Okains Bay

When we woke on Monday there was already a Cruise Ship in the harbour - the village will have been busy all day - time for us to move on.
The sun was shining and it was a perfect day for taking the tourist scenic route, high in the hills and then over the other side to Okains Bay, a popular summer camping destination. I was forced to confront my fear of heights associated with big views and a bus on a narrow steep road yet again and wonder why I had allowed myself to get in that position but it wasn't nearly as bad as in Italy where, going up a steep hairpin road for a long time in our motorhome, I'd had to retreat to the back and lie with the duvet over my head to allow Len to drive in peace! In comparison this was simple.

Taken on day 2 (the cold one!)

I was imagining that Okains Bay would have lots of little beach baches but no, there is just the odd farmhouse, although there is a little store, school and a Maori & Colonial Museum about a km or so from the beach. The bay itself is quite deeply inset providing safe swimming and has a lagoon at one end, fed by a stream. There is a huge basic camping ground amongst the pine trees lining the bay - any water has to be boiled but at least we are carrying plenty of that.

The hot one (day, that is!)

Self portrait

It was such a beautiful day that we lay on the beach when we got here and had our first SWIM for the summer! The waves were little but we still managed to body surf a few so it was great! We decided to stay another night and do the same today but it has gone back to winter and we have all our clothing layers on again - unbelievable!
So instead we did a bike ride around the valley, walked around a track to Little Okains Bay and visited the Museum - a huge collection of mainly Maori artefacts and all the work of one man. It astounds us that such a collection is in such a tiny place.
We met up with a French tourist in the kitchen who said she has seen us in the bus with the bikes on the front at several spots in the South Island. They will be here for about 5 months too so no doubt we will come across each other again.
Tomorrow we will head back over the hill by more of a direct route to Duvauchelle, the little settlement which is home to the Akaroa Golf Course and where we should once again have internet and phone reception.