The night was chilly again, but we were warm. We woke just before the alarm went off and we got up, got dressed quickly so we could go for a walk to the beach which was supposed to be 5 minutes walk away. I t would have been a long 5 minutes if we had continued going by the look of the road, so we gave it a miss. Thirty minutes would have done it. Back to the camper for a quick breaky and head off to
Timaru.
Not a LOT happening in Timaru on a Sunday! We saw a berry shop/cafe outside Timaru, bought some more raspberry jam to take home, stopped down the road a bit and made scones for morning tea. Our next stop was
Ashburton. I was excited about this place as its where they make the
Ashford spinning wheels. I would have loved to get one but I was so surprised by the price. $NZ550. That would be $AU440. I think I'll look for a second hand one on ebay. We found some nice gardens in Ashburton (after we'd done a shop at Countdown - Ian's fave shop) and made bacon and egg burgers for lunch. I know; it's getting to be a habit!
As usual we had prayed about our day, and I fully believe God has been directing us and leading us. We didn't want to head straight to Christchurch and I wouldn't have minded going to see
Akoroa again. The highway travel was soooo boring!, and I felt like we were wasting our last precious day of our beautiful holiday. We looked at the map and our possibilities. We decided to turn right at Burnham just before Christchurch and head in the direction of Akoroa, but instead of continuing to Akoroa, turn left at Motukarara and drive through Gebbies Pass to
Diamond Bay. We can see on the map there is a camper park there. The drive was so pretty and on the way a bonus! Ian spotted a ewe who had JUST given birth to twin lambs. I got some pics of course. A bit gory, but pretty amazing. I have been wanting a photo of what I call the 'maternity section', a paddock full of ewes with their newborn lambs. There are also 'pre-natal wards' where the paddocks are full of very pregnant ewes. The sheep here are like popcorn, all ready to pop! We got photos of a paddock full of beautiful brown ewes and lambs on the way as well.
We eventually found the camper place with only minutes to spare as the notice said the gates would be shut at 5:30pm. It was 5:20pm. After passing through Gebbies Pass, the drive to the park was very similar to the Otago Peninsula drive, with windy roads right next to the water. This park is called
Orton Bradly Park and is a community park. Campers stay for a donation of $NZ15. It's powered, natural, pretty, big, and WE are the only ones here! The manager (Ian) told us about a couple of walks here, so we took the 20 minute round trip to Dunmallet (the top of a hill). It was just on dusk and it was so pretty, calm and peaceful up there I felt compelled to give God praise, He is so good. After I yelled out 'Praise You
Jesus', I just felt creation all around responding in kind with 'Yes, praise His glorious Name!'
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| Our morning tea spot; how pretty is that! |
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| Brown sheep maternity ward |
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| Can you spot the Pukeko? |
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| Here he is! |
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| The entrance to Orton Bradly Park |
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| The scenery at Orton Bradly Park |
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