Sunday 9 March:
This was a full “rest” day in Greymouth, with no regrets re not sampling the huhu grubs of the Wild Food Festival in Hokitika. One of the food truck trailers from the Festival was overnight Saturday near me in the Top 10 leaving on its way back to Christchurch today. So laundry and van cleaning plus reading and relaxing on a hot sunny day was in order – hence no photos for the day (but I make up for this tomorrow).
Monday 10 March:
I had booked in for the Mistletoe Flats DoC campsite for tonight, halfway back to Christchurch via Arthur’s and Porters Passes. While heading for the Otira Valley on SH73 Greymouth to Christchurch I spotted a “Historic Plaque” sign as I crossed a one-way bridge some 40km from Greymouth. “Historic Site” signs are common while travelling, but “Historic Plaque”? So I turned around and went back to check it out. The plaque was on a concrete block in the bushes at the side of the road, not easy to get to. But, it was an IPENZ (Institution of Professional Engineers NZ – now Engineering NZ) Millennium Project Plaque. In 2000 IPENZ erected country-wide plaques recognising significant projects or people in NZ’s engineering history. This was one of them, and about a person.
Finding the plaque about Charles O’Connor in the bushes was the first unexpected event of the day.
The bridge piers O’Connor designed were never used for the railway as its final location was changed to pass alongside Lake Brunner instead of going through Kumara.
However, the road designers notched steel girders into the sides of the piers and used the girders to carry the weight of road traffic. The solid piers were intended to carry the weight of the railway engines of the 1880s.
Lexie and I had already come across the fame Charles O’Connor achieved in Western Australia with the 350km Perth to Kalgoorlie water pipeline. We never knew of his association with the West Coast.
We followed sections of O’Connor’s pipeline between Kalgoorlie and Perth in February 2004 [photo from Wikipedia, as I have not scanned our print photos of that trip yet.]
Just before reaching Otira Village around noon the Tranz Alpine train whizzed past on its way to Greymouth (by some quirk of my travel timings I seem to keep coming across these trains regularly).
I then stopped for lunch in the van at Otira where the locals seem to have a thing about local drug use [“Absolutely no A class drugs will be tolerated here” – OK, what about Class B?]. However, the Lake Brunner school kids had spent some time in 2023 at the village decorating the railway pedestrian underpass with dozens of murals.
With the many signs warning pedestrians not to cross the railway tracks here, but instead told to use the underpass, I guess the message is, “do as you are told or the Taniwha will get you”.
As I explained last year two sets of double locomotives are stationed at Otira to help push the Tranz Alpine and the several daily coal trains to Lyttelton up through the Otira rail tunnel.
So back to O’Connor’s record on the West Coast. As I climbed the very steep Otira Gorge road I had to marvel at the location of the road, surveyed and constructed under O’Connor’s supervision following Arthur Dobson’s selection of the pass into the gorge as the best route through to Westland from Canterbury.
This avalanche shelter and stream water flume overpass further on were both running with water when I went down this road last year.
Today both were dry as heavy traffic crawled at almost walking pace up the steep incline.
Even going down the 1999 viaduct that bypasses “Deaths Corner” heavy trucks have to crawl in low gear to avoid potential run-away, this resulting in traffic build-up behind the trucks.
From the viaduct lookout you can see back up to the top of the pass where O’Connor started his survey and road construction, and —-
—– where the Arthur Dudley Dobson memorial is located [stock photo above], recognising his discovery of the Pass on March 12, 1864.
Now, in the photo above, just hidden by the vegetation between the stone pillar and the road, is an off road parking area for people visiting the memorial, and where the second unexpected event of the day occurred.
As I reached the top of the pass a loud repeating “whomp, whomp” came from the front left wheel so I pulled into the parking area just in front of an SUV and lay on a mat to look under the front of the van for anything loose that might be hitting the front wheel – nothing visible. The driver of the SUV called out asking if I had a problem, and I said I think I’ve got a failed wheel bearing. He said “we can readily check that” and grabbing the top of the wheel he shook at it, and it moved, and we agreed that did not look good. We then checked the right front wheel and it was firm as a rock, so he said I should be OK to drive on carefully. I replied “Christchurch, here we come, slowly” and thanked him for his help. So instead of ‘trickling” to Christchurch over two days I “whoomp whoomped” my way for the rest of the afternoon arriving a day early at Tasman Holiday Park in Papanui. They, of course, were very happy to book me in for the extra day so it was with some relief I settled in for the night.
What was further interesting was that as I approached and passed Mistletoe Flats DoC campsite I could see the forest on the hillsides right down to the road had been burnt out in the fire of 6 December 2024 between Castle Hill and Bridge Hill, so my intended night in the forest at the campsite would not have been a pleasant one with remnant fire smells all around.
Tuesday 11 March:
I was at Team Hutchinson Ford in the central city at 7:30 am, and pleased to have them fit me in for wheel bearing repair this coming Friday. So I parked up at Eastgate Mall in Linwood at 8am, and after 9:00 when free Gold Card bus travel kicked in, took the Orbitor bus 1¼ hour circuit right around the outer city area passing the four large city shopping malls in the process. I then returned to my site at Tasman to park the van until Friday morning – no point in chancing further damage to the wheel bearing before repairs are carried out. No photos again today (but I made up for that yesterday).
Wednesday 12 March:
Rain began steadily from around 4am and continued through to after 10am. When a break in the cloud came at 10.30 with the sun shining through for 10 minutes or so I optimistically rugged up against the 15 degree outside temperature, put on my waterproof gear, and brolly-up headed for the No.1 bus to travel to Kaiapoi.
Rain started bucketing down as I headed in this electric bus up great North Road from Papanui, but by the time we reached Kaiapoi ½ an hour later it had paused.
The river front harbour at Kaiapoi has moorings for pleasure boats and the ——-
—– River Queen faux paddle steamer excursion boat.
The orange roofed building behind the boats in the harbour view (2 photos above) is the “Paris for the Weekend” café.
Entrance to the café is under the overhanging eve on the left of the building, and given their outdoor sign touting the excellence of their cheese scones, I ordered one with coffee, and was offered jam and whipped cream with it (a sort of cheese Devonshire tea) – it indeed was excellent.
Alongside the entrance ramp into the café was a wind vane highlighting the nautical history of this river harbour with ——-
—— the silhouette of a three-masted schooner. This had been a busy port in the past.
The real surprise regarding the café was finding its origin from the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury Earthquake displays in the Museum which I visited after my 11.30 coffee and scone time.
The café building was originally the Kaiapoi Railway Station ——-
—– and after being lifted off its foundations in the quakes [Museum photo] was relocated and restored to eventually become “Paris for the Weekend” in 2016.
I left the Museum just after 1pm as the rain started coming down again, and bused back to Papanui to get into camp and change out of my wet clothes. However, the trip to Kaiapoi was really interesting, and a good, but short wet day out.
Thursday 13 March:
Overnight I booked for a 1pm to 2.30pm luncheon cruise on the Kaiapoi River Queen for today, as the weather was to be clear, fine and warm. So 11am I caught the No. 1 bus again and headed for the Kaiapoi waterfront. As I had some time to look around before boarding the River Queen I decided to walk up to ———
—— this pedestrian footbridge which is a well-known feature of the Kaiapoi River area.
The bridge is across the road from ——–
—– the Mandeville Tavern. Mandeville, near Gore, is the home of the Croydon Aviation Centre which featured in Week 5’s Travel Notes, but I do not know of any connection between the two Mandevilles.
So here is the bridge today, Thursday, ——-
—– and here it is after the February 2011 earthquake. The Mandeville Hotel in the upper left is hidden by a large tree in the photo taken today.
The River Queen is an all-electric twin-prop vessel which makes for very quiet travel down the Kaiapoi River into the Waimakariri River and then on to the river outlet to the ocean.
Main deck diners as we head down-river ——–
—– and top-deck “imbiber” as we approach the river outlet with ——–
—– fisher-folk lining both the banks of the river and the sandy spit on the beach at the river mouth.
Vegetation on the river banks included loads of dead tree branches as with the ground sinking during the earthquakes the resulting high water table saturated tree roots and killed the trees. Now, 14 years later, bank-side plants are still slowly adjusting to this environmental change.
There were ducks, seagulls and shags on the river, with this pair taking time out from fishing to sunbathe on the tidal flats.
So, after docking at the river front harbour following the cruise it was time for an afternoon tea stop at ——-
—— my favourite Kaiapoi Café before heading downtown to catch the No.1 bus back to Papanui. The cruise and meal made for another good day out.
Friday 14 March:
I was away at 7am to Team Hutchinson Ford in the central city, and after dropping off the motorhome for the wheel bearing repair explored on foot the new commercial areas and laneways between the bus interchange and Cathedral Square.
Five Lanes has narrow laneways leading from 4 separate main streets into central hidden squares with shops and eating establishments throughout the lanes and the squares. Innovative planning has gone into Christchurch’s earthquake recovery, leading to all sorts of surprises ——-
—– such as this Little Fiddle Irish Pub revealed in another hidden square off a side-lane from Five Lanes.
It was nice to see something familiar, such as the front of the old post office in Cathedral Square. It had been the city information centre for many years and following the 2011 earthquake was to be refurbished and converted to shops and restaurants. However, redevelopment stalled, then last year the owners went into voluntary liquidation.
The other stalled project in the square is the Cathedral itself. After spending over $100 million funding has run out, and the restoration work mothballed until fund raising can enable continuation of the project.
The north side of the mothballed Cathedral (taken from the new City Library).
This is a billboard depiction of the south side of the proposed completed Cathedral.
Some 1,460 commercial buildings were destroyed by the earthquakes (some 85% of the central city area). The renewal over the past 14 years has been extraordinary – the whole city is fresh and new.
The library on the north side of the square is an example of the new face of the city, but it was the internal architecture which I found refreshing.
This children’s’ section has a huge play area alongside book displays ——–
—– and access between floors is provided by these “floating” timber staircases.
Also, scattered throughout the building is a range of artwork.
Once again I used an All Day Tram Pass to get around the city, hop-on/hop-off throughout the day. Some of these trams go back to the late 19th century, being retired in the 1950s. This one had a typical sign of the times for that period with ———
—— this warning. Not sure who enforces the penalty.
Tram Stop 12 (out of the 18 stops) was for the Arts Centre.
These buildings were, in the 1950s, the University College of Canterbury, and included the engineering school where I studied for 3 years. For many years the 23 buildings in the complex were operated by a Trust which in 2009 realised that its $20 million dollar insurance cover was well below the replacement value of the time, and so reinsured the buildings. This was fortuitous as the revised cover enabled it to undertake restoration work after the earthquakes which would have been impossible under the old insurance cover.
The upper floor of one of the refurbished buildings contains an exhibition on the Arts Centre Restoration Project, and the cross-bracing in the ceiling shows the type of strengthening work undertaken. The insurance funds have now run out with two of the most severely damaged buildings (part of the old engineering school) mothballed until funds can be raised to complete the work.
Rutherford’s “Den”, where Sir Earnest Rutherford conducted his experiments on the structure of the atom, has been part of the completed restoration work.
The “Den” is a downstairs basement room off the main quadrangle in the Centre, and ——–
—– in an upstairs original lecture theatre they have extensive displays on Rutherford’s life and work for which he received the Nobel Prize while in his late 30’s. The display panel above quotes Albert Einstein as saying that Rutherford “was a second Newton” who expanded the frontiers of human knowledge. Praise indeed.
The quadrangle at the Arts Centre features its distinctive cloisters.
While exploring the Arts Centre at 11am I got a call from Team Hutchinson Ford to say the van was ready, so I walked through town to pick it up, drove out to Papanui to park it on my site at Tasman Holiday Park, then bussed back to town and caught the Tram to return to the Arts Centre. It was quicker to do this than continue sight-seeing in the city and battling rush hour traffic by picking up the van late afternoon. In addition I was able to stay in town till after 6pm, finishing up at Regent Street where ——-
—– I enjoyed a “Hokey, Tokey, Pokey” chocolate topped ice-cream while sitting with a “friend” from “Rollickin Gelato Desserts”.
So, the day ended at Regent Street with a four-city block walk to the bus interchange (trams stopped at 6pm) and then back to camp – a busy walking and riding day overall.
Saturday 15 March:
I drove out to New Brighton and explored the Saturday Market and then the beach area. The main building on the beachfront is the Library and the “Salt on the Pier” Restaurant and Café.
The Library is on the right of the clock tower, and ——-
—– the café downstairs and restaurant upstairs on the left.
After lunch I walked the 300m long pier (longest in Australasia) ——
—– which was built in 1997 at a cost of then $4 million. It was damaged in the 2011 earthquake costing $9 million in repair work which was completed in 2018.
On the walk out I found people peering over the side at some sand art ——
—– commemorating the 6th Anniversary today of the March 2019 shooting tragedy.
Fishers were landing catch at the end of the pier which was equipped with wash-down benches for people to handle their catch and prepare bait.
Meanwhile ——
—– there were loads of folk enjoying the sun and 26 degree heat up and down the beach either side of the pier.
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