Mike Yardley - Mid Canterbury

Seasoned traveller Mike Yardley shared a glowing review of a recent trip to Mid Canterbury with Jack Tame on sister station Newstalk ZB. Luke was keen to find out if his take on our piece of paradise was genuine.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
As much as we moan about them driving slow in
campers and making a mess of public toilets or the
buses corrugating that road to Lake Camp, we do like
the money that tourists bring to our area and Council
has been pushing hard this summer to get more here
with the likes of the Nowhere Comma. That's the important
part Comma worth Going campaign and also paying social influencers

(00:22):
to get us up on the world wide web. One
rather unexpected influencer, however, who made a bit of noise
about Mid Caniburry on our sister station News talks eb
on the weekend is travel Extraordinary.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Mike Yardley Morning, Good morning, Luke mate.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
This was awesome. It's about a ten minute peace which
we must go and share on our Hawken and we
Ashburton facebook page as well. But it's you just gushing
about a road trip centered mainly around the foothills. Ryan.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
That's right, And I mean what I absolutely adore about
that whole Mid Canterbury Foothills heartland area is that it's
so underrated, Like it's not something that you see massive
billboards about in terms of projecting New Zealand to the world.
But I think it's got all the elements that makes
our nation so special and in some ways untouched in

(01:15):
that it's so uncrowded. That's what I laugh about the
mid Kenniby Heartland, that, yeah, you're not jostling with the
great hordes of the world, and everything's so accessible, so easy,
the locals are so friendly. It's also laid back and effortless.
It's really special.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah. Well, that's what the Council has been trying to capture,
and I think they've done a pretty good job of
it at all. Venus. So what were some of the
highlights of your trip here? You got on a few hikes, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I did. I really do rate Sharpland Falls because it
doesn't take a strenuous effort to knock it off.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, but you feel so accomplished at the end.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
You do, You really do, and you can reward yourself
with a with a hop over to Meslin and a
son those magnificent Pocky pools.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
So you did spend some time there. Did you go
to the family zone or the I think they call
it the Tranquility the adults only bar.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh? Yes, yep, tranquility Pools. Yes, straight to the swim
up swim up bar Luke. Absolutely, I felt like I
needed to really pend on myself.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
But I didn't wonder why there was a two drink limit.
But then I had my first and two hour season,
or if you really brave, you can get a four
hour session. I quickly understood why.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, well, actually, I the first time I went to
the thermal pools was probably about eighteen months ago, and
I was there really early in the morning, so I
actually had that the floating breakfast, so I had end
excumed me in the pool, which was quite unusual. I
can't have ever had any floating in front of me before. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, that's dangerous if you've got the running eggs, though,
I'd probably be having to sort of big forgiveness Matt
Turner and his team be able to clean up those filters.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
That's right. Yeah, But I mean that place is just
going off, isn't it. I was talking to the stuff,
and I was saying that some of the locals and
metsmen are complaining because you know how they get that
sort of priority or discounted access, but've been struggling to
get in because the place has been so full success.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah. Well, I mean that's the danger, you know, with
shouting yourself from the rooftops or having such wonderful reviews
from yourself as right. You know, we run this fine
balance of yeah, we don't want that many people coming.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, the funny thing is, when I was talking to
Jack Came on Saturday, it actually became very hard to
determine what to actually mention and what to leave out
because and I think this is also one of the
real gems about that whole Foothills area. I mean, you
take the Huckertatic Conservation Reserve area alone, there are so
many gems within that reserve a lot of them. I
didn't even mention to Jack. So there's room to rome

(03:40):
right across that that forth Hells area. And I mean
those lakes. I really think those lakes are just so
world class in terms of their reflective quality, just the
elemental brilliance of the landscape. I just love it.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, so do we. And it was called to showcase
it with the likes of the Summer Challenge on the
weekend just being as well. So thank you for the
free publicity, I guess on behalf of mid Canterbury. And
we hope that a few come to visit.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
But not that many, not the very quickly Luke. My
parents have got and they've had it for about thirty years,
a little hobby farm and churchy and they've got like,
you know, two sheep and half a goat sort of thing.
Town is trying to be farmers sort of arrangement. So
we're actually, our whole family have just become so in

(04:29):
love really with the mid Canterbury region. We love Ashburst
and we love the Aviation Museum. So I but I
could actually probably roll out ten stories for Jack Tame
to do the Aerie of Justice