Day 23 Lake Ohau, Gliding at Omarama, Road to Oaramu, Steam punk parl

Jan 23

Twizel is only 30 minutes from Omerama where we had a 1pm gliding experience booked so with a morning free to explore in we asked the isite at Twizel for their ideas and they suggested a walk by Lake Ohau.
Lake Ohau is another impossibly blue, clean lake.  It's the smallest of the three lakes. We just pulled over into a bit of scrub and started walking along the pebbles. It was already really hot and we were glad of the breeze from the water.

Road into Lake Ohau

Parking up on loose pebbles

So much space to walk

Besutiful Lake Ohau, snow on mountains behind

Plants growing on shore

We passed another couple just sat watching the water, their campervan pulled in under the trees behind. Further along an older lady smiled as she walked in the opposite direction. We think we came across her husband next struggling to move a dinghy down to the waters edge. It was much easier with three of us but I  did wonder how he planned to move it up again when he had finished.
Eventually we left  the lakeshore, cutting through the scrub to the nearby road, having covered only a tiny fraction of it in the 50 minutes we'd walked. It took 30 minutes quickly walking along the road to get back to our car and during this time only 5 cars passed us. It's a very quiet lake.

Flat road, can't see any buildings or houses

The drive in and out of Lake Ohau was equally deserted. At one point we passed a yellow "schoolbus turns here" sign which normally is situated near the driveway of the last child to be picked up or dropped off. I could not see a house or building anywhere and we were on a completely flat plain and there was nothing obstructing  the view. Where did this child live????

We pulled into Omerama (blink and you will miss it) and ate our packed lunch in the shade of a tree  near the gliding club. There's a lovely little cafe just next to it which Jono got coffee from and which looked like it had great food. The decor was quirky in a very welcoming way.

Quirky cafe

Welcome shade, very hot day

Time to fly! Paula was my instructor and Jono had Phil. I got to go up first. This was an amazing experience.

Moving my plane onto runway

Instruments including ascending/descending, speed, compass, height above sea level, radio and stick

Paula and I ready with our parachutes on ( just in case)

I took a few photos as we got airbourne and then Paula said, "Right, hand on the stick, keep the nose at the same point on the horizon, we need to gain altitude so bank right, you are in control". There was a bit more to it than that but I spent the next hour catching thermals, losing and gaining height, watching out for clouds, checking the speed didn't  fall too low ( lower the nose if this happens but keep the speed between 50 and 55) and reading the instruments.

Lake Benmore in distance

Green parts show where farmers irrigate 

Flying selfie

 I was convinced Paula was correcting my mistakes but when I commented on it she laughed, told me her hands weren't  on the stick and it was the air I could feel pushing the glider around. I was surprised to find my teeth were gritted my legs were tense and my grip on the stick would have taken dynamite to prise us apart. I was concentrating  so hard it took conscious  effort to keep trying to relax. It was totally exhilarating  and Paula was a very calm teacher. I'd love to go up again. Paula  is from Alton and sometimes teaches at Lasham during the UK summer months so, who knows?, we might meet up again.
Jono was slightly later taking off and his instructor  took him off in a different direction. He also got given the controls and told to fly and was coached through it. He had pedals to use too which I didn't  as they hadn't  been adjusted and were too far away from my feet!

Another flying selfie

Jono's controls look different but do the same things

Towards the end of both our flights the instructors both took back the controls and showed us some of the things the gliders can do. Phil took Jono through a loop the loop, Paula did stalls and fast plunges. We both had an amazing time. Both gliders had to be called in by ground control, we were way over our time limit!
Flight Certificates issued, we headed for the road to Oamaru. This should have taken about an hour and 45 minutes but we are good at finding things along the road to stop and look at.
We were driving past beautiful lakes and stopped to admire the view and snap a few shots of Lake Aviemore.

Lake Aviemore

Another 20 minutes down the road and we found a huge dam with a road you  can drive across on top of it (so we did). The dam is there as part of the massive hydro electric station, biggest in New  Zealand, that can power 107000 average homes.
The road on the other side  goes nowhere except to a fishing spot so back over the dam we went after first walking out to the middle and have a good look. The spray from one sidecould easily hit you standing on the far side and this was on a hot, calm day. On the other side of the dam the lake was full of brown trout, a favoured fishing spot, here the first gravel channel in New Zealand had been built to enable the trout to spawn since their traditional route had been cut off.

Dam, high water level on one side

Hydro electric plant with low water on other side of dam

View from dam over the valley below

It was 35 degrees outside at 4pm we were very glad of the ac in the car and slightly sorry for the cyclists we passed who looked very hot and bothered. The road forms one of the many routes for cyclists in New Zealand and these all had panniers with their supplies in.
We also stopped to look at Maori  Rock art, now protected as in the past people have defaced or even  removed them from the site. There's not a lot left but good explanations and descriptions accompany the drawings that are there.

Maori rock art

Finally we arrived at Oamaru. Our airbnb host was there to greet us and give us local tips. He laughed about the petrol prices and said we hadn't  seen anything yet, on the west coast we could expect another jump from $2.129 to more like $2.25.

View from airbnb down to Oamaru harbour and town centre

We were booked to see the little blue penguins that evening. They have a nesting ground down by the harbour and at dusk waddle their way homeward. To see them you have to pay and can sit in the stands. We'd booked premium seats closest to the penguins 3 days ago and were looking forward to seeing them in the wild after watching the rescued injured ones at the Antarctic  Centre in Christchurch. We walked down to the harbour only to be told by the penguin centre that our tickets had been cancelled. They were full up and there was no room in the premium area. They would refund the difference and we could sit in the normal bit. However this was pretty full and we would  be quite far back. We were really annoyed. No email had been sent saying this although we'd had an email confirming our seats and the manager could not be bothered to talk to us or apologise. They said the money would be returned to the card we paid for it on. This was our only night in Oamaru so no chance of rebooking here but I knew there were more colonies of penguins further south. We walked away. An unfavourable review will be written meanwhile we are waiting for the refund....
So with some unexpected time we explored the town. The harbour has boards and explanations dotted around explaining key points and historical facts. There is an unusual curved wooden pier now closed off for humans so used by hundreds of shags. Captain Cook ate shags as they were/are so abundant here." Fancy a shag? " said here could mean someone is asking you about your menu choice!

Shags on old pier

However Oamaru is known mostly for two things. Victorian architecture  and steam punk. Just past the harbour is a children's  playground in steam punk style. Worth spending a little time exploring even as an adult.

Created by school children with mottoes around them

Tree sculptures. Look closely, each tree features different animals, birds or fish

We climbed the bridge that took us safely over the rail tracks although we could just have easily stepped over them at ground level. Everywhere seemed to be signs telling us to look out for trains.

Park with penny farthing man as part of swings

Foot bridge over railtracks

Sculpture out of old car parts

Steam punk museum sign

Train outside steampunk, put in $2 to make it belch fire

Steampunk

The steam punk museum was just up the road with a couple of attractions outside inviting us to place 2 dollars in. Obligingly they belched fire, made noises and glowed. We were definitely  coming back the next day to see inside.
The main high street is lit up at night. This was the first place in New Zealand which didn't feel strange to me. Here are imposing Victorian  buildings in white stone, one had Greek columns in front of it, there were some ornate carvings, the buildings went up more than one storey. It felt more like a town in the UK or Europe apart from the very, very wide street big enough to park cars in the middle of it and on either side, as well as still having wide carriageways. There is definitely  space in New Zealand!

Wide,wide street

We walked back up hill to our home for the night, my calf muscles were telling me that two days on the trot with steep hills were taking their toll!