Akaroa to Oamaru

Our morning drive out of Akaroa was easier than expected, probably because there were far less roadworks. The rain was constant all the way to Timaru where we stopped off at the Aigantighe Gallery. It's located in the suburbs but is a really good little place. There was an excellent exhibition of local bloke who managed to draw and paint through the whole of his 7 years in POW camps in Italy and Germany. Some of the gallery's permanent art was on display and I particularly liked Limb Report by Imogen Taylor 2021

After lunch in the town centre (by the way, eating out is very expensive in South Island) we continued on to Oamaru and had time to have a good looked around Harbour Street which has a fine collection of mid to late Victorian buildings, most of which contain very quirky arts and crafts

The following morning, our first stop was the Steampunk HQ. Steampunk is a quirky and fun genre of science fiction that features steam-powered technology. It is often set in an alternate, futuristic version of 19th century Victorian England steam powered devices – the ‘world gone mad’ as Victorian people may have imagined it. Examples are machines like those in the writing of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, and in television shows such as Dr. Who

After Steampunk HQ, we visited Annie, the mother of a Mullumbimby friend of Jeni. She suggested taking us on a short driving tour of the inland area, to places we probably wouldn't know about. Our first stop in the hills was at Annie's friend Peter's off-grid "work in progress" property. From there we had a short drive to Danseys Pass Crossing where Annie unveiled a G & T picnic next to the river

Finally, we went to Elephant Rocks - it was an interesting landscape but neither of us could work out the "elephant" tag