After leaving Ashburton, we headed down the highway for a 2 hour drive down to Moeraki. We first stopped just on the outskirts of the town to pay a visit to Moeraki Boulders.
The boulders are an intriguing natural phenomenon, where the erosion of the cliffside has resulted in there being several almost perfectly spherical boulders sitting on the shoreline. The local Maoris believed that they were placed there by giants and you can see why when you see them.
A short hop to the other side of the bay took us to Moeraki proper. We checked into our accommodation and were pleased to find that we had a cabin with a great view of the whole bay.
After a walk around the town and a visit to the local bar, we started looking forward to the main reason we came here - to eat at Fleur's Place. When Rick Stein was offered a ticket to anywhere in the world to eat, this was the place he wanted to go. With a recommendation like that, it goes without saying that as arch foodies we were beside ourselves with anticipation.
I'm very happy to say that the experience did not disappoint one little bit. We shared a starter of green lip mussels to start - these are about 3 times the size of mussels you get in the UK and pack 3 times the flavour. For main we had Moki and Blue Cod fillets, which were fresh off the boat that day and were cooked to perfection. We finished with local cheeses and went back to our cabin very satisfied.
Like I mentioned with Noosa back in Australia, when you have experiences like this, it can be a little hard to stomach (pardon the pun) that this, in all likelihood will be a once in a lifetime experience. It is not lost on us that it is a privilege that we have had the opportunity to do this just the once, but emotionally it can be a double-edged sword! It's at times like this that our appreciation of the people who helped us get here is at its greatest.
However, it's not quite time to be so introspective yet! We still have a few more places to visit - tomorrow we head to Dunedin and Invercargill.
TTFN
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