WINDWHISTLE

SATURDAY, 2nd November. 

The sun was up before we woke this morning and the temperature when we left Springfield was 13 degrees.  Our first call was to the Waimakariri River & gorge, and to our surprise, we encountered what seemed to be a rally of large trucks.  There were about nine of them that we saw, I think we missed a few.   Several people were out and about, watching and photographing them go by.

After they'd all gone, we made our way down to the riverside and watched a couple of canoeists readying themselves for a bit of canoeing.  We waited for a while to see them start off, but they took too long, I think one was a learner and receiving some instructions from the other.

We then drove back to the main road and stopped in Darfield at the Bakery & Cafe where we had our morning coffee and shared a delicious lemon cake.

A very popular place, much larger than the Sheffield Bakery but every bit as good.

It was a 50km drive from there along the Inland Scenic Highway to Mt Hutt.

The Washpen Falls were a wash out for us....after driving along a corrugated gravel road for 2 kms we were informed that the walk from the carpark to the falls was 4 kms, very steep in parts and slippery from heavy rains.  Knowing our limitations, we resisted the temptation to walk the walk, and pushed on.

As we weren't able to check into our accommodation until 3.30p.m., we decided to drive to Mt Hutt village but then discovered the road was gravel for most of the way and as we have a small hire car, thought it a good idea not to go down that road, so drove to nearby Methven, hoping to find a picnic spot or park where we could sit in the sun for a while and eat a sandwich.  No luck there so back to Rakaia Gorge where our accommodation was situated, found a table, made & ate our sandwiches and at 3.30p.m., zoomed up the hill and checked in.

         The view from our room