Starting the South Island Road-Trip…..part one

#newzealand #travel #adventure

Firstly, apologies again folks. The WiFi has been pretty much non-existent during our time on the west coast, so I’m doing this in instalments….

It’s hard to believe we’ve been on the South Island for nearly two weeks now, we seem to have settled in to life on the road quite nicely. We’ve got to grips with Harvey (the RV), and have learned what to expect from the campsites. Everything that we don’t want flying around the camper, is now either, in a box in a lockable cupboard, strapped in with a seatbelt or held down securely with blue tack, which seems to be working extremely well for the books. We should probably have tried that with the beer in the fridge, we had 3 bottles shake open on one journey. Bloke took one for the team and drunk them while I carried on driving…hero!

We spent a night in Picton after getting off the ferry, as it was quite late in the day to head out on the road. So the following morning we drove on to Nelson, and the reality hit us, that we really didn’t have any concrete plans in place and with Christmas fast approaching, we needed to get some stuff booked. The summer holidays fall at Christmas over here, and demand for all accommodation is high. So we spent the afternoon bent over our maps and guide books, and came up with a bit of a plan.

The next morning we headed straight to Kaiteriteri, an hour or so’s drive from Nelson, and pitched up at campsite right opposite the beach, with a lovely view of the sea. We had visited the area very briefly previously and wanted to revisit it properly, so we booked in for 3 nights. We ended up staying 4.

We had 4 brilliant days chilling out by the sea, the weather was a bit hit and miss, (Maritime climates eh 🙄 Brits should be well used to that! :bloke), but we managed to squeeze in some kayaking, paddle boarding, mountain biking and even sailing. First stop was the mountain bike Park, we set off on the Coopers Loop, billed as an easy loop. It was an awesome ride. Whoever decided these trails are graded green and easy, have obviously never ridden in the UK. Although mainly swoopy, flowy and pretty smooth, it is pretty much permanently undulating with little to no rest. The ups are worth the downs though, and the technicality comes from the turns, usually with steep drops to one side. In other words, you don’t want to miss a turn and mess up. You can hit the downs at pace, knowing there’s no surprises, but just watch those corners!

The next day we went on a guided tour of the Abel Tasman National Park. We started the day with a three hour kayak, taking in the views of the many islands and golden sandy bays in the area. We were even lucky enough to see some very young fur seal pups on the rocks and a few adults out at sea. A couple swam right under our kayaks (showboating for the tourists? :bloke) and a few more, just going about there business, sunbathing. We landed in a lovely little sandy bay and left half the group behind, they were walking back I believe, while the rest of us had a short walk, or as the Kiwi’s say, a “tramp” through the bush, up and over a hill to catch our lift home: a 10m catamaran. We managed to sail much of the way back, again taking in more bays, before the wind dropped and we had to motor the last couple of miles. When we were trotting along quite nicely in the wind (11-12 knots according to my GPS, despite my bantering up the skipper Mark, he wasn’t prepared to get it up on one hull with tourists on board :bloke), I really enjoyed it, but as soon as we slowed down, I have to admit, I did get a bit bored, but what a great day and a really nice way to experience the national park.

We managed to get a good deal of use out of the new paddle board as well over the 4 days. Every day, even if it had rained in the morning, we seemed to be blessed with a few lovely warm and sunny hours in the afternoon. The bays in that area, are really well protected from the elements, which means the seas are quite calm, perfect for the SUP (stand-up paddle board). At high tide, you can get in to the little coves and estuaries, the water is so clear (as a bell – easily over 25ft to the bottom, like glass!! :bloke), it’s beautiful, even if I do get a little freaked out by being able to see the fish and in turn, not able to get the Jaws music out of my head – my father has a lot to answer for on that one! The guides tell stories of Orcas and Dolphins being seen regularly. Not sharks, I know, but once that music sets in… (We were two up on the SUP one afternoon, out in fairly deep water, but well within the Bay. Anyway, we’ve all seen a few Attenborough documentries: well, we were just floating. No paddling, no splashing about and out of nowhere, 3 meters away, a school of small fish just jumped out of the sea. I’m no expert, but in my head I thought “they are escaping from a predator – obviously a shark ” my imagination went wild. Heart rate up to 210bpm. Then I’m thinking “be calm, don’t let the bird see you are spooked, she is terrified of sharks” fortunately we were only about 700m from shore, on the slowest form of waterbourn transport ever invented 🙄 I could bearly get the “bat” out of her hands fast enough to put down some Watts and get us to shore :Bloke).

Later we tried our hands at a bit of Sup Yoga, it really isn’t that easy on a floating object (massive understatement :bloke). I think we gave a few spectators on the beach something to giggle over. Bloke managed to pull off a not bad attempt at a warrior pose, and then had one wobble too many and went in, there was a ripple of laughter from behind me, as I was standing on the shore watching him (I was doing kung fu!!! 😬 :bloke).

The following day the forecast was rubbish, so we decided it was a good day to spend on the road. It poured down all day. We drove over to the West coast and stopped at a place called Punakaiki. The coast line on the west coast is truly staggering, amazing rocks and cliffs, fierce seas, no good for the SUP, unless you can expertly surf, and I’m a long way off that! The campsite we stayed at had the most amazing view of the cliffs on one side and the beach on the other. These were taken the following morning It had stopped raining by the time we got there, we sat and watched the sunset on the beach that evening, it was absolutely beautiful. The next morning bloke got his bodyboard out for a play in the waves (I think “play” downplays the heroism of my attempts here. It was a fair swell and at no point did Our Heroine pop out and show me how it was done. A far more experienced surfer chatted at the beach and said there were Dolphins beyond the break, and they’d been playing with the surfers – I was desperately trying to get out there to see, but the waves were just too strong for my inexperience and I was not able to get far enough out. *crushed* :Bloke). We walked up the coast to visit “Pancake Rocks”, the most incredible sedamentry rock formations I’ve ever seen. science doesn’t explain exactly how these patterns are formed, a real natural wonder! What a beautiful place, they have carved a pathway through the rock so you can get up close and really feel the waves booming through the formations and blowholes. From the very top of the rocks we could see beyond the surf break and spotted a few Hectors Dolphins (identified by a local, they are a smaller cousin to bottlenose dolphin you see on the TV a lot :bloke).

Later that afternoon, after a visit to a glow worm cavern, (unfortunately we were there too early in the day and it was still too bright for them) and a nice wander further along the beach, to where the river meets the sea, we decided to hire a Paddle board for bloke and both take to the river and go up in to the bush. It was so peaceful and the water was so clear. Unfortunately, even at high tide (Google: tidal estuary :bloke) , the water isn’t deep enough to make it too far without having to get off and walk against the current dragging the Sup to get to the next deep bit. A bit much on the feet (big awkwardly shaped really slippery pebbles – Ouchie! :Bloke) to do that for too long.

to be continued……