Mount Sunday/Edoras

Mount Sunday/Edoras

I’m a couple of days behind, so as it’s raining I’m going to try and catch up.  Apologies if this is a long one.

Our next destination was Mount Sunday, which was the location of Edoras for the filming of Lord of the Rings.

When we first picked up Ermintrude we were told that we’d learn something every day.  What we learned on the day we left Akaroa is that you shouldn’t fill the ice cube tray with water just before driving away!

I was more successful in coaxing Ermintrude into the right gear on the hilly bits, so we made good time back to Christchurch.  The area we travelled through was mainly flat farmland, crops and the odd field full of spindly legged cattle.  Apparently, there hasn’t been enough rain this year, so a lot of watering was going on.  A couple of times they were watering too close to the road and the windscreen was sprayed with water as we passed.  I found this quite irrigating!

It was another lovely sunny day and we really appreciated not having to be anywhere at a particular time.  So, after stopping for blueberry smoothies, coffee and pastries and shopping, it was quite late when we got to Mount Somers – which isn’t a mountain but a small town.  This is the last place before Mount Sunday, so we decided to stay at the Mount Somers Holiday Park.

After the hustle of the previous places, this was heaven!  It’s only a small site, mostly cabins but with some camping and powered sites, and hardly anybody about.  There was a little herb garden around our electricity and water point with chives and mint growing in it – I feel a tzatziki coming on!

We cooked our dinner in the camp kitchen and sat and chatted to a self-styled “mad Aussie woman with blue hair” who is cycling around NZ.

Next morning we got up, turned left and drove for 43km in a straight line!  The last 21km was on one of NZ’s famous gravel roads.  We had been a bit uncertain about getting up there in a motorhome, but the holiday camp owner told us Mount Sunday is only a hill and lots of people do it every year.  We forgot to ask if they came back!

Driving on a gravel road is a bit like driving over corrugated iron covered in stones of various sizes.  If you can stay on the bits covered in gravel you get a reasonable ride but tend to slide around; if you can’t, everything shakes!  And just in case you do find it too smooth, there were a few cattle grids along the route for good measure.

Still, we got to Mount Sunday and all we had to do was walk a 1.5km track to the summit.  The views were spectacular; a deep blue lake on one side, mountains on the other with what looked like rivers of stone running down the sides – the camera can’t do it justice, at least not in my hands.

Then we had to drive back along the gravel road.  On the way up we’d noticed some huge pens full of sheep.  As we came back the pens were empty.  I was just saying they must have needed a lot of trucks to take them away when we noticed all the dust in the air.  There were the sheep being herded down the road by a land rover and a load of dogs.  Except that the dogs were more interested in jumping in and out of the back of the landrover.

Eventually the farmer waved us through; there was a large verge on the right at that point and the sheep seemed to think it was safer to stand there than in the middle of the road while we passed.

Getting back to Mount Somers, we had another first to look forward to – emptying the “black water” tank.  All things considered, this went very well, and I’m not going to go into any detail!

After washing my hands, we hit the road again until we found a convenient place to stop for a picnic.  We’d decided to stay for two nights at a place called Twizel for the sole reason that we liked the name of the town!  As our ETA was 4:30, we rang ahead to check they had vacancies – which was just as well, as we got the last pitch.

As another first for the day, we stopped on the way to refuel.  I couldn’t remember which side to fill up from, so I hedged my bets and drove between two pairs of pumps.  I then spent a very embarrassing couple of minutes looking for the filler cap!  Then Diane got out and we both went round the van a couple of times, before I spotted it – not on the van body, but on the cab!

Our next point of interest was Lake Tekapo.  We approached it from above and it looked glorious, a vast lake in a rich turquoise colour.  We couldn’t stop for a photo because, as always, where there’s a view there’s a van.

So, on to the Twizel Holiday Park.  Unfortunately, this was another crowded, commercial camp, full to capacity.  We visited the local 4Square supermarket, bought some food and ate in the van!