Banks Peninsula

Saturday we drove a few km to Rolleston which has quite a lot of post-earthquake new house building going on. We stocked up on groceries, fuses and essential bus tools.
Then we were on the road to Banks Peninsula in the sunshine after that freezing cold night.
We stopped enroute at the Waihora Park Reserve which had been recommended to us as a good low cost place to stay. We just had a coffee there and Len had another chance to lie under the bus, dirty more clothes and continue investigations for why our water pump had started working spasmodically before totally dying. Which had meant that we were having to carry lots of extra water on board. Anyway, this time SUCCESS! Sooo exciting - you don't realise how important a water pump is until you haven't got one. In the end Len had found the culprit fuse, hidden away in the engine compartment, where you would apparently least expect to find one. So if anyone wants some big containers of water we have plenty to spare.
I'm almost wanting to start doing a review of toilets for tourists - some are great as they are clean, have paper and may have antiseptic dispensers for toilet seats as well as hands; others are middle-of-the-road but others are just disgusting. Well the toilets at Waihora Park come into the disgusting category although they did have slimy toilet paper. I don't think the toilet bowls had seen any kind of brush or cleaner in the 30 years they had probably been there and what excuse can there be especially as they have an onsite caretaker who collects the fees for campers who stay.
Moving on - - - - - - - -!
With "pump" smiles on our faces we drove on to Little River where we wandered through the arty galleries and where I couldn't resist buying myself a little white milk jug with personality as an early Christmas present. I don't need it in the bus of course but I have been wanting one for home! The lady in the Info Centre told us it would be fine for us to stop for the night in a nice little parking area at Catons Bay by Lake Forsyth, with black swans and ducks, and next to the rail bike trail which we were planning to do the next day. That was great as our little book said no camping for that area. We felt very conspicuous as it is right by the main road and we were the only ones there before dark although when I was woken by the roosters at 4.00am I found there was another little van tucked away.

It was another nice sunny day on Sunday and we hopped on our bikes to do the Banks Peninsula Rail Trail as far as Kaituna Quarry which had a tourist long drop which Len reports was a very short, smelly drop with no paper (always pays to take your own).
We diverted to Birdlings Flat on the way which is a stony beach known for it's many gemstones - too dangerous to swim at and over the years the stones washed up from the southern rivers have created a long spit called Kaitorete closing off an area of water known as Lake Ellesmere - polluted and unswimmable but with quite a large bird population.
We dug into the stones on the beach to find some pretty gems before visiting Vince Burkes private Gemstone and Fossil Museum which he has at his house close to the beach. What an awesome collection he has - he said it won't be the biggest collection in NZ but is probably the biggest collection on display. They go fossicking up rivers every week and I think I can understand how passionate you could become always trying to find something even better.
The bike trail itself was quite gravelly which will help prepare us for the Otago Rail Trail and almost boring with long straight sections. I felt a little angry to see 5 dead sheep in varying places close to the trail and smell the stench of a couple of others that we couldn't see. Another letter is needed!