A Whirlwind Road Trip

Main Street, Alexandra, Central Otago. Feb 2009. Ajr

I’ve just completed a hurricane-speed circuit of almost three-quarters of the South Island in just 43 hours. Setting off at 3am on Wednesday, we travelled from Christchurch to Dunedin to Gore, where we worked for the day. Then, after packing up the car, we then drove from Gore to Tapanui and on to the Central Otago towns of Alexandra, Roxburgh and Cromwell and on to Wanaka, through the Haast Pass to Haast itself in South Westland, where sleep was the only thing on my mind. We packed up next morning and drove an hour to Bruce Bay, worked all day and then packed the car again and drove up the West Coast through Ross, Hokitika, Kumara and then across Arthur’s Pass and back home to Christchurch – a total of 17 hours in the car! I managed to snap around 400 photographs in that time and while I haven’t sorted them yet, here’s a little visual gem from Alexandra….. the town pie cart (complete with tractor and selling Marlow’s Pies), decorated (rather stridently) with an image of the town’s old bridge.