The Marlborough Sounds and beyond...

After a nice day in Blenheim and a lovely night in a national park on the beach we headed north once more. A window of good weather was ahead of us and we took the opportunity to go and explore the somewhat remote Marlborough Sounds. After skirting through Picton we turned off the main highway onto the narrow and winding Queen Charlotte Drive and were greeted with spectacular views of Picton’s colourful harbour and glorious blue seas. Some stomach churning miles later we turned onto a road that was narrower and windier still that ran along one of the sounds itself, Kenepuru Sound. The driving was tiring, or at least looked it from my vantage point in the passenger’s seat. I managed to avoid getting behind the wheel by playing the “I’m the navigator” card, even though there are only about 5 roads in New Zealand so it’s pretty hard to get lost. The views from the top of some of the steeper points in the road were great and the sea was the bluest I’ve seen it. At the low points in the road we stopped and walked along pebbly beaches and dipped our toes in the surprisingly warm water. We got to one beach called Picnic Bay and were pleased to see it was a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite, there were about 4 places to park and no one else was around so we thought it would be a nice quiet place to spend a night or two. Even better it was listed in my fishing book as a good spot. We spent the entire day in the sun on the beach, Lauren drew while I fished, and I caught one, it was a wrasse about 10 inches long but too small to eat so I put it back. Nevertheless I was happy to catch something. The next day we drove a little further along the twisting turning road and stopped at some more nice bays but decided our private little beach was better so we went back and had another lazy day sunbathing. In the afternoon we were getting hot so we had a bit of a swim, I dove in and swam out until it got dark underfoot then slowly swam back to shore, it was nice to swim in the sea without a wetsuit. By the time I got back to shore Lauren was still only knee deep so I splashed her, a lot. I think it helped because she had a quick swim as she was already wet but she didn’t thank me. After another peaceful night’s sleep we said goodbye to the little bay and drove the scenic road back to Picton. Here we booked our ferry to the North Island, it departed at 6:25 the next morning and would arrive in Wellington at about 9:30 giving us a full day to see the sights, the undesirable time meant it saved us a few dollars too. Check in was at 5:25 so we spent the night in Picton and woke up at a bit before 5am, it was pitch black and the sun wouldn’t rise for another 3 hours at least. We ate breakfast and brushed our teeth and got to the terminal at exactly 5:25, how boringly precise we are. Unfortunately the ferry operators weren’t as accurate as us and we didn’t even board the ferry until 7:15, we weren’t very impressed. Luckily the ship seemed relatively empty and we had an entire lounge area to ourselves. Our early rise was rewarded with a spectacular sunrise as we sailed through the Queen Charlotte Sound. The surprisingly gentle crossing took about 3 hours and as we neared Wellington we sat out on deck in the sunshine and thought about how we would miss the South Island.

After 4 months of bumbling around sleepy rural towns and fishing villages in the south it was a shock to be ejected from the ferry into the hustle and bustle of the capital city. For a city of a little over 100,000 people (not much more than a big town in the UK) it certainly felt a lot busier.

Our first destination, the city zoo, obviously. The zoo itself was small but fantastically laid out upon a hillside just outside the city which afforded us with great views of the capital. The enclosures were roomy and most were separated from the public by a simple moat of water, no cages. There were bears, lions and giraffes as well as the other usual suspects but the highlight for both Lauren and I was our first glimpse of a Kiwi, although we still want to see one in the wild.

Our next destination was the botanical gardens where we had lunch before heading to the next stop, Te Papa Museum of NZ. 1^st Floor Natural History, brilliant. A huge room full of whale skeletons, a pickled Colossal Squid, and loads of stuffed animals. 2^nd Floor was an exhibit on earthquakes and volcanoes which was very interesting. The next 4 floors slowly went downhill and by the end of it I was craving more whale bones. The Maori heritage exhibits were nice but there are only so many carved wooden things I can look at, and then came the contemporary art exhibit which was rubbish. One of the “painting” looked like someone had bought a £2 stationary set from Partners and gone mental with a set square and a protractor, they probably sold it for loads too, very infuriating. Lauren and mine’s criticisms no doubt upset some of the crap enthusiasts but we weren’t bothered and we carried on pointing out which ones we could probably have done ourselves.

After immersing ourselves in culture, he laughed, we drove out of the busy city and spent a night in a campsite away from the noisy motorways where we planned our foray into the North Island. Lauren had noticed a word on the map that she was very interested by “Rivendell”. For those of you that aren’t dorks it’s a location from the Lord of the Rings book/films. So the next day we aimed for there and spent a nice day in what is actually called Kaitoke Regional Park and was one of the nicest places we’ve been yet, and as luck would have it we were able to camp there to. So Lauren was very excited that we camped in Rivendell. With a bit of driving to do before we reached the next point of interest on our map, Tongariro National Park, we decided to drive and stay in a place called Eketahuna where we found a nice little spot on a river to stay. On the way we drove past a place called Mount Bruce Animal Centre where they have the only white Kiwi in captivity, we had to go, Lauren had kiwi fever. The next morning we got up and drove to the centre where we saw the white kiwi, it was incredibly cute and Lauren sat by the glass watching it for ages. In the centre we also saw Tuatara, a rare type of reptile that has been around for 90 million years; and a whole range of endemic New Zealand birds that are struggling against extinction because of mammals introduced by human settlement on the islands. Other than the white kiwi the highlight for me was a mass of huge black eels that swam around the stream that snaked through the centre, they were New Zealand Longfin Eels which grow to 1.6 metres and live for 60 years, what’s more is they were wild eels that spend the majority of their lives in rivers and streams but would soon would make their way into the Pacific Ocean to spawn. After spending the best part of a day at the centre, and visiting the white kiwi house several times, we returned to the lazy little campsite by the river to relax before more driving northwards.

Which is what we will be doing as soon as I finish this post and tonight we will probably be somewhere near Palmerston North.