8. Manapouri /Doubtful sound

I've been looking forward to seeing the Manapouri power station since it was made so we paid up and joined the tour. 

By launch across lake Manapouri , bus across to Doubtless sound,another boat around the sound and that in itself was beautiful !

And then 200 meters underground to this amazing power station. 

The water flows from here 10km through a tunnel to come out in Doubtful sound. 

 At the end of the tour we topped up with water and headed for Fairlight, a freedom camp at the bottom of lake Wakatipu. The tour costs $400 but it's a once in a lifetime thing and well worth it. Over half the tourists we saw were Chinese !

7. The Rail trail

Central Otago and we're off to bike a bit of the rail trail. We start at Ranfurly and the first thing we notice is a statue by Donald Paterson!  Honestly !

  Christine is going to bike the first leg to Wedderborn, about 14kms

The next leg I do, up and over the highest point on the trail. 12kms to Oturahua, the oldest grocers shop in NZ and home of the Hayes museum. This is one of the best museums I've ever seen and for us in the national trust, it was FREE ! Worth joining !

It made innovative farm products including windmills and fence strainers. All machinery is as it was left . It was powered by a 20ft windmill and then a water driven wheel , housed in that concrete shed. 

Christine rode to Ida valley and I took over to Auripo. We camped the night here ,incredible spot with views over the valley.

The next stage to Lauder was 12kms through the Poolburn gorge so we did this together going there and back. Certainly the prettiest part of the trail. We retrieved our van then drove around to Lauder via Ophir. From there we took turns all the way to Alexandra . Our weather was lovely but I wouldn't like to be on the trail in a strong wing.

After a night in a Roxburgh beside the river, we head for Manapouri , stopping at Gore to post our blog and buy some grog

6. Oamaru

After checking out the Saturday morning market in Geraldine we headed south through Timaru to Oamaru. 

  This is the home of Donald Paterson, sculpture. World famous for his statues in towns all over NZ, including BARRY in Katikati. Steam punk HQ is his latest project

And he also does a bit of extra work around town. 

There's a good movan stop at the A and P grounds. Donald had just bought us some cookies to say goodbye 

   

5. Geraldine

Juuust one more church in Akoroa, a quick make up job by the local artist ( a Donald Patterson sculpture ) and we were heading back off Banks peninsular .

We took turns at riding the rail trail that starts at Little river. We would swap over after about 5kms and Christine would drive and I'd bike. We were the only ones using it which wasn't surprising as it was overgrown and had several gates to open

It was hot and windy as we headed south across the canterbury plains. Funny to see hedges of gorse but most impressed by the huge dairy farms springing up everywhere . The irrigation systems are enormous with this one stretching back about 600 meters to the cowshed in the distance.

We stopped the night at the Mayfield domain, swimming pool included , which was another pop stop in our movan book

Christine is on the hunt for the land that her Rae ancestors settled on just south of Peel forest. We found it no trouble, and the old school site also , marked by this plaque.

Geraldine is just down the road and we're looking forward to catching up with  Craig and Paulette at their backpacker hostel.

One of the best things about Geraldine is an excellent car and tractor museum where we had fun playing on the tractors.

And what good timing ! It was their 33rd wedding aniversary so we went out to celebrate.