Saturday - hilltop wall and cicadas

We left Havelock (a place with a small centre and a very large marina) this morning and started driving along the Queen Charlotte Drive towards Picton. First stop was by the turn off towards Anakiwa, where we booked a kayak and walking trip for tomorrow. We then drove back to Linkwater, and took the narrow windy road towards Kenepuru. It was a road with wonderful views, but so many twists and turns that driving was very tiring. We got as far as Cowshead Bay, then stopped at the Portage Hotel for a coffee and coke. We had a recommendation for a place to have a picnic just beyond there, where a very thin isthmus connected two bits of land, so we made a picnic lunch and set off. Sadly the guide had failed to mention that the beach was only there at low tide, and we had arrived at high tide!

So we backtracked to the hotel, but this time used the public car park next to them, had our lunch there and enjoyed a rest in the sun.

 

We then drove back towards Mistletoe Bay, where the Queen Charlotte Track (a three or four day walking track from Ship Cove to Anakiwa) meets with the road. A steep walk north from there took us to the Hilltop Lookout.

This was a fabulous spot where we could see both the Kenepuru Sound and the Queen Charlotte Sound, and had views over a complete 360 degrees. We could even see the isthmus where we had tried to have lunch, now with a beach!

 

One of the features on the way up was the incredible noise from the cicadas! We had heard them before in many places, but never so deafeningly loud. And they were easy to see, sometimes as many as 10 visible on a single tree. In fact, we keep getting dive bombed by them, and these were quite large bugs (they are over an inch long, not counting the wings).

 

Mick was somewhat amused by the toilet by the track, which stated that it had been provided for the hiker's convenience, and thanked people for their donations!

 

We are parked for the night at a freedom site at the side of the road, looking out over Kenepuru Sound. The sun is setting and the wine is on the table - what could be a better end to the day!

 

 

 

 

 

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Friday - delivering the mail

Today was the much anticipated trip on the Pelorus Sound Mail Boat, so we were up early and down at the quay by 8.40. By 9.30 we were on our way, with a full boat of tourists and several mail bags and boxes. The day was overcast to start with, and the sun shone through in beams. It quickly warmed up though, and sun cream became the order of the day.

First up was the mussel farms scattered throughout the area. The Marlborough Sounds grow 70% of the mussels produced in NZ, and the Pelorus Sound industry is worth over 200 million dollars a year. This was a mussel harvesting boat. The mussels are 'seeded' onto rope which hangs below the large floats you can see. They take 15 to 18 months to grow to harvestable size, and are then stripped off the ropes by boats like this. Each white bag of mussels on the boat weighs a ton.

 

The Pelorus Mail boat has been delivering the mail in the area since 1918, but has always had to take sightseers along to provide sufficent finances. On this run we had six places to deliver mail to, and it took us over 90 minutes to reach our first port of call.

 

Along the way we were delighted to come across a group of about 10 Little Blue penguins swimming in the sound.

At our second stop we were met up a very excited dog, we realised why when the first act of delivering the mail was to give him a dog biscuit. All along the route our skipper, Jim, gave us a running commentary about the families living at each location, bits and pieces of history about previous inhabitants, plus informative chats about the timber and mussel industries.

 

At our third port of call another dog was waiting for us, followed down the wharf a moment later by a large pig who also got a dog biscuit!

 

An extra thrill on the trip was coming across a pod of 30 to 40 bottle nose dolphins who played in our bow wave and gave acrobatic performances. Though it is apparently quite common to see dolphins in the sound it is rare to come across a pod this large.

Our last call was on an 88 year old man, and his chicken. No dog biscuits this time, but the chicken did get the crumbs out of the onboard biscuit tin. The gentleman here lives on his own, creates his own electricity from a 30 metre waterfall on his property, and sails into Picton once a month to visit his wife who has had to go into care.

We saw Australasian gannets, cormorants (shags), gulls, ducks and then more dolphins on our return to port.

 

They leaped and cavorted again, and this time I even managed to take a short video of them. And guess who got to steer the boat for some of the way back.

 

We had been slightly disappointed with the mussels we had eaten last night, but decided to give them another go at a different restaurant tonight. Much better, more flavour and less chewy. They are certainly more substantial then the small blue mussels we are used to, a small dish of them makes a complete meal!

 

 

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Thursday - Nelson

After catching up with our e-mails this morning and uploading all the remaining blogs, we left Mapua fairly late (especially after a quick visit to a quilt shop!). We drove round the coast to a wonderful museum, WOW, which contains both the most amazing costumes and a classic car collection. After a very enjoyable couple of hours (Including a wonderful lunch of a roasted vegetable frittata) we proceeded onto downtown Nelson.

The outskirts of town were full of industry and big roads, but the centre was surprisingly small and nondescript. Most of the shopping area (about two blocks worth) were all two story buildings, and this was the only upper section of interest we saw. We made a quick stop in the provincial museum (confusing), then made our way to an ice cream cafe. They had rather different flavours to most places - I had watermelon, mint and chilli. It was delicious, but after a while the chilli took over, which was a shame.

 

Back on the road we visited the Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve, and took a short walk. The river looked wonderful, and we saw lots of people swimming. Our walk took us through an area of bush, including an enormous totara tree.

Then it was on to our final stop for the day at Havelock. We're booked into the Havelock Motor Camp for two nights, and tonight we eat mussels (Havelock is the green lipped mussel capital of New Zealand!). Tomorrow we go out on the Pelorus Mail boat, delivering mail and supplies in the Marlborough Sound.

 

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Wednesday - drive to Mapua

The day began slowly, then we started the drive back towards Nelson. After renegotiating the drive out of Abel Tasman National Park, we first went to visit a small area called The Grove near Takaka.

 

It is an area of strange boulder and rock formations, overgrown with ferns and trees of all descriptions. It was quite surprising as we ventured further in, and even included a lookout point over the valley, reached via a remarkably small gap in the rocks.

 

Next stop was the walk to the Rawhiti caves, also near Takaka. The first part was easy enough, a gentle trail following the creek bed. Then after about 20 minutes of walking the trail started to climb the side of the gorge. 25 mins later, completely exhausted, we arrived at the caves. It was well worth the climb!

The cave is a hollow hole in the side of the gorge, full of stalactites and stalagmites, but of a very particular type. As they are growing near light mosses and ferns grow on them on the light side. These in turn get covered with the calcium rich water, and become part of the stalactite. Thus they grow in a bend, towards the light.

 

Along the way we also came across this fascinating example of a dead tree trunk from one of the fern type trees.

 

 

We drove back over the Takaka Hill, then down into Mapua, where we visited a winery, then a brewery, before finally arriving at our chosen campsite for the night, close to the beach by Tasman Bay.

There are rabbits all around the site, which is surprising large for a very cheap site run by the Tasman District Council. There are also Tui birds in the trees', but they are very difficult to get a photo of!

 

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Tuesday - Abel Tasman

We woke this morning to this view from our campervan. Somewhere out there is a boat called Expresso, a coffee roasting boat that was once a Jacques Cousteau research boat.

After a quick stop for supplies we set off for the Totaranui campsite at the north end of the Abel Tasman National Park. It was an 11 km drive on an unsealed road round some of the most amazing bends we have yet driven on. The GPS reckoned it would take us over an hour, we were very happy to arrive after only 30 minutes of concentrated driving.

The campsite has a very different feel to other DOC sites: this is a large site (850 pitches), and places are only available by lottery between Christmas and the end of Jan. Most of the people still here are families on long stay holidays, enjoying beaches and good weather.

Mick and I opted to walk the north end of the famous Abel Tasman Coastal Track, from Totaranui to Seperation Point. It is a lovely walk, up and over headlands between beautiful sandy beaches. Even at this time of the year it was quite busy, but, we've been told, nothing like the southern sections.

 

The sky was blue, the sea turquoise and the views along the walk were all of the 'wow' variety. We crossed Anapuri beach, then went inland again until we reached Mutton Cove.

 

We then decided we had seen loads of view points, seen lots of headlands, but hadn't actually sat on a sunny beach and gone paddling. So we stayed where we were, enjoyed the sun and relaxed.

 

After a leisurely picnic lunch we set off on the return walk, and enjoyed watching a pair of oyster catchers finding, and eating, mussels at low tide!

Back at the camp site at about 5 pm we are continuing with the hectic life, sitting, reading books and enjoying a drink in the sun.

We leave again tomorrow, back over the Takaka hills, with a few little walks planned, then on towards Nelson.

PS. We are sitting here, having enjoyed a lovely meal of lamb and broccoli, watching our neighbours (with two young children) make their own sushi, and whittle chop sticks for everyone. Impressive or what!!

 

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Monday - a long sandy spit!

Today we drove back into Collingwood ready for our trip out to Farewell Spit. If you look at a map of South Island it is the long spit of land, shaped like a kiwi beak, that sticks out many kilometres into the Tasman Sea at the top of the island. No private cars are allowed on the spit, and walkers can only access the first 4 km, so the Eco bus is the only way to see the spit.

After using the company's wifi to upload Thursday and Friday's blog entries, we set off. Our first stop was back at Farewell Cape, but this time we didn't have to walk up from the carpark.

The bus is based on a 1970s Bedford Lorry, 4WD, specially modified for driving on the sand.

As we left the public car park at the start of the spit we could see more of the dead long finned pilot whales that had beached two days ago. Together with the ones we had seen earlier it made at least 18 who had died. Apparently 198 had beached altogether so the rescuers had done a great job getting so many back into the sea. Our guide believes they beach during an attempt to get away from predators, and during his 30 odd years of driving this tour he has seen many, many beachings by whales in this area.

 

We saw many examples of the birds that spend time on the spit, including this little piedball stilt (hope I got that right!).

At the start of the spit there is a small area of native bush, including some wild lupins. But this time the lupins were yellow, not blue/purple as we have seen before.

 

 

 

After a stop at Fossil Bay, at the extreme start of the outer beach, we drove some 23 kms along the beach to the Spit lighthouse. Along the way we saw many more birds and some fur seals. Most of the spit is pure sand now since settlers trying to keep animals there burned off much of the native bush. Some areas have been planted with grass to stabilise the dunes, but up by the lighthouse where the three keepers used to live, there is a little microclimate formed under trees that one keeper had managed to get to grow. It is very strange to drive two hours along a beach to find a small oasis at the end!

The spit is 1km wide at high tide, but 8 km wide at low tide. It is also several kms longer at low tide. We drove out further along the spit towards a gannet colony towards the far end. The small dark patch on the left hand side of the bus is the lighthouse 'oasis'.

On the way back we stopped by the one sand dune that visitors are allowed to walk on, and had great fun running up and down the dunes.

 

As we were nearing Fossil Bay again we startled a group of sea birds.

The whole drive took 6-1/2 hours, and was a unique experience. We had a knowledgable guide who told us all about the spit and the nature around us, interspersed with stories about the local history of the region.

The first European to see the bay was Abel Tasman, who incorrectly interpretated a Moari haka as a friendly sing-a-long, thus accidently agreeing to enter into a battle with the Moari. After they had killed three of his seamen, and eaten one, Abel called the bay Massacre Bay. Later Cook discovered lots of Maori bones in the area and called it Murderous Bay. It then became Coal Bay after the discovery of coal, before finally being known as Golden Bay after gold was discovered in the area.

Back at Collingwood we found the whole town seemed to have closed for the night at 6pm, so we drove on, past Takaka, to Pohura Wharf where we are freedom camping for the night, surrounded by many kiwi campers. The site is a grassy area by a small harbour, and only self contained campers are allowed. The wardens come round every night, and anyone trying to camp in a non self contained campervan gets an instant fine of $200.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the Abel Tasman national park and do some walking.

 

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Sunday - a long drive to the perfect beach

We left our freedom campsite this morning without even seeing Lake Rotoiti. A quick chat with our neighbours, 4 kiwis of whom two had spent some time in a canal boat rented from Sawley Marina, about 3 miles from our home in the UK, then we hit the road.

We drove north, through lots of farming country, up to Motueka. The road from there, heading towards Takaka, was windy and steep as we crossed the mountain range that was the last section of the Great Divide. It was probably the most driving we (by which I mean Mick) had done in a day, and the multiple bends made it particularly tiring.

Eventually we reached Collingwood, a tiny town on the Golden Bay, for a late lunch. A few picturesque buildings, but mainly a very functional place.

The final part of the drive was along the coast of Golden Bay where sadly we saw two beached whales. A lady had told us that several had beached just recently, and someone else mentioned another ten dead whales further up the coast. So sad!

Our final destination was intended to be Wharariki beach, (pronounced Farariki), but we took a slightly wrong turn along the track, and Mick ended up trying to demonstrate his sheep herding qualities.

We finally reached the beach, and it was fantastic!! Great rock arches, huge tunnels through the rocks, the tide gradually coming in - absolute perfection.

 

We played on the rocks for a while, but couldn't spend too much time at the south end of the beach or we risked being cut off by the tide.

 

 

There was even a few people surfing, just to add to the whole kiwi feel of the beach.

 

 

Then, in the middle of the beach, we came across a pool containing a number of baby seals. Someone was playing with them with a length of seaweed, and they were chasing the end like a bunch of happy kittens.

 

 

Finally we walked back to the carpark over a set of sand dunes. This beach had every feature you should find on a beach and, despite the carpark being quite busy, it felt virtually deserted. The perfect beach!

We did a short detour to see Cape Farewell, the most northerly point on the South Island, so we have now fully covered the island, from the most southerly point to the most northerly.

As we drove back to the main road we saw these birds in a field. I'm pretty sure they are pukeko, a bird I have been trying to spot for a while. Friends of ours from NZ, Robert and Stella, gave us a ceramic pukeko last year which proudly stands in our garden in the UK.

Tonight's camping spot is a little carpark by a boat ramp on the shore of Whanganui Inlet. So far we are the only people here. The only down side is that we were hoping for another good sunset, but the clouds have prevented that. On the plus side it is quiet and peaceful (and mercifully free of sand flies) and convenient for tomorrow when we will be participating in a Farewell Spit Eco Tour.

 

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