C’est Cheese and the Long Way Home

Leaving Clareville  and the art of mattress making, it was back to Featherston for a little cheese tasting.  And where better that the newish  “C’est Cheese” Deli.   Cheesemaker Paul Broughton’s great little shop sells specialty cheeses made by 20 different producers, as well as a range of cured meats, olive oil, chutneys, relishes,olives, breads – all sorts of yummy foodie items. 

Les had arranged for our group to have a “Cheese Tasting”  which took at the back of the shop.  This is where Paul will eventually start producing his own range of cheese.  He described what we were tasting and then let us loose.  That soft blue cheese was exceptional, the blue cheese lovers amongst us declared, and was from the famous  Barry’s Bay Cheese in Akoroa.

 

Cheese tasting at C’est Cheese

Then it was back to the front of the shop while I hunted down some of that wonderful blue cheese, a piece of the lovely squidgy brie, a lovely bright yellow one just because I liked the colour, and I just couldn’t leave without some iconic Blackball black pudding.

Something for all tastes

After a quick cuppa back at Anne and Les’s home, it was time to say our goodbyes and  head  back over the hill for the long drive home.  The trip went smoothly till we drove over the Haywards Hill and read the traffic warning on the electronic message board.  “Serious accident on SH1 – expect delays”.  A long stream of traffic driving around the Pauatahanui Inlet then turned into the Paekakariki Hill Road, so we joined them.  This is not a road we often use as it is so narrow and windy – we would never tow the caravan this way.  Car after car was was driving southwards towards us – we had never seen so much traffic on this road.  We found out later that there had been a crash between Pukerua Bay and  Paekakariki and both north and south bound traffic had been diverted over the Paekakariki Hill Road.  The cars drove carefully along, round corner after corner, with no one speeding or taking risks. 

From the top of the hill the views opened up,  the coast line and Kapiti Island came into sight and we drove down into Paekakariki.

The coast line and Kapiti Island

The way northbound  traffic now joins SH1 at the bottom of the Hill road has changed and we had to first turn left before we could turn right and travel northwards.  The line of traffic on SH1 was only too helpful and many stopped and signalled for cars to slip into the flow of traffic where we could pick up speed as we drove on.  

Nearly off the hill road

It was a long drive home with the diversion in place, but a whole lot better than being stuck in traffic which wasn’t moving.  But at least we made it home safely, not like the poor souls caught up in the accident that closed busy SH1.