Rangiora Golf Club via Amberley Beach & Leithfield

Wednesday morning dawned grey and cloudy again but before breakfast we walked back up the hill to try to find 'Irene' whose name and address was on the envelope for our $10 overnight fee. Rather wierd, we thought, as there was an iron maiden on the post in the campground. We got a couple of suggestions where to find the road from the rubbish collectors and then from a couple of elderly men chatting over the fence up the hill. There was no one home at Irene's so we ended up putting the money into the iron maiden anyway. Maybe Irene was just a backstop for travellers who didn't have change! We did a circular walk down to the beach and along the mouth of the river which didn't hold much temptation to Len for fishing

No surfcasting today methinks 

So after breakfast it was back on the road again, in fog and drizzle,  to revisit  Amberley Beach where we parked right by the beach and had a coffee whilst watching a dolphin wend it's way down the coast.

From there we swung into Leithfield where we couldn't view the sea from the carpark so we wandered down to the beach and watched the messy waves before continuing on to Rangiora Golf club. We had been hoping that the drizzly rain would clear but no such luck so after chatting to the friendly lady in the pro shop and arranging to play the next day we settled into the carpark for the night.

There was meant to be a ladies social game on Thursday but we were on the course ahead of them - only 6 or 7 players as it happened. Rangiora course, $30 each, stretches over the road, is parklike with wide fairways lined with conifers and was nice to play on.

Poser!?

There were bunkers which we didn't visit and no water hazards that we can remember! We had a quick shower afterwards in the clubhouse - I just needed to move some buckets with things in from the ladies shower first.

We then drove into Rangiora itself to pick up a prescription that had been faxed through for Len, visit the bank and have some sushi for lunch followed by coffee and a very naughty big piece of caramel slice at another cafe - delicious!

Claudette, our Google navigator, was then programmed to take us to yet another golf course - this time Waimairi Beach which is on the coast of Northern Christchurch.