Collingwood

We stayed at the Collingwood Motor Camp for three nights while we were in Golden Bay. We were there for two nights when we went to Golden Bay three years ago. That time we tent-camped. This time, we have a camper, and decided to get a cabin for some of us. We can’t all fit in the camper (if we really crowd small people, we can fit five into it), and Gayle seems to have an allergic reaction to it. When we arrived and asked for a basic cabin and site for the camper, they offered us a house for not much more! We were all able to be under one roof that way, in comfort, with the kitchen and bathroom in the same building. The owner of the campground brought us firewood and started the fire for us, and we lived in luxury on this “camping” trip! The campground changed management in October, and the new owners are really cleaning the place up. We had a beautiful view of the estuary!

This is the house we stayed in. Last time we were there, we slept in tents close to where I stood to take the picture, and cooked in the open-air kitchen on the far side of the van.

I got to walk out along the shoreline one morning at high tide, and enjoyed this flock of seagulls and oystercatchers.

Mr. Imagination and Little Miss enjoyed the freedom of being on the floor to play, after a long day in their carseats!

Esther read her brothers a bedtime story. From left to right are: Mr. Handyman, Mr. Inventor, Mr. Imagination, Esther, Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Diligence, and Mr. Intellectual. No, this isn’t posed.

The rest of these pictures aren’t at the campground, but I thought this is as good a place as any to post them. I loved the reflections in the estuary as we left Collingwood the morning after our arrival there, on the way to Farewell Spit!

The reflections were almost as good as we approached the spit.

We stopped along the way to photograph some herons stalking about the mudflats as the tide went out.