Banks Peninsula

November 12^th, 2019

After chillin’ in Betty 2.0 for a couple of nights thanks to my first real rainy day in New Zealand, I was ready to move on but I actually backtracked a bit at first.  I saw on paraglidingearth.com that I had passed a flying site in the rain a few days before, situated in Lyttleton.  I drove the half hour back and first checked out the landing zone which was a rugby field situated beside an industrial shipping area with some big oil tanks.  After doing a bit more research and looking at the hills above, it didn’t look likely that I would easily find the launch area and it would have been quite a hike so I thought I’d try to do a bit of ground handling instead.  Wouldn’t you know it…this country has been pretty windy the whole time I’ve been here and when I finally crack my wing out of the bag, there was hardly any wind.  Oh well, at least the wing got to breathe a little bit.

Downtown Lyttleton:

Heading back towards Banks Peninsula:

I hopped back in Betty and headed back from where I had come on the Banks Peninsula and then continued on.  I started the first of three pretty serious climbs I would have to do to reach my final destination, a campsite in Okains Bay.  There was a pullout near the top and I saw a sign for some hiking trails.  It started off through a farmer’s field that had a fair number of sheep.  I saw a collection of them hanging out under a tree and figured at least I’d get a photo of them, but let’s see, I might get a great view up on the hill (not that there aren’t great views almost everywhere you look here).  I hiked about 20 minutes up and found a little subpeak that looked like was going to be about as good as it got so I hung out there for a bit and snapped some pics.  It was spectacular.

The sheep under the tree that enticed me.

Looking into the next bay:

I thought I could get to the peak...but no.

I like the little guy checking me out at the bottom left.

Although most sheep would run away from me, these guys seemed a bit curious.

Continuing on I descended into the next bay along a pretty narrow gravel road.  I’m happy I didn’t run into any traffic coming the other way as there were very few passable sections and backing up on this road would have been a challenge.  

Down near a bay I was back onto pavement, or sorry, “sealed” road as they say here.  I was cruising along at 50-60 km/h when I noticed a couple of mid-sized birds and a little black one on the side of the road.  The little guy darted out in front of my and I tried a combination of braking and swerving…but it wasn’t good enough.  I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the two parents out to inspect their little one that I had just run over.  Shit.  I continued for about another kilometre until I found a place to turn around. 

Arriving back at the scene, I was surprised that the little carcass was gone.  I pulled over about 50 meters further on and walked back along the road searching for the body in the tall grass.  The two parents were 10-20 feet into the field and I felt like they were looking at me with disdain.  Somehow I felt they knew that it was me.  “Sorry guys” I found myself involuntarily saying.  I took a zoomed in pic of one of them, hoping to figure out what kind of bird it was later.  I returned to the van, turned around and started back in the same direction.  That’s when my heart really sank.  One of the parents had pulled their dead baby back onto the side of the road and I could see its disembowelled body, its intestines looking like large worms spilled onto the pavement.  I felt horrible.  What to do though?!?  I continued on so that I wouldn’t disturb the parents any longer, I had done enough.  Later I looked online and saw that they were pukekos.  Wikipedia even mentioned that they tend to hang out by the roadside and many of them die from being hit.  A day or two later I saw a postcard of one and it even mentioned that fact on the back…still, it didn’t make me feel better.

One of the bereaving parents:

Another climb and back down into a bay and I arrived at Otains Bay.  Thanks to carbon dating of some artefacts found, Maoris have been in this area since the 1300s but it’s still a sleepy place.  One little corner store, a library from the late 1800s, one school and a few dilapidated tennis courts.  There used to be a few different docks over time for shipping wool and locally made cheese but that’s all gone now (the sheep are still around).

That tiny white thing on the right is a cruise ship.

The campground was huge and hardly occupied with a nice beach and decent amenities which included a much-needed hot shower.  Apart from the bird incident, it was a great day.

The beach at the campground: