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.

Alexandra Tourist Park

We stayed 2 weeks at Alexandra Backpackers and decided to move out when Alexandra Tourist Park has vacancy. The main reason is the rental is halfed! Only NZD8 per person per night, where to find? This is very important to us as we are the poor people, haha.

First time for us to have a long term stay in a tourist park. Everything is good except that we have to buy our own kitchen cutlery. There is 1 double bed and 3 single beds in our cabins, which perfectly fit 4 of us plus Janet.

our new home

我们的小天地

 People staying here are mostly backpackers who work in cherry orchards or packhouses. Due to its cheap price and good environment, this park is fully booked during the whole cherry season.

Caravans power site and tent site

View from the outside of our cabin. Spot the Alexandra Clock?

My favourite activity during off day. The feeling of soaking yourself in the cold water on a hot summer day is really good!

Very huge campervan. You dare to drive this on the road?

Our dining area. Cool?

Kitchen during the peak of cherry season

Kitchen when the cherry season ends

I think the most 'interesting' part to stay in Alexandra Tourist Park must be the shower time. There are 6 shower rooms and we noticed that room 5 has the strongest water flow, hence it is the most popular room for everyone to have shower. The interesting part is that to prevent people to have a very long shower time, the management has restricted the shower time to 5 minutes per person. You can't control the temperature of the water, it is pre-set (the water is really hot!). There's a clear instruction on the wall for you to read. Make sure you are aware of the operating procedures before you take the first shower.

This is how we are very well-trained to complete our shower in 5 minutes.

Still remember that first time when we want to take bath, we feel a bit nervous as we don't know whether 5 minutes is enough for us or not. Surprisingly, we managed to do that!!!

 Tourist Park is a good place to stay. The room is cosy, the shower water is hot enough, the kitchen is big enough and there is free barbecue area. Another surprise is we got a pet here - Awesome Pony.

our beloved awesome pony

Awesome Pony waiting for us to feed him nectarines

Awesome Pony is an adorable horse staying beside our park. We spotted him one day when we finished work. Surprisingly, he loves nectarines very much! When we discovered this secret, we start to bring back a lot of nectarines from our work place to feed him. He is a big horse which is very obedient. We pet him a lot.

Besdes Awesome Pony, we have Awesome stary stary night too! This is a spacious place. At night, you can see numerous bright and twinkle twinkle stars in the sky, and galaxy too!!!!

Saw the meteor?