Blog

The 26th May was a rare occurrence of a supermoon (closest approach of the moon to the earth) and a full lunar eclipse.  Even rarer, it was a beautiful clear night so we could enjoy the spectacle which is often referred to as a super blood moon due to the red tinge the moon takes on during a full eclipse.The eclipse started at around 9:30 with the full eclipse occurring at 11:15 and lasting for about 20 minutes.  It was a cold evening so I put on some extra layers of warm clothes and h …

Sandy Bay at Oanui is one of those rare spots on our coastline where a coastal reserve has been established and with the help of many hardworking volunteers, the rare coastal dune environment is being preserved and some of our threatened coastal birds given a chance to nest.  It also has great views back inland to the mountain though on many of my previous visits the mountain has been covered in cloud. On Friday morning, I woke early and saw that it was going to be a cold clear morning …

The Kaikoura peninsula walkway is is a great little coastal walk around the the cliffs on the southern coast of the Kaikoura peninsula.  It can be walked as a loop in a couple of different ways either by completing a large loop starting and finishing in the Kaikoura township walking around the northern coast until the start of the walkway, taking the walkway to south bay and then returning to the township via the track that cuts back over the top of the peninsula (2 to 3 hrs depending …

We recently had a family holiday in Kaikoura. This is a trip I've been wanting to do for several years and was really looking forward to.  It had been years since I'd driven through Kaikoura on previous trips to Christchurch and the first time I'd been back since the Kaikoura earthquake.  On our way down we stopped at a winery for lunch in Blenheim and then took a small detour to visit Marfels beach which is the beach just south of the salt works. It's one of the beaches that had risen …

We recently had a family holiday at Ngakuta Bay in the Marlborough Sounds.  We booked a house on book-a-bach and arrived to find that the house was twice as good as we had expected with private access to the beach, directly on the link walkway and with great views from all the living areas in the house.  We had a great week enjoying kayaking out on the water, walking and mountain biking on both the link walkway and Queen Charlotte tracks and just relaxing and enjoying the peace an …