Having left the glaciers behind us we chugged up the West coast for the next few days. Places of note included Harihari, where the first man to attempt a solo crossing of the Tasman crashed his plane; Pukekura, where we learned all about west coast life and saw our first live possum at the Bushman's centre and Hokitika, where we missed out on the wildfoods festival and those delicious Hu hu grubs by a week! We spent a night in the aptly named Greymouth and then ploughed on up the coast only stopping at Punakaiki to see the famed Pancake rocks.
These are columns of limestone which resemble stacks of pancakes resulting in an excellent business opportunity for the row of cafes on the main road. We resisted the lure of maple syrup and headed northwards.
With a week left in New Zealand we had decided that we would revisit the Abel Tasman National Park to see if we could hit upon some better weather and actually get to see some of this beautiful area. Our route took us through the stunning Buller Gorge, a great spot for lunch and only slightly marred by the thousands of sandflies that joined us and consequently Dave shutting himself in the van and refusing to get out. At the other end of the gorge we stopped at 'New Zealand's longest swing bridge' which Dave trotted across quite happily and I waved at him quite happily from the other side; a note to other wimps, for 'longest swing bridge' read 'wobbliest, shakiest and rather high swing bridge'! Not too long after this trauma we set up camp for the night on a lovely campsite in Murchison, where the owners kept a couple of vicious looking emus and a very tame deer which kept us amused for the evening.
We awoke the next day to a cloudy sky and a chill in the air, unbelievable giving the scorching temperatures of the day before and felt that our return to this part of the country was doomed. No need to fear though because in true New Zealand style we drove 30 minutes north and were soon bathed in glorious sunshine once more. We arrived at our destination in the Abel Tasman park, Marahau and booked out kayak trip for the next day, keeping our fingers crossed that the weather would stay fine. We found a campsite overlooking the blue waters and then headed back out of the town to catch a glimpse of split apple rock. The tide was in so we couldn't get out to it but we did get this lovely photograph and a walk along the beach.
The next day dawned and we breathed a sigh of relief to find that the sun was out. We met Troy, our guide for the day, and he got us into our kayaks and onto the water. We paddled out of the bay, accompanied by Stingrays gliding underneath us, amazing. The pace was very relaxed and we were soon making our first stop of the day at Apple Tree bay for morning tea, how civilised.
Back on the water we admired the fabulous coastline as we paddled. Lunch was at Watering cove, followed by a walk up to the top of the headland for views over the north end of the park. Back into the kayaks and we made our way across the bay to the inner side of Adele island for some seal spotting and 'extreme' kayaking through the rocks. Our last stop was on the idyllic Fisherman's island where we pulled our kayaks onto the beach and went in search of the resident penguin.
He stayed well hidden until we were all back on the water and then popped out to give us a wave of his stubby wing. The wind had increased so Troy informed us we would be taking the lazy way back and produced a huge sail which sped us back onto Marahau beach in no time at all.
Before leaving the blissful Abel Tasman behind the next day we walked a section of the track and vowed to return to complete the whole lot. Over the next couple of days we retraced our steps and drove back down towards Christchurch, passing Nelson, Blenheim and Kaikoura on the way. The weather was still as bad when we ventured back into Kaikoura and took an unexpected wintery turn as we drove over the hills to Christchurch. Poor Delilah was pounded by hail stones and driving rain so much so that we had to pull over at one point.
After a night in Christchurch we spent our last couple of days back down on the Banks Peninsula in Akaroa as we enjoyed it so much the first time round. We chilled out and generally prepared ourselves to leave this amazing country. Dave insisted on having his picture taken with his favourite supermarket icon, although 4 Square may still not match up to the Intermarche 3 Mousquetaires; yes, he is rather strange!
The sky lit up for our last sunset in New Zealand and we toasted our tremendous 2 months here with a bottle of Monteith's beer, perfect.
We left Delilah in Christchurch and boarded our flight to Sydney, with our noses stuck to the windows for our last few glimpses of New Zealand.
These are columns of limestone which resemble stacks of pancakes resulting in an excellent business opportunity for the row of cafes on the main road. We resisted the lure of maple syrup and headed northwards. With a week left in New Zealand we had decided that we would revisit the Abel Tasman National Park to see if we could hit upon some better weather and actually get to see some of this beautiful area. Our route took us through the stunning Buller Gorge, a great spot for lunch and only slightly marred by the thousands of sandflies that joined us and consequently Dave shutting himself in the van and refusing to get out. At the other end of the gorge we stopped at 'New Zealand's longest swing bridge' which Dave trotted across quite happily and I waved at him quite happily from the other side; a note to other wimps, for 'longest swing bridge' read 'wobbliest, shakiest and rather high swing bridge'! Not too long after this trauma we set up camp for the night on a lovely campsite in Murchison, where the owners kept a couple of vicious looking emus and a very tame deer which kept us amused for the evening.
We awoke the next day to a cloudy sky and a chill in the air, unbelievable giving the scorching temperatures of the day before and felt that our return to this part of the country was doomed. No need to fear though because in true New Zealand style we drove 30 minutes north and were soon bathed in glorious sunshine once more. We arrived at our destination in the Abel Tasman park, Marahau and booked out kayak trip for the next day, keeping our fingers crossed that the weather would stay fine. We found a campsite overlooking the blue waters and then headed back out of the town to catch a glimpse of split apple rock. The tide was in so we couldn't get out to it but we did get this lovely photograph and a walk along the beach.
The next day dawned and we breathed a sigh of relief to find that the sun was out. We met Troy, our guide for the day, and he got us into our kayaks and onto the water. We paddled out of the bay, accompanied by Stingrays gliding underneath us, amazing. The pace was very relaxed and we were soon making our first stop of the day at Apple Tree bay for morning tea, how civilised.
Back on the water we admired the fabulous coastline as we paddled. Lunch was at Watering cove, followed by a walk up to the top of the headland for views over the north end of the park. Back into the kayaks and we made our way across the bay to the inner side of Adele island for some seal spotting and 'extreme' kayaking through the rocks. Our last stop was on the idyllic Fisherman's island where we pulled our kayaks onto the beach and went in search of the resident penguin.
He stayed well hidden until we were all back on the water and then popped out to give us a wave of his stubby wing. The wind had increased so Troy informed us we would be taking the lazy way back and produced a huge sail which sped us back onto Marahau beach in no time at all.Before leaving the blissful Abel Tasman behind the next day we walked a section of the track and vowed to return to complete the whole lot. Over the next couple of days we retraced our steps and drove back down towards Christchurch, passing Nelson, Blenheim and Kaikoura on the way. The weather was still as bad when we ventured back into Kaikoura and took an unexpected wintery turn as we drove over the hills to Christchurch. Poor Delilah was pounded by hail stones and driving rain so much so that we had to pull over at one point.
After a night in Christchurch we spent our last couple of days back down on the Banks Peninsula in Akaroa as we enjoyed it so much the first time round. We chilled out and generally prepared ourselves to leave this amazing country. Dave insisted on having his picture taken with his favourite supermarket icon, although 4 Square may still not match up to the Intermarche 3 Mousquetaires; yes, he is rather strange!
The sky lit up for our last sunset in New Zealand and we toasted our tremendous 2 months here with a bottle of Monteith's beer, perfect.
We left Delilah in Christchurch and boarded our flight to Sydney, with our noses stuck to the windows for our last few glimpses of New Zealand.
2 comments:
Still no comments eh? Scali says...SUCKER
D&K It was great to see you guys in AUSTRALIA, have fun on your travels - Speaking of which where are the photos of Aus? According to this blog everyone else might think that your still in NZ!! better get Blogging lots to write up!!!
Will
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