The branches
After our Christmas expeditions in both the campervan and four-wheel-drive that you can read about in this issue, we were only back in Ōamaru a day or so, suffering cabin fever, when suddenly the weather came right with the forecast predicting five or six days of settled weather. So we hopped back into the four-wheel-drive and headed for Skippers – and beyond.
Skippers is legendary. The drive-in alone is worth the cost of admission, but I am starting to get used to it these days.
At Skippers we found there were several other visitors also looking for a camping experience with a difference, so it was almost crowded! However, we found a reasonably quiet spot with sensational views and next morning headed onwards.
From Skippers you can go on to Bullendale where New Zealand’s first hydro-electricity plant was installed in 1886, but the drive-in is a bit challenging, so instead we headed off up the Branches Road which starts just before you get to the Skippers Bridge – I’d been there once before and went to the farm gate at the end, about 30km on a quite spectacular drive alongside the river.
The Branches is one of the more remote farms in New Zealand
