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.