Waves, Rocks and Lakes

5:15 departure this morning, this is becoming a habit! It’s about an hour drive to the boulders – yes the ones we were at for sunset last night.

The sky was getting light when we arrived so the group spread out along the beach to do their respective things. I headed for the small stream a little way away from the boulders to look for reflections of the colors in the sky, Florence headed for patterns in the sand.

Once the sun was above the horizon, the light changed very quickly so I concentrated on the birds on the beach for a while then headed back to the boulders. Once we’d done the proper pictures, we tried the obligatory tourist shot with feet sticking out of one of the hollow rocks.

We returned to Dunedin, checked out and went to The Perc Café for Breakfast. This place is so good; the coffee is one of the best we’ve had in New Zealand. I had halloumi and avocado on toast, Florence had smashed avocado with poached and a side of halloumi – all lovely.

There was one more coffee shop we wanted to try on the way back to the hotel so we got some flat whites – they were good but not as good as Perc!

Long drive north today, we stopped in Palmerston to refuel. There were statues of gold prospectors and the town’s favourite cat next to the main road.

We passed Moeraki yet again – the sixth time for us on this road – and stopped in Kurow for a ‘technical break’ and refreshments. Kurow has produced five All Blacks, most recently Richie McCaw and the town museum has a display devoted to their local, and national, hero. The lady in the museum also told us we shouldn’t miss the dam up the valley – the second largest earth dam in the southern hemisphere.

We arrived in our destination, Twizel, at about 3:15pm. We just had time to have a shower, get the laundry on and meet the motel’s cat before our sunset excursion.

We drove past our campsite from a couple of weeks ago on the shore of Lake Pukaki and carried on in search of a particular tree in preparation for sunrise. After a few false starts, we found the view and had a wander round so we know where to put our tripods when we arrive in the dark in the morning.

We then drove back to the far side of the lake for our final location of the day, Peters Lookout, with a view of Mount Cook over the edge of the lake and trying to use traffic trails as foreground interest.

Dinner was another pleasant surprise. Poppies doesn’t look much from the outside, or the inside, but the food was really good. We’ve been meaning to try a New Zealand whisky for a while and there was one on the drinks list amongst the Scotches – Cyril’s 20 Year Old – it’s very good!