Heading West - Stage One

After coming home from the USA and spending several weekends in Christchurch, I don’t leave town at all in September - instead I focus on the things I can’t do while travelling. Things pick up in October - starting with a day trip down the Otago coast to Kaitangata. First stop is the small Dunedin suburb of Green Island: I spent a few evenings here in the 1980’s because of the cinema with slightly dodgy films (curiously, it’s now a church) but these days my main reason to visit is to see the dentist. This time, I pop in to the supermarket for some salted caramel kisses and to check out the new McDonalds, built on the site of my former neighbour’s former pub. Obviously, it’s pretty standard, but the young woman who serves me is a bit of a stand out, with her attention to greeting everyone and making sure the dining area is impeccably presented.

The coast down this way is pretty special, particularly when the sun is out, but I don’t take many photos - just this one in fact, from a street at the north end of Brighton. After a coffee at the Brighton Beach café, the road closely tracks the coast as far as Taieri Mouth. It then heads inland, over the hills through a mixture of farm and forestry - it’s not sealed after Taieri Mouth, and my car really doesn’t like it. While the road is in pretty good condition, there’s a ridge of gravel down the centre which bashes against the bottom of the car (on a narrow country road like this with virtually no other traffic, it’s normal to drive down the middle).

I’m actually a bit early - driving out to the Toko Mouth when the light is golden and the shadows long is brilliant, but in bright sunlight, it’s a bit normal. The 60 km from Taieri Mouth to Kaitangata takes a couple of hours, as I divert down various side roads.

Once there, I’m very dry - The Crescent Bar and Grill makes the pub sound rather fancier than it is! Now for the main event: for weeks, people have been taunting me on social media with their claims of how good the fish and chips are. I make my order at 6, but it takes more than half an hour before they’re ready. It’s an entertaining time, however, as everyone who comes in knows everyone else, and they catch up on local and family gossip. My meal comes as it should - wrapped in newspaper. Even better, the hot dog is almost exacly as I remeber them from my childhood - crunchy batter, a sausage (not a saveloy, which is what everyone in Dunedin uses) and sauce. The only thing missing is the wee bag that sticks to the hot dog - here it is put in with the general population.

There are way more chips than I can eat (for just $2!) and the blue cod, while short, is quite thick and very fresh. Excellent value at $13 all up. Kaitangata is a small town - it’s main commercial activity is coal mining, although it now has two holiday parks (thanks to the Clutha River) as well as the pub and fish and chip shop.

Last week, I go a bit further afield, although it doesn’t quite go to plan. I want a pie from Golds Bakery in Balclutha (80 km south of home) and to try the new bar café. I need coffee for the journey so stop in at Kūkū - it’s a couple of days after the local body elections, so the talk is of the results, enlivened by the presence of a local journalist.

Once in Balclutha, I find the bakery lacks any pies and the new bar café is so new, it’s not 100% finished. Balclutha is a bit lacking in nice places to eat, so I head west, up the Clutha river. I didn’t actually realise that I’d be going past the Greenfield Tavern, but when I spot it, in I go. It’s a very traditional sort of rural New Zealand pub, with a small range of beers on tap (Speights is $8) and a kitchen doing burgers, toasties, loaded fries and a few menu items. My $7 cheeseburger is very tasty.

Just up the road is the Tuapeka Mouth ferry, which crosses to the south side of the Clutha River. It’s a tiny thing which operates on an on-demand basis for free during the middle of the day, when weather and river conditions permit. Today, the river is too high to permit.

There’s another spanner in the works - the holiday park in Alexandra has no cabins available, so I have to spend the night in Wanaka. I stop for a coffee in Roxburgh and a beer at the wonderful Station Brewery in Alex.

The Haka House hostel in Wanaka seems to have grown a lot since last time I stayed here, with a bunch of rooms added out the back. It’s a nice enough place but Wanaka itself, as always, manages to annoy me. I am lined up at a place to have dinner, when I’m told that the people hovering outside the door, with no discernable order to them, is actually the queue. I give up and go to b.effect for chicken and chips. In the morning, I once again wish that Dunedin has a proper patisserie like Pembroke.

It’s a great day for a drive, up the west side of Lake Hawea and the east side of Lake Wanaka to Makarora.

I’ve driven this road many times, but never stopped in at the Blue Pools - down a 1.5 km track through rain forest to the confluence of the Makarora and Blue Rivers.

There is some boardwalk and a couple of bridges near the end: they’ve just undergone a two year renewal project. One bridge had come to the end of its life, so they upgraded everything to cater for an expected increase in demand.

As for the Blue Pools? Well, the sign had warned that the Blue River could pick up a lot of gravel and sediment and be brown, until the next flood comes through to clear the system. The sign did not, however, warn that the Blue Pools might actually be green. As I walk back, I catch up with a fellow called Dave who tells me it’s all down to how blue the sky is: he’s been here before with a brilliant blue sky and found the pools to have the same hue. The green is quite pretty. We also talk beer and music and before no time, I’m back at the car, ready to head further west.

Cheers!