Crowded beach

This beach is north of Dunedin, the first one we found after leavingOamaru. There were half a dozen camping vans parked in the wooded area next to the beach, with one row of washing tied up to a couple of trees. The beach was clean empty and beautiful.
We left Christchurch and, following the guide books advise visited the Rakaia Gorge, a wide river bed with lots of shingle banks showing how low the water flow currently is, the remaining water was a strange pale greeny cream colour, not natural to my UK eyes.
Still following the guide we went to Staveley Store for lunch. Staveley is so small it almost does not exist but the store produces wonderful home made food. Very nice eating in the sunshine just watching the world go by. The guide book let us down in Geraldine, not what we expected, and opinions were dividend about Oamaru, the town was an old port and rail station and is trying to revive its fortunes by converting its old buildings into a strange version of a Victorian street. The large building that has been converted into a
Stream punk exhibition with huge old stream engines and a Zeppelin outside only added to it's weirdness. I liked it.
We had been told that Dunedin was not too nice, someone who went on a cruise and visited for half a day. He was wrong. It's very different to Christchurch, a bit grey and drab but with its own charm. Our accomodation could be described the same even the staff described it as nineteen fifty two horrible. I told her I was also nineteen fifty two vintage so we agreed that both me and the motel were OK