More Kaiteriteri

Laundry day today, plus hard-boiled eggs and some killer sourdough rye from the Motueka farmers market (is there a better meal?). Oh, and butter from NZ's Lewis Road Creamery. After five months here, when we go to the grocery I now know what I'm looking for.

Kaiteriteri's population is listed at 735 people, and in these pictures you'll get a sense of how they're spread out along this warm and inviting seaside coast. This first shot shows pretty much the entire town, composed of campground, restaurant, and a tiny grocery standing in for the larger one currently being built.

Yesterday we walked to several nearby small beaches, linked by slender spits of rocky land.

Not 12 hours after I published the blog post "Kaiteriteri: Sunniest Spot In NZ?" we had our first cloudy day here. Saturates the colors nicely, though.

The walk winds steeply up and down. Art's fitbit reported we'd climbed 50 flights and I believe it.

Not a rose...

On a side note, aren't these Penguin Little Black Classics beautifully presented?

I picked them up in May at Scorpio Books in Christchurch. Four years after the crushing Feb 2011 earthquakes, the bookshop is housed in a shipping container in the re:START area, where many wrecked shops from the central business district pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and re-opened. More here.

On Tuesday we walked high atop a hill behind the campground for even wider views.

Worth noting:

In January of 1936, a small parcel of land was set aside as public domain for camping at Kaiteriteri, and placed under the oversight of a board of prominent locals. 75 years later, the Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve Board is responsible for managing and administering, not only the beach itself, but also the campground, local store, Shoreline Café & Restaurant, and now 250 hectares of reserve land.

Astonishing, really, to gaze down on the campsite and know it's protected from development. Can you find us down there? During the warm Christmas holidays this place is packed to the brim.

Zoom view: our happy Rover and caravan, with a million-dollar view out the window.