Day 3 - Diamond Harbour / Mt Fitzgerald …

… Mt Sinclair / Duvauchelle

This is a back blip.

I may have to wait a few days more before I can check in on blippers’ journals and respond to comments.  Our day was very full today.

The weather was perfect today, not too hot and not too cold.  We started with a delicious breakfast at our B&B, then were picked up by our driver, Neville, who dropped us at our starting point for the day.  The track led us up to Mt Fitzgerald, where we had wonderful panoramic views of Banks Peninsula.  We passed through paddocks known as “the graveyard” because the early settlers chopped down all the ancient native trees to make room for sheep to graze and, in many instances, left the trees to lie where they fell.

There was a very tricky, narrow path along the side of Mt Fitzgerald and we were very pleased to have walking sticks to help navigate the rocks, sharp little ups and downs and mud from the recent rain. We made it across eventually and then followed undulating walkways to Mt Sinclair. We could see Port Levy, Pigeon Bay and Lake Forsyth. We also had our first glimpse of Akaroa Harbour.

At long last we neared Duvauchelle but, once again, had a long, never-ending downhill track to negotiate before reaching our accommodation for the night at Twin Gullies B&B. Our evening meal was delivered from the local pub - Akaroa salmon, roast vegetables and a medley of green vegetables.  The rhubarb crumble was made in-house.  Another delicious meal.

The main blip and the extra show scenes from the day. The top two photos in the main blip were taken from our B&B in Diamond Harbour this morning.  The gold vegetation to the left in the middle is gorse, while the two bottom photos show trees shaped by the wind.  The two top photos in the extra are of “the graveyard”, the others are just general scenes of the day.