Big surprise in a small town
I cannot remember who exactly first told me to visit Geraldine, but since then a few people have mentioned it. Ferrari and I spent a night at Grumpy's Retreat 'n' Holiday Park about 6 minutes drive before entering the town. We prefer the stylish Top 10 Holiday Parks, but on this occasion they did not accept pets of any kind. Grumpy's was good though with enough bushes and trees for Ferrari and tidy facilities for me. So we were happy campers.
St Mary's Anglican Church had a fair on the Saturday morning so we stopped to have a look.
There might have been about five or six stalls, unless I missed something. One of the stalls however, belonged to a retired Secondary School Art Teacher for special needs students, Mike Deavoll. He inspires students to produce artwork according to a theme. In one instance they visited a zoo and then created images about animals going to visit overseas and returning home. He said he did this to give the students a bit of a world view. The books are published by "No Laughing Me Publications" (a company he started) and printed in Nelson. Sales fund the creation of more books. Though he started this while teaching, Mike is still continuing and is also including young adults with special needs. How inspiring!
Besides this unexpected encounter, I had a walk through Geraldine - yip, I could live there. A beautiful town with friendly people.
Mike's business card. Books are $20
The cover of one of the books.
St Mary's Anglican Church where the fair was held.
The library
Monument just outside a park
Geraldine Hotel
St Andrew's
Love the feel of this old building housing the cinema.
It looks like this shop sells children's ware. The name made me smile.
Geraldine is a tiny town south of Ashburton on SH79. We were on our way to Lake Tekapo when we stopped there.