Peace and quiet and swimming with dolphins.....

I'm a bit behind with the blog - so much to see....so little time!  So, here's what we did from 23rd Jan 2012 - 29th Jan 2012.

Marlborough Sound

On the way we stopped at Havelock – last civilisation before we drove into the Marlborough Sound region with Lakes, hills and nothing else.  We stopped at “The Mussel Pot” and shared a platter of cooked mussels, smoked mussels, grilled mussels and mussel chowder!

Havelock from the road to Marlborough Sound

We stayed for two nights at Nicau Cove with only a few fellow campers and vanners for company…..oh, and two wekas and some oyster catchers. 

What a spot!

A Weka

A Tui

One of the families camping there did a lot of fishing and showed Malc how to get cockles at low tide so that was tea sorted!  Malc did it all on his own the next night but several of them were empty shells so we had them as a starter luckily and not the main event!

As we had hired bikes with the van we decided to get out along the coast.  It was very hilly and hot but we managed about 20K with a lot of stops.

Nice place to stop...someone even painted the chairs!

Blenheim wine trail and Picton

We found a nice spot at Sprink Creek near Blenheim which was at one end of a 12k road with many wineries at the other end……good planning eh?  Unfortunately, it took longer to cycle than we thought and there was a head wind that day so we didn’t get to as many as we planned!  We still managed four wineries and a chocolate specialist and a very nice winery for lunch with a bottle of sparkling wine….it’s a wonder we made it back!

Cloudy bay vineyard

Giving the bikes a rest!

Lunch at Hunter's vineyard

Cycling through the vineyards

 Picton was very picturesque and it’s where the ferries go to the North Island into Wellington.

Apparently they don’t have ordinary Irish pubs here, oh no……..

Kaikoura

We spent two days at Kaikoura before getting the flight out of Christchurch to Auckland.  This is THE place to see dolphins, whales, seals and birdlife. 

We spent a few hours following dusky seals and Malc went swimming with the dolphins.  There were about 200 dusky dolphins and we also saw a few common dolphins and New Zealand Hector dolphins - which are the smallest dolphins and a rare species.

Onwards to the North (of the South.........)

Pancake Rocks and Buller Gorge

I forgot to mention that the West Coast is famous for sand flies.  They are the size of a fruit fly but with FANGS!  They will even bite through clothes.  They make Scottish midges look like amateurs. The west coast is beautiful but if the weather is warm enough (and it’s NOT raining!) you can’t sit outside because of the sand flies!  SO, as you move further up the coast to the North of South Island the flies become less and less……………………marvellous!

We drove through the Buller Gorge on the way to the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki.  

The wild west coast - on a calm day!

The pancake rocks are famous because of their pancake like appearance (caused by softer mud rock eroded from between layers of limestone) thereby causing “blow holes” that the sea is forced through at high tide.  We arrived at 10:40am and high Tide was 11:00am…………………how’s that for timing??

  

A blow hole explosion - AND a rainbow.....

Kaiteriteri

Sadly we didn’t have time to get all the way up to the  Abel Tasman National Park.  We got to Kaiteriteri on the coast in Tasman Bay.  A fantastic coastline but we decided that EVERY Kiwi on holiday had decided to go there too!  We had the last place in the park that we booked into. There were 450 spaces and almost every one had a motorhome or caravan plus an awning, a 4x4 and a boat!  t looked like the poshest refugee camp on the planet but was one big party. It was a bit crowded so we moved on the next day in search of peace and quiet again.

 

The road over the mountains to the coast

Kaiteriteri Bay

 

The Glaciers

We spent a long day visting both Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers.  We were able to walk to the base of both of them - although even from the car park this took 40 minutes.  We were very impressed with how the Department of Conservation are constantly maintaining the pathways to enable people to walk there as the water levels are constantly changing depending on the weather. It was obvious in parts that on a rainy day some of the paths would be under a lot of water. Information showed the place where the glaciers WERE some 40 years ago - a long way foward from where they are today.  You can do guided walks further up the glaciers or take the easy route - by helipcopter.

Fox Glacier:

.....easy walk then?? - some idiots still ignore signs like this.

The trail to the glacier

Fox Glacier

Franz Josepf Glacier:

Walk to the Glacier

Franz Joseph Glacier

Continuing up the West Coast......

19th January 2012

From Queenstown we made our way to nearby Cromwell where we met up with Fiona.  We first met Fiona last year on our last night in Buenos Aires where we were eating at the same restaurant.  During our various travel tales we mentioned that we intended coming to New Zealand where Fiona now lives and that we planning to travel by motorhome.  Fiona lives in the South Island but had a friend in Auckland who has a motorhome and, after emailing her, arranged to borrow her motorhome for our North Island adventure! We couldn’t pass by without visiting her and she kindly allowed us to park Kiwi Kezza in her drive and took us to a great restaurant called FEAST in Cromwell . Well done Josh & Co - great food. And thanks Fi for your help in planning this great trip........One day we'll get the Kiwis to talk proper English!

Fiona, Josh, Karen and Malc

Leaving Cromwell we travelled along the Haast Pass towards the glaciers.  We stopped at the Blue Pools on the way where you can see trout travelling up the river.  Unfortunately you can’t fish in this area otherwise I am sure we would have been tempted! Lots of trout......

The next night was spent by a lake in a lovely conservation site again. It was REALLY windy so only a few brave souls camped out and just two motorhomes.

During our stay in Christchurch we had been told that Jackson Bay was a great place to visit.  It's a  crayfish and fishing port but absolutely nothing else there except some great conservation walks and a converted caravan that is now a restaurant - the Cray Pot.  We had fantastic fish and chips and whitebait patties and then went back to buy some seafood chowder for tea just before they closed!

We walked through the fern forest to another beach and we were followed by some tiny birds called fantails....

Our parking spot for the night.

Sunset over Jackson Bay