Alexandra Tits and Bits

Alexandra is a small town with about 4,800 population. It is known as the hottest, driest and coldest town in New Zealand. There's no entertainment here so the only thing we can do during our off day is to have a coffee in a cafe.



The Courthouse Cafe....

Alexandra Courthouse Historic Reserve - built in 1878. Its our favourite cafe now.

4 lovely dogs accompany us for our tea time

Cafe nearby Alexandra Clock....

Besides having tea time, we also walk around the town. The most beautiful part is the broken bridge that we passed through everyday on our way to work.

Saw the gulls?

Outside Alexandra Backpackers

Shaky Bridge

Alexandra Clock is the main attraction in this town. It is a unique illuminated hillside timepiece that has served the town since 1968.

To visit Alexandra Clock, we have a short walk up the hill. The walk starts in Alexandra township and crosses the historic Shaky Bridge over Manuherikia River. This is a very old wooden suspension bridge and the name is most descriptive! Originally a vehicle bridge into Alexandra, it is now a footbridge only, with magnificent views down to the river and gorge below. There are good swimming holes in the river nearby and we spotted a happy family having their great time there.

We saw some unknown fruit trees along the road and we are so busy to pick the fruits to eat. Basically they are wildlife plums, but they tastes not bad! After passing alongside vineyards at the foot of the hill, the track climbs steeply up a rocky and uneven track to the foot of the 11 meter wide clock. This was a Jaycee project involving many hours of voluntary work to install the components. The mechanism has been upgraded several times and is a reliable timekeeping feature of the Alexandra landscape. At Easter an illuminated cross is placed on the hillside nearby.

Saw Corey & Mei Chuen down there?

From here, the panoramic view of Alexandra and the surrounding coutnryside rewards our effort of getting up. All the mountain ranges in the area can be seen.

We walked about 20 minutes under the hot sun to reach Alexandra Clock. But our effort pays off when we saw this amazing view.

Another thing worth to be mentioned about Alexandra is the small and boring weekend market every Saturday, 10am - 2pm.

Basically, its really a boring market with only 2 food stalls. Most of them are selling artistic pictures, or some decorative stuff.