Farewell Spit

After the place with the Emu we drove northwards to Motueka, a nice seaside town and the start of the Tasman district. We found a nice reserve by the sea and parked the van for a relaxing evening, we went fishing off some rocks at the end of the beach and caught absolutely bugger all so went back to the van for a nights sleep.

'Knock...Knock...Knock!'

"It's the police."

So it turns out that we aren't allowed to stay here for the night and the policeman chooses 10pm is the right time to come and tell us this. Thanks. So we drive half an hour in the dark to the reserve we stayed at last night and sleep there. Needless to say we weren't happy.

The next day we drove back to the town and did some shopping for our jaunt up to the northern most point in the south island. On the way to Farewell Spit we stopped at a handful of beautiful golden beaches to relax and spent a couple of nights in campsites right on the waters edge, where we collected mussels which I ate and Lauren squirmed away from. We also stopped at a great little town called Takaka where a funky Sunday market was on, it was basically a town of hippies. When we got to Cape Farewell we decided to walk along the spit (which is the longest natural sand spit in the world). We wandered along the beach for 4km before cutting inland and stomping up and down sand dunes, it was vast and felt like we were in a desert. After some sweaty hours later we reached the ocean on the other side of the spit and walked back towards the beginning of the walk. We attempted to catch some locusts on the way back but they were far to fast. After another night in a campsite by the sea we headed into the northern part of the Abel Tasman national park where we had planned to do some sea kayaking but the wind and rain closed in and we decided to hold off until we get some nicer weather.

On the way to the national park we stopped at the Pupu springs, the largest freshwater springs in Australasia and some of  the clearest water that can be found in the world, the visibility through it was something like 65 metres. There were signs everywhere that said the water was off limits but we found a place where we could get down to the water so Lauren could touch it. In the park we drove to a place called Tata beach, probably the most golden sand I have ever seen, no wonder they call the area Golden Bay. We lazed away the day lying on the beach before checking into a campsite down the road. We relaxed in our crappy camping chairs and drank our wine. Wine that we thought was a bargain at $18 for a 3 litre box, but it turned out to be 6% (does that even count as wine?), so we solved the problem by drinking loads of it.

After our trip into the national park we hoped the weather would get better to allow us to kayak but the forecast was dire with winds of 50kmph on the way, we chose to get out of dodge and head towards Nelson and the Marlborough region. Around the Marlborough Sounds we would get another chance to kayak, and this is also wine country. We picked our way around the coast towards Nelson, stopping here and there, and camped on Ruby bay where I tried my hand at fishing once more. But caught nothing again! We wiggled around the coast and visited Rabbit Island on the way to Nelson where we saw a weird looking shark washed up on the beach. We finally got into Nelson and treated ourselves to a lovely Starbucks lunch and coffee before wandering around the shops trying to find Lauren some new clothes. After a while we left Nelson and found a really nice campsite by the Maitai river which we relaxed the evening away in.

A few weeks ago we met a couple from the Czech Republic who told us to go to Cable Bay north of Nelson, and that there was good fishing there and a nice campsite. So we did, and as soon as I got my fishing rod out it started to rain. Typical. The bay was very nice and we learnt it was where the first telecommunication cable was run between Sydney and NZ across the Tasman Sea. Very interesting. Luckily we had bought a set of games in Nelson so we passed the time waiting for the rain to stop by playing chess and backgammon, both of which Lauren is annoyingly good at. The campsite was great and had the nicest showers I have used since being here so I had two. It also had a great lounge/kitchen area and we were pretty much the only ones there so we watched crappy tv while we cooked and ate dinner. The weather had cleared by morning but the sea was too rough for fishing so we left. We drove an hour down the road to Pelorus Bridge where we did a great walk through the rainforest to see some waterfalls. After the walk we went to a campsite nearby and enjoyed the sun which we felt we deserved after a day of rain.

Yesterday began the same as any other with clear skies and crickets chirping and we decided to head to Picton where we would check how much our ferry ticket would be when we cross over to the north island in a week or two. $220, not too bad for a van we thought. We mooched around the town and the harbourfront but thought we would save the aquarium and museums for when we come back before our ferry crossing. We found a campsite at the brilliantly named Whatamango Bay, right on the seafront. The wind had picked up however and when we attempted to go for a wander we were almost lifted off our feet by a strong gust. We went back to the safety of our van, where Lauren beat me at chess again!

Today we woke up to glorious sunshine and the winds had all but disappeared, we spent the morning cleaning and tidying our van which had become somewhat neglected through the rainy days. Now we are in a mcdonalds in Blenheim, these are the only places with free wifi. This is wine country so hopefully we will have a drop or too before heading to the beach once more.

Speak to you soon.

x x x

Sandflies!!!

After we last blogged we began our drive into Arthurs Pass by taking a less travelled route along the shores of Lake Brunner, here we stayed the night in a really nice holiday park in which we were the only clients. We watched TV and cooked in a proper kitchen for the first time since the orchard, it was a nice change from cooking on our gas stove. We watched films until the wee hours of the morning and enjoyed watching the Weka’s chasing the moths on the sliding glass doors.

The next day we drove into Arthurs Pass itself and stopped in the small village. From here we enjoyed a few walks through the dramatic scenery including a walk for a few hours up a steep and rugged pathway to see the Devil’s Punchbowl, a beautiful waterfall that carves its way down the dense jungle. After plenty of snapping away we drove slightly out of town to a DOC campground, it consisted of a cleared area of forest and a long drop toilet, whatever saves paying for a nights sleep. We collected water from the river and set our solar shower in the sun so that we could wash later on. As the title suggests and as I’ve already said elsewhere in the blog this entire region of NZ is swarming with sandflies, and here seemed to be worse than anywhere else we had been. To combat this I set to work building a fire that should drive them away, the fire was great and seemed to do the trick. I found a stonking great log by the river and chucked it on and it burnt really well, then the Department of Conservation warden paid us a little visit. Apparently some busybodies in the village had given them a ring to say there was a fire in the bush and it was his job to check it out. Luckily he was a nice chap and agreed that it was a good fire and under control so he let us keep it going, so when another nosing busybody came over and said we couldn’t have a fire here I took great satisfaction in telling them very politely to ‘bugger off!’

A 7 o clock alarm woke us up and said it was time to go up Avalanche Peak, an 1800 and something mountain in the park. Our conversation went something like this.

Robin: “I can’t be bothered, can you?”

Lauren: “Not Really”

Robin: “Good”

And we went back to sleep. I couldn’t be bothered to just go up hills for the sake of it, it was a bit cloudy and there was a chance of rain, I only want to climb up hills if I’m going to see stuff from the top. We spent a lazy morning driving around the park and getting our van chewed by the cheeky Keas before leaving the very picturesque national park and taking a long drive north to the upper west coast. We ate lunch in Greymouth then drove an hour north to the striking rock formations at Punakaiki known as the pancake rocks. A well made pathway winds around the various rock formations created by the rough seas and takes you to a viewpoint of a sea geyser, a blowhole that channels the water from the powerful swells into a funnel that shoots a jet of sea mist for several metres into the air. We got quite wet, luckily it was a nice hot day. After spending some time admiring the power of the sea we drove to a quaint little campsite 20km south of Westport, a tiny pizzeria tucked well of the beaten track with fabulous grounds for camping, needless to say we ate lovely fresh pizza cooked in a stone oven by a funny little German fellow, it was probably the best pizza I’ve ever eaten.

After a pleasant nights sleep we drove to Westport, I wasn’t sure that a seaside town could be ugly until we arrived here. The shops that weren’t boarded up looked like they probably would be soon and the most interesting building in the place was a chemical plant. We did a spot of food shopping and filled up with petrol before heading to the ominously named Cape Foulwind a few minutes down the road, hopefully it wouldn’t get worse. We were pleasantly surprised when we drove to cape, the road wound along the rugged sea cliffs to a car park where a gravel path worked its way towards a small lighthouse, then stretched out along the sea cliffs. We walked for an hour and came to a lookout point where we spent a bit of time watching seal pups rolling around and playing in the rock pools while the bigger seals lolloped on the rocks. I haven’t put any seal pictures at the end of this post, I think there are plenty in previous posts.

At this point we were caught in two minds. To stay somewhere near Westport, an unpleasant prospect, or to drive inland towards the Nelson Lakes. We chose the latter. The road followed the gorge carved by the Buller River and made for a very scenic drive, on the map I had spotted something that might be worth a look, New Zealand’s longest swing bridge. We pulled into the car park and went over to the bridge. It was longer than I had expected, we began to walk and as the ground dropped away from beneath our feet Lauren began to panic, the bridge consisted of two pieces of cable joined by what looked like chicken wire for a platform, and a piece of cable either side at about chest level for railings. At first she walked very very slowly, and scolded me every time I took a step because I was “ROCKING IT!”. Then she decided the best way to get across was to speed up, I took a moment to get a few pictures of the gorge and when I turned back around she had almost reached the end of the bridge in a wobbly kneed trot. After the bridge crossing we went for a lovely little walk through the woods and detoured down to the river, the water was crystal clear and so inviting but we had left our swim stuff back in the van. When we returned back to bridge an American accented voice said from on high “you flying back today?”. We had no clue what he was on about so we asked and it turned out there was a wire running slightly higher, and parallel to, the bridge. This was to, as he put it, fly back! Which we did, after the American operator and myself severely bullied Lauren into it. We were strapped into some rustic looking contraptions and across we went, in tandem. It was great and so much quicker than walking back, and it turns out that Lauren really enjoyed it, although some editing will be needed on the video footage to censor all the swearing.

So now we are in a campsite in Murchison that happen to have an Emu wandering around and preparing for another relaxing evening swatting away sandflies and itching the bites we got last night.

So long.

P.S. Happy birthday Mark

P.P.S. Americans are annoying, and very loud on their phones as we are discovering as we type this.

The Wet West Coast

We went to Lake Manapouri after we last blogged, but it rained consistently so we left. The postcards of it however were very nice.

We decided to leave Fiordland and the wet weather and headed back inland and after a couple of days we were in Queenstown once again, we camped on the shore of the Lake and spent a few hours skimming stones. We had planned a walk up Ben Lomond, the mountain that overlooks the town, but the weather closed in again and didn’t stop raining until well into the next day so we didn’t get a chance to do it. We carried on driving through the rain on our route northwards and spent the next weekend at the orchard in Cromwell, not working this time. The owners had kindly allowed us to stay in the staff house for as long as we wanted which we readily accepted, we sat out the rain which had swamped the entire country and were lucky that we were in the south of the country, 150kmph winds and torrential rains hit the entire north island and parts of the south island. Luckily we had a solid roof above our heads.

After the wild weather had passed we said farewell to the orchard for the last time and drove to Wanaka where we collected the one piece of our property that had been recovered by police from the robbery, an ipod speaker. It’s not a laptop or an ipod but every little counts. We spent an interminable amount of time filling out victim impact statements and other bits of seemingly unimportant paperwork with the slowest typing police officer in the history of the world. Lauren and I struggled to contain our laughter when he somehow managed to misspell ‘New Zealand’ at least twice. It was very funny. After an age we left the station and went to camp by the Clutha River near its source at Lake Wanaka, we had our own private beach and went for a paddle in the shallows, Lauren wouldn’t let me swim in it! This was probably wise however as it is New Zealand’s most powerful river.

The next day we began our long slog to the west coast, we initially planned to spread it out over a few days but the campsites we planned on staying at were so overridden with sandflies (the kiwi equivalent of midges) that we left instantly and drove to the safety of the coast, on the way we stopped countless times at the numerous waterfalls dotted along the gorge through which the road runs. We drove through Haast, the most boring place on earth, and within an hour were at our campsite on Lake Paringa.

The West Coast is renowned for its wet weather and we were greeted with exactly that. It rained for the rest of that day, and the rest of the next day, and the morning after that! After spending one night in the van in the rain we decided to check into a lodge in the Fox Glacier township, the whole day we sat on our nice comfy bed watching films on the laptop, using the hot showers and cooked in the kitchen, the only time we left the lodge was to walk 10 minutes to the town shop to buy chocolate and crisps. It was a great rainy day! In the morning we awoke to more rain, albeit slightly subdued. After checking out we drove to the nearby Lake Matheson famed for its perfect reflections of the highest peaks in the Southern Alps including Mt Cook and Mt Tasman. The walk around the lake itself was fantastic, a dense rainforest interspersed with trickling waterfalls that feed into the lake. The lake was amazingly reflective, unfortunately the only reflection we saw was of a thick band of cloud blocking the view of the mountains. Oh well it was still a nice walk. Later that day the weather cheered up to some degree and we went for a walk up the track to the terminal face of the Fox Glacier, the walk through the glacial valley was very nice and the glacier itself was stunning, unfortunately the views were marred somewhat by the fluorescent cordon set up to prevent the slightly more moronic tourists from getting to close to the unstable mass of ice. We ambled back down the valley to our van and drove a few miles up the road to the Franz-Josef Glacier. We climbed a short peak which gave good views of the glacier from low in the valley and watched the precession of sightseers tramping their way up the path just as they did at Fox Glacier. We decided at that point to not take the same old route to see the glacier as everyone else and instead decided on climbing Alex Knob, a 1303 metre peak that gives breath taking views of the entire glacier as well as a 360 degree panorama of the Southern Alps in one direction and the Tasman Sea in the other. It was billed as an 8 hour return trip so we would start in the morning. That night we camped at the nearby Lake Mapourika where we swam (rather pathetically) in the cold water, and prepared our packs for tomorrows climb.

The day of the walk came and we woke up a bit late, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind. We began the walk at about 9:30 and after 3 and a half hours of climbing up boulders and scrambling over tree roots, 1200 metres of nothing but uphill, we reached the summit. We had been given slight glimpses of the views we might receive at the top, but the lush rainforest we climbed through concealed just about everything. We were presented with an unbeatable view of the glacier that looked so close as to be able to touch it, all of the peaks that stretched either side of the glacier were covered in a deep layer of snow that had been delivered in the heavy rain of the last few days. We lay in the sun for an hour as we recovered from the climb, eating the food we brought with us and enjoying the views before setting off downhill. In two and a half hours we were back in the van and very proud of ourselves, looking up at the thing you just climbed gives you a very strange sensation and is often hard to believe you were up there just a short while ago. That night we drove to the very picturesque lagoon of Okarito where we collected driftwood and kept the sandflies away with a nice roaring fire.

The last few days we have spent on a lake just south of the seaside town of Hokitika relaxing and regaining our energy before our slight detour though Arthurs Pass national park and more hill climbing, providing the weather stays pleasant then in the next few days we will climb up the ominously named Avalanche Peak, an 1800+ metre peak just south of the Arthurs Pass village. We’ll let you know how we get on.

Speak to you soon.