Our first destination after leaving Christchurch was the Banks Peninsula. It’s of volcanic origin, and erosion carved uncounted valleys into the edges of the peninsula, creating beautiful secluded bays, one after another. The Summit Road which leads along the former crater edge is windy but ok, but if you venture down into some of the bays it becomes quite a rough drive, on narrow gravel roads with sometimes quite scary dropoffs. So it’s a good thing there is not much traffic, just the occasional sheep on the road.
Darryl moved to Pigeon Bay, one of the bays on the Banks Peninsula, in the aftermath of the earthquake last February. He said he needed a change of scenery after all that happened in the city, and lives now in a small and simple cottage in the middle of paradisical nowhere. Surrounded by the green slopes of the valley that forms Pigeon Bay, you are out of sight from any other sign of civilization. Only letterboxes by the roadside tell you that if you follow those bumpy farm tracks to their ends, their is somebody’s home hidden behind the hills.
Darryl’s pride is an old school bus that was lovingly converted into a camping bus. For a while, Darryl even lived in it, driving around New Zealand, but for now it’s parked on the farmlands and Darryl offers his bus to couchsurfers. It has handmade wooden furniture inside, stained glass windows, even a tiled kitchen area and a cast iron fireplace!
Life is simple in Pigeon Bay. Darryl does occasional jobs for farmers to earn some money, but you don’t need much out here. He has goats and raises a few lambs which we handfed with the milk bottle – they will eventually become steaks. The cottage is heated with woodfire, and the oven doubles as a stove. The toilet is in an outhouse in the garden, and when you walk out there at night you can see the most beautiful stars in the sky, because there is no light around for miles.
It was a glance at life in rural New Zealand, and Darryl received us very warmly. His bus was definitely one of the most unique types of accommodation we stayed in so far and made our visit on the Banks Peninsula very memorable. When else do you get to catch such a special bus for the night?
