Collingwood

On the tip top of the South Island's north-west coast is the area known as Golden Bay and the town of Collingwood, home to summer people and to folks like our friends Keith and Pat Ballard.  They are from Dunedin, but they love living in the sunny north and decided to build a second home there!

We drove to their corner of New Zealand, renting a car in Christchurch and following the twisting roads through mountainous countryside. The scenery would have been fabulous but it was obscured by mist and rain. Foiled again by weather!  We would have to wait another day for sunshine.

Lucky Ballards!  Who wouldn't want a house with this view, especially if the tide were in...

Pat, Keith and Nancy on a Collingwood walk to the old cemetery

We'll start hiking when the cows (about 100 of them) come home.

Keith and Pat were happy to show us some of the exceptional hiking trails.  Two hours on the Kaituna track took us past the remains of gold fields.

The Kaituna track crosses the river where prospectors sluiced for gold.

Collingwood is very close to Farewell Spit, and although we didn't have time for a trip to the top there is a pretty walk near Cape Farewell along the Wharariki Beach.

Wharariki beach is often windy.

Same walk after a coffee break.  That's a whale skeleton behind us.