Saturday's Outing

Briefly, as to driving…. We keep reminding each other to “keep left, keep left”. And both of us have multiple times hit the lever on the left hand of the steering wheel and thereby activated the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. For some reason, we both have also found ourselves wanting to manually shift gears--guess this little old Honda must remind us of our little Nissan, our designated kids’ car for some 12 years. Thankfully, this car is an automatic--I, at least, already have plenty to think about when driving! However, in Mark’s and my wanderings, we have always found it better if I drive and he navigates.

Consequently, I drove as we set out on Saturday for parts unknown to the north of us.  We drove some 30 miles to a small town called Waimate which is known for, of all things, wallabies! Apparently, the wallabies along with possums were introduced here in the 1850s. Now they are both tame and in the wild. Like possums, they are considered a pest, however. We had to stop briefly at Victoria Park (another one!) to view the flowers, bowling green, and wallabies.

We were up for a hike but since the day was overcast we decided to hike close to Waimate rather than driving up into the foothills. The local i site recommended Studholmes Bush which was just outside of town in the direction we wanted to go anyway. We had a grand time hiking with sheep, then gaining altitude for some great vistas, eating lunch, and scrambling back down again. By this time the sun had come out.

The rest of our day was spent driving west towards the southern Alps along the Waitaki river. Beautiful winding roads and foothills with sheep and dairy farms as well as general farming and even deer farming. The river has three large dams which provide massive amounts of hydroelectric power to the region. The resulting lakes are gorgeous--turquoise in color. We also encountered some Maori rock art. A full day!