Where in the World is Saura

Al wanted to get some pics of our trip to Lake Coleridge up before we leave for Wellington tomorrow, so here’s another update.  Over Valentine’s Day we decided to go on a short camping trip to test out the van and use our new camping equipment.  Lake Coleridge is about a hour and a half out of Christchurch.  On our route there, we drove over a mountain pass and rode about 20 km or more down a bumpy gravel road through the hills to get to the lake.  It turns out there is a much easier way to get there, which we took on the way back.  The campsite there is very remote, but they had drinking water and composting toilets, which was very nice.  It was only $5 and there were many sites where people pay annual fees and just leave their caravans.  It is on a 37,000 merino sheep farm, and yes, we did see many sheep.  There was even a herd that grazed around our campsite.  Here I had Alan rock out in front of the herd after we settled in.

The lake was a stunning blue, and the water was very choppy as the winds where gusting almost the entire time.  During the night, we were awoken about every hour to gusts of winds that screamed all around us and shook the tent.  Saura also kept hearing little critters outside and tried to jump though the screen door on one occasion.  When I woke up in the morning the views were just beatiful.  It was cool and crisp and the clouds were spectacular against the rugged landscape.  I also ran into that herd of sheep again.

We only stayed one night, but we’re going to come back through this area on our trip.  There are some nice hikes that go up and around the mountains that are supposed to offer some terrific scenery.  I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine’s Day and we’ll be back with you soon.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2006 at 12:40 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.