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January 2005: Moeraki
Willem's holidays were nearly over, so on 4 January we decided, on the spur of the moment, to drive the 80 kilometres up north to the village of Moeraki, to have lunch there at the famous restaurant, Fleur's Place.
Moeraki was established in 1836 by six Europeans and six Maoris who started a whaling station there. Today it is a tranquil fishing village. It has a small permanent population which is steadily growing as people make lifestyle decisions about living and working away from the cities. It has a small fishing fleet, a camping ground, motels, a tavern and Fleur's Place. Fleur's Place is a restaurant, cafe and bar right on the waterfront at the old jetty of the erstwhile whaling station. The specialty of the restaurant is fresh fish straight from the Moeraki Bay fishing boats.
At Moeraki Bay we parked the car at the start of the Millennium Walk and strolled the 20 minute track along the seaside to Fleur's Place. We had hardly set off on the track when we were startled by a patch of really alien–looking plants. We discovered later that these were Eremerus robustus, a native of Turkestan. The plant takes seven years to flower under the most favourable circumstances. The stem is about two metres high and the flowers are pale pink to mauve in colour. The 18 January 1950 edition of the Otago Witness reported with a sense of awe that a specimen had been grown by a Mister Bathgate of Mornington, Dunedin, showing a picture of the plant in flower. These days I am having trouble keeping this pest under control in my garden!
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The walk was interesting and the lunch was most delicious. Willem thought Fleur served the best scallops to be had in New Zealand. On the way back to the car we noticed that the sea sand had a most curious orange colour. We found it quite pretty.