With Kerry stepping in as leader, eleven of us got to see a jewel of a spot among the southern bays of Banks Peninsula - Peraki Bay - which is on a private farm. We parked at the farm buildings, headed down to the water and briefly stopped to look at the memorial to the first European whaling station established in Canterbury.
The big billy.
As we climbed up to a farm track towards the heads on the east side of the bay, we passed some seals and watched their young frolic and race around in the water. After morning tea, we followed the ridge all the way back up to Bossu Road, the highest point of the day. There were many wild goats everywhere on this ridge as well as four curious white horses which eyed us suspiciously as we ate lunch halfway up.
We had sunshine and a strong northerly all day with only a bit of low cloud at the top. The farm breeds horses and as we walked back down the farm road to our cars we saw some beautiful animals, especially several magnificent draught horses which looked like Clydesdales.
We were: Bill and Wendy Templeton, Kerry Moore, Dan Pryce, Stuart Payne, John Robinson, Sonya Donaldson, Janice Butcher, Kyung Sang Lee, Peter Umbers and Ruth Barratt. (RB)
