Happy New Year.

Sunday 1 January 2006; Dansey's Pass.

We'd stayed the night at Omakau Domain (domain is a public park). We'd pitched in the shade of the squash club, but had to move it 2 yards as the nor-wester blowing down the hill pushed the end right in. New Years Eve celebrations included chicken risotto cooked in white wine while we drank the rest of the bottle and a second bottle, red this time, before retiring to read. Think we managed to stay up until 11pm. Rock on! And Happy New Year everyone!

We'd ventured as far south as we'd planned this trip, so headed north east for Dansey's Pass.
But before we got there, we passed the Shoe Fence - the story has it a local farmer found a pair of shoes, possibly dropped from a passing car and hung them on his fence in case the owner returned for them. Some wag thought this amusing and added further old shoes to the fence. Others followed suit and the fence now bows under the weight of hundreds of pairs of old footwear.

The 935m pass is the junction between the Kakanui Mountains and the St Mary's Range. As you drive across it the gold of Central Otaga gives way to greener rolling hills of North Otago.




This is, we believe, the New Zealand Falcon or Bush Hawk. We've been spotting 2 or 3 birds of prey a day, but typically in unable to stop locations or the wrong lens is on. This one circled enticingly close as we stopped and changes lens, and then wheeled away. Apparently they hunt small birds, although a few wild ferrets crossed the track in front of us.

Onto Oamaru for lunch at a cafe. Its a former port town, and a bit Liverpudlian with its collection of formerly opulent nineteenth-century buildings, many decaying with neglect as you venture outside the main civic district and into the lessor mercantile areas. The Oamaru stone is a 'free stone', easily cut and worked when freshly quarried but it hardens when exposed to the elements.

We had planned another night under canvas, but having ventured out to the yellow eyed penguin colony and found not a single penguin, and with dark brooding storm clouds heading our way from Dunedin we decided to head home instead (so yes the pics of Oamaru were ripped off the net!).