It is getting hot at 8am! This time we know there will be no u turn back into the motor camp and this is our farewell to Kaikoura. On on way out we did stop by the surf shop to pick up a sun hat for each of us after the yesterday's hike in full sun. Paul did not like that he had to get one with no style, he really wanted a baseball cap that offered no protection to his neck or ears, but I told him that a goofy hat is better than skin cancer! We left feeling like tourists for the first time on our trip with sun hats on! While meandering around town for a morning stroll we saw a Saturday market so we went to check it out. This was not a very good market, it looked more like a garage sale with lots of people trying to sell used junk and dirty cloths out of the back of their cars, but we did come across one hidden gem of the market and picked up some jam called Blackboy peach (blackberry, boysenberry, and peach)made by "Preserved in time" it is so so so good! After the market it was on the road, the road south heading to Christchurch was a pretty drive, we came into Cheviot a very small town with a sign pointing to the ocean that read "Gore Beach", and had the camping symbol on it. Our original plan had been to head farther inland to a DOC site by Mt. Thomas, but this beach is said to be one of the safest in NZ so we turned our Serena a hard left and gassed it heading east to check it out.
Gore beach was so beautiful and had a small surfing community built around it, however it was a public holiday for the people of Christchurch and this beach must be a ht spot because it seemed the entire small town was packed full! Feeling a little disappointed we left Gore beach and continued our trek south looking for the turn off for our inland scenic route through Rangiora.
We came to Amberley another small town that had beach camping, feeling a little tired we hoped this campground would not be full. We followed the signs a short distance on their "highway" and came to the campground which was a large open field with nice bathroom and just a few family's around. We decided to stay, it was cheap and we had room to clean out our van and re-organize before our friends arrive on the 19th. I started to have a really bad stomach ache, and after an hour of me curled up in the van Paul drove us into town to get some tums or the NZ equivalent. The tummy worked great and I started to feel better, I took a little walk around the park and when I came back Paul was in conversation with an older Kiwi. The kiwi has lived in Christchurch his entire life, and had a lot to say about where to go and what to do even though it seemed the more he talked we had been to a fair amount more of the islands than he had. This guy was not really interested in what Paul and I were doing or had to say and would just pretend he didn't hear a questions or remark and continue to ramble on and on. After listening to this guy for 20min. he finally left us alone and went back to his converted city bus motor home. There seems to be a lot of converted motor homes as well as old kiwis that like to talk your ear off about things they know little about while pointing at maps.
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