat more sedately than before, we headed on, stopping for a coffee in one village and a photo op (straw bales with faces painted on them) in another, before finally reaching Oamaru and setting up camp. This time we remembered to buy a membership card ($30) earning us a discount on Top 10 bookings for the next two years, bringing the cost of the site to $25.

Oamaru on a Sunday evening is practically dead. Barely a person or car on the long main street, and most premises shut when we wandered out at 7pm. After a couple of drinks at a pleasant bar/restaurant called Fat Sally's, which was almost empty by the time we left, we called it a night and headed back to the tent. Oamaru is home to a penguin colony and there are daily viewings of the penguins coming and going, but we couldn't even be bothered to go and see them, which probably makes us terrible tourists. We did take some photos of this stone one, though. Many of the buildings here are made from a local yellow-coloured limestone, which is very pretty, and also very soft. The town was full of various limestone sculptures. But there is only so long you can spend looking at yellow stone before deciding to call it quits! We discovered that there was an empty kitchen with available plugs, so the two of us sat and watched the film 1408 on the laptop instead. Not touristy, but very entertaining all the same.