From Marlborough our plan was to go to Kaikoura, but we didn’t have enough daylight left to get to Kaikoura so as we drove south we were once again on the hunt for somewhere random to camp where we hopefully wouldn’t get in trouble. We had planned one stop along the way to visit some sort of gorge we saw in a picture and really didn’t know much else about, so we ended up just heading for that spot so we could explore the gorge the next morning. Our directions took us off the highway out onto a long gravel road up through rocky green hills with farms and sheep all around – quite scenic! It was dark and this road was very secluded so we thought we could probably just camp somewhere on the side of the road. We found a field with no fence around it and decided to just camp there, knowing it would be pretty weird if another car happened to drive down this road and find us. Oh well, we had to sleep somewhere, and the more comical, the better!
Gourmet dinner spot
View of our campsite in the morning
Usual scenery for this trip - me rereading my favorite book :)
We pitched tents and settled down in the road—the only flat place—to cook dinner. Of course as soon as we were settled there with the camp stove on a car came, but they only asked us if we were okay (reply: “just cooking dinner!”) and continued on. Our spot was successful, and in the morning when it got light we realized just how beautiful an area we’d stumbled into – rock green hills cut up by rivers and mountains in the distance, plus cow and sheep fields all around. As we were eating breakfast another car drove through our camp and the guy stopped and talked to us. He owned much of the farmland in the area and apparently took a liking to us because he invited us to his farm to see the sheep shearing. This was really cool because they only shear sheep once a year, and it’s a big part of New Zealand you don’t usually get to see in such an authentic way! Of course we took him up on his offer.
Adorable kids playing in the barn
They shear the sheep with an electric razor, and they are fast! Sheep have wrinkly skin so sometimes they get cut, so the process was a little brutal.
Friendly farmer on the left, and on the right Zak is trying to pin down the sheep (he failed - it's harder than it looks!)
Demonstrating old-fashioned shearing with a pair of sharp scissors
This little guy was causing trouble to get our attention :)
We then headed up the very scenic road into the hills to find this mysterious gorge we’d seen a picture of. The road ended at a house where we parked and received a map and a warning that this hike had many river crossings. Wet feet might cause some to turn back, but not us – we bravely fought the cold and the currents, because it would never be worse than being waist deep in fast rivers in the snow like our hike last month! We zigzagged up the river while the rocks got bigger and whiter and generally cooler. This was one of the most fun hikes we’ve done even though it was short.
We eventually got to Sawcut Gorge, which was only slightly cooler than the rest of the hike anyway, but it was basically where the river went through two high walls of rock and was only about ten feet wide and fifty feet long. It was pretty cool to walk through! After we finished this hike we hopped back in the car and headed on to Kaikoura with socks and shoes hanging out the windows to add to the dirty hippie vibe our cheap car stuffed with backpacks was already giving off. Overall our experience in Sawcut Gorge was an excellent testament to sometimes not having a plan and just seeing where you end up and who you meet. This is always a good lesson for me, a quintessential planner, but more and more I’m enjoying being spontaneous and just going with the flow. Maybe some hitchhiking is in my future ;)
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