Monday, January 04, 2016

Coastal Route North

When I'd come to Dunedin, I'd turned off SH1 at Palmerston and gone inland. Friends had told me to make sure I did the coastal route north of Dunedin so I set off to do that today. First I drove north on SH1 until I reached Waikouaiti, where the early colonial settlement was clear in many buildings. It was set in the midst of the hilly Otago countryside I'd come to know in this region.

The beach was beautiful, and the camping ground only a short walk away from it.

I was especially intrigued by the church of St John, built in 1858 and said to be the oldest church still in use in Otago/Southland. The cemetery looked to be a peaceful resting place.

South of Waikouaiti it was soon time to turn off the main road to take the scenic road towards Karitane. And that had a beautiful little 'harbour' area too - very peaceful.

The road then climbed up to Puketeraki Lookout, and my goodness, the view was just spectacular. In one direction you looked back over Waikouaiti and Karitane bays, and a small peninsula. In the other direction you looked back to Dunedin, and Taiaroa Head where the albatrosses roost.

Down the hill there were some lovely views over farmland.

It was a very quick journey back to Dunedin, and I spied a wifi box en route for posting yesterday's blog posts. Across the road from it were more early houses, in good repair. I guess that these days they may well house students.

 

3 comments:

  1. I love all those coastal shots Margaret and really I must say so similar to Kawhia and Aotea where we are right now....same kind of landscape with water pushing at it's edge. I do hope they maintain those old houses - even though in the interim they are possible student flats - reminds me of the houses in the pre-episode shots of "Close to Home" haha

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    1. Those houses do look well maintained from the outside at least. Hope they are insulated to be warm inside. Anne showed me some student flats in very poor condition yesterday. The landlords should be ashamed.

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    2. Indeed Margaret, there are some student flats in need of a whole lot of TLC! We are so lucky to have the student population in Dunedin and I wish they were at least all warm and dry... not sure how some of them survive our winters!
      AK

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