Author: john

25 degrees, cloudy, sunny

Cloudier start to today so we drove up the coastline to see Farewell Spit at the very top of the Golden Bay.  We stopped at Te Waikoropupu Springs and Patons Rock, as advised by our Kiwi guides again.

The Springs were a sacred place to the Maori who have many weird and wonderful stories for everything you can imagine, and it was forbidden to touch the water in the Springs.  Another free car park and entrance to the 20 minute walk to the Springs which turned out to be a very large pond area where crystal clear water bubbles up through the ground at over ten cubic metres per second (that would fill the pool in France in about 3 seconds!)   The sandy bottom of the lake apparently appears to dance due to the water coming up, but there was a little bit of rain hitting the pool so we didn’t see anything like that.

Patons Rock turned out to be a very rock-less beach!   Would have been lovely in the sunshine as it was quite deserted but nothing to keep us there in the light rain so we continued on to Farewell Spit.

This is a protected area and you can only go to the end of the Spit on a guided tour which we decided not to bother with.  We could walk about 4km up one side of the Spit and then cross over to the other side, which is what we did as the weather improved quite a bit.  The South side was calm and was the long curving bay of the Spit but we couldn’t quite see the end as there was still quite a bit of cloud and haze around.

The North side was completely different.  It was an enormous windy beach of small sand dunes, some soft, some firm, and rolling waves, a really interesting coastline, very different to 90 mile beach which was very flat once you got over the sand dunes.

30 degrees, sunny

We decided to have a lazy day today so headed for the beach as the weather was lovely and there were plenty of lovely beaches to choose from in Golden Bay.  We stopped at Ligar Bay which was very quiet and we could park the motorhome right on the beach side.  The sun is so strong here and after a couple of hours, even with factor 30 sun screen on and a suntan base already, we managed to burn ourselves, so after lunch decided to head to the Wainui Falls as recommended by our Kiwi neighbours from Blenheim.

There was the usual free parking and a lovely 40 minute walk to the falls, crossing our first swing bridge.  There was plenty of water coming over the falls and a few hardy souls swimming in the falls pool, so after a few minutes watching we returned back to the car park and back to the campsite.

On the way back to the camp site there were some great views across Golden Bay as the tide was receding.

30 degrees, sunny

We left the Kina Beach campsite by 9.30 am and drove to Motueka on the coast of Abel Tasman Park to investigate kayaking some of the Park coastline.   There were so many options to kayak and walk and all quite expensive from Motueka so we decided to drive to Kaiteriteri to see what was available there as this town is nearer to Split Apple Rock, which was what we wanted to see.  But Kaiteriteri was heaving, not a single car parking space was available, yet alone space for a motorhome.  So we drove right on through to Split Apple Rock beach and walked down to the small beach to see the rock.  It looked more like an avocado or pear than an apple, but was still quite impressive.  Just as we arrived at the beach a school of dolphins was just passing the rock so we caught the tail end of the show.  After a swim and lunch we pressed on to Takaka in the Golden Bay area.

The only road to Golden Bay is over the Marble Mountain range, a very winding, steep road which for about 4km was single lane traffic controlled by traffic lights as the road had fallen away during recent earthquakes.  At the top of the hill there was a lookout over the Abel Tasman Park and coastline.

After the final hair pin bend, called Eureka Bend, we drove through a plain to reach Takaka and found a nice small site for $36 so booked in for two nights.

25 degrees, sunny

We left Spring Creek campsite in the rain after such a lovely warm evening.  It was quite cold, only 15 degrees and wet, as we made our way towards Abel Tasman Park but cleared up rapidly as we drove along, stopping at Pelorus Bridge for a look and a swim in yet another stunningly blue and clear river.  The water was warmish so even John went in.

We re-provisioned in Nelson and found a cheap campsite at Tasman for $10 per night (been paying $50 odd up to now).  Naturally this site was full of campers on a budget!  They were camping out of cars, done up horseboxes, tiny tents, etc, all of which had seen better days.  But at least there was no trampoline!

First really clear night with no lights around so we went out to look at the night sky.  It’s very strange to not recognise any stars at all but the Milky Way was very clear.

30 degrees, sunny

Another early start today for a seal kayaking trip – actually is wasn’t paddling but peddling in a kayak.  They were fitted with a new device that you peddle but instead of driving a propeller they drove flippers that went side to side, muck like the fins of a fish. Unfortunately they did add about 15 inches to the draft and could only go forwards. To reverse still needed a paddle.  Otherwise they worked very well, much easier than conventional paddling and we seemed to go quite quickly.

It was a lovely, clear day with a calm sea which was handy as we had to peddle quite a long way from the launch point to the area where the seals were (the same ones we’d seen from above yesterday).  We did actually see quite a few seals this time! Swimming about around us and on the rocks, and we also peddled up to an Albatross waiting patiently next to a fishing boat hoping for some scraps.

We were out for about an hour and a half which was plenty for the legs and lovely to be out on the water.

After this we travelled up the coastline towards Blenheim, our next stop.  About an hour out of Kaikoura we came to Ohua Point which really did have a seal colony worth looking at.  Right below the road were loads of seals, adults and young sunning themselves or gambolling about in the water – absolutely lovely.

Apparently there was a 7.8 earthquake around Kaikoura in 2016 which caused quite a lot of damage too, and raised the coastline by 2.5 to 4.5 metres, which explains the weird coastline rock formations and gives the seals a much bigger area to use too..

The coastline view again was stunning, blues, greens, aquamarines – all shades, but unfortunately the camera doesn’t really pick these up very well.

We arrived at the campsite at about 5 pm.  Lovely large pitch right next to the clearest stream we have ever seen, and a lovely shade of blue too.  So tempting to go for a swim but it is very cold, so watch this space!

28 degrees, sunny

Fantastic lovely clear day today so we went for a circular walk to the headland at Point Kean, around the headland and back across country to Kaikoura.

Past the town edges the coastline changed from stony beach to hard packed dried mudflats that looked a bit like Death Valley.   The sea was crystal clear and had so many variations of blue and green in it.

After a lovely lunch of crayfish for John and salmon salad for Clare, we followed the path up to the top of the cliff and had fabulous views of seals sunning themselves on the shore below and also saw a couple of Rays swimming in the shallows, the water was that clear from 100 feet up.  Unfortunately we only had the small camera with us so couldn’t get any decent pictures.

We walked about 10 miles and were very thirsty by the time we made it back as we hadn’t taken any water, expecting to be able to get a drink in the town just the other side of the headland, but it had no shop or cafe at all.

30 degrees, sunny

We left Christchurch and headed north towards Kaikoura – a three hour journey according to the satnav.  The plains of Christchurch/Canterbury are quite large with mountains off in the distance on both sides and the drive was fine but this road was not a smooth as those we drove on in the North – probably because of the earthquake back in 2011 and smaller ones since then.  Consequently the noise from the stuff rattling in the motorhome was enormous!  When we stopped for coffee we tracked a lot of the rattles down and so we could actually have a conversation after that.

We arrived at our campsite by about 2 pm – much nicer site with grass pitches and lovely views of the snow capped mountains not too far away.  Then people started arriving and we found ourselves wedged in between two other motorhomes with just about enough space to sit outside between us.

We decided to go for a swim at the beach, but when we got there it was very disappointing after the lovely sandy beaches we’ve seen so far.  This was a huge bay of grey pebbles of various sizes and at the high tide line a wide swathe of debris, mostly wood and seaweed – not much rubbish, which made it very un-enticing, so we gave it a miss.

The town centre was purely built for tourism, as it seems the whole reason for the town being here is for the sea life; whales, dolphins, seals, albatross, etc.  And the crayfish.

Back at the site the weather suddenly changed at about 6pm and clouds rapidly obscured the mountain and temperature dropped quite quickly so we ate in the van.

31 degrees, sunny

We left the North Island looking forward to our next three weeks in the South Island.  Our time in the North has been wonderful, we have experienced some things we’ve never seen or done before and seen some wonderful scenery and coastline.  Overall we preferred the Coramandel Peninsular to the Bay of Islands, Lake Taupo to Lake Rotorua and Napier was far and away the nicest town.

We flew to Christchurch, about an hour and a half flight, and landed at about 3 pm, worried a little as the Motorhome pickup depot closes at 4pm so we would just about have enough time.  Needn’t have worried – the depot was heaving with people collecting and dropping off vehicles – utter chaos it seemed.  As usual we were the last to be dealt with having sat patiently for and hour or so waiting our turn.   We were whizzed through the collection procedure and van details, to get us out of the door, which was fine by us.  Hopefully the number of people taking out vans is not a reflection of how busy the campsites are going to be.

Our motorhome is a four berth with a bed that lowers down over the seating area at the back, but it really wouldn’t suit four adults at all.  Our (my!) first thoughts were, where on earth are we going to stow all our stuff, there being so little storage.  But in the end we managed to put it all somewhere which will no doubt change as we go along.

The first campsite we had booked was very near to the motorhome depot but that was all it had going for it!  We were sited on a gravel pitch on the direct route to the facilities and right next to the trampoline!  The campsite has bunkrooms(!) and small cabins with just beds in, no running water or cooking facilities, even more basic than those at Pont de Dognon Mum & Dad kindly booked us into when looking at the house in France!  They have communal cooking facilities including fridges and cookers – very sociable – if you like that sort of thing!   Obviously a popular way to travel though as they seemed well used.

23 degrees, overcast

After breakfast we decided we needed some exercise so we rented a couple of bikes for the day to tour the Auckland coastline.  We took a nice level cycle  ride along the coast using dedicated cycle paths through various sandy bays packed out with picnickers and holidaymakers.   We cycled to the end of the coast (about 7 miles) then up the hillside around a housing estate trying to find another coastal path, but no luck, so we returned the way we had come.

Having stopped for a very nice lunch we carried on back towards Auckland and spied a nice looking lagoon with a boardwalk cycle path around the edge so we took this detour, which was lovely until the boardwalk ended at the steepest hill ever over the headland!  We had to walk up the hill  pushing the bikes for about 1/2 a mile which was hard work as the bikes weren’t the lightest.  Thankfully it was mostly downhill into Auckland after that and we were pleased to hand the bikes back having cycled about 18 miles.

Back at the hotel we took advantage of the free drink and wine in the Club Lounge and then prepared ourselves to depart in the morning for our flight to Christchurch.