New Island, Same ‘Ol Van.
Well after a nice break in Wellington over Christmas, its back to being on the road again. We spent five days in Windy Welly, staying at the Intercontinental 5 Star Hotel. IT was a lovely place to stay and although my credit card took a whomping it was a nice break to be in one place for a good few days (with our own toilet and shower!). Valet parking of the van was another added expense but for the security of having the van parked away out of sight it was worth it. Wellington is a bit of a one trick city so to speak. Sure it has the Bee Hive Parliament building and a few other attractions, the Cable Car and Te Papa museum to name a few along with a pretty condensed city central shopping area which is handy, but after 5 days it becomes a bit mundane and slightly routine. We found we made the right choice in living in Auckland for the length of time we did, a six month period in Wellington may have been tremendous overkill.
Gripes aside we did enjoy our time there and in the Lower Hutt Valley. We met a friend of Caroline’s from work, and had him over for tea. Likewise he had us over for tea the following night! (Was night not to think about what to cook, and washing dishes for a change). A few days later we arranged to meet old friends of my father’s in the city centre, and had a good chat for nearly an hour and a half, considering we had never met them before this, the meeting went very well and we were glad of the chit chat.
Christmas day itself was spent firstly swapping presents between the two of us, followed by breakie and a walk around (yet again) the now ghost like Wellington CBD. Much to our surprise, the main museum, Te Papa, was open 10-6 on Christmas Day, so gave us a good opportunity to have a look around it and see the new exhibit they recently got, the Giant Squid. Ever for December 25th, it was verrry busy which caught us off guard.
After our break time in Wellington, it was time to move on. On the morning of the 28th of January we had a ticket booked for the two of us and van upon the Interislander ferry to the South Island. Departing at 8:35am, it was an early rise but we got there in plenty of time and were safely aboard and ready to get under way. A rather large ship indeed, stocked to the brim with campervans and tour buses alike. Also motorbikes, cars and station wagons a plenty. It was a cracking day for the crossing, which in itself is meant to be one of the most scenic in the world so I was looking forward to some decent views once we crossed the Cook Strait and entered the Marlborough Sound’s on the way to the ferry terminal at Picton.
Early on in the voyage, I had readied my D3 camera in the event of capturing a few photos’ should the moment present itself. This seemed to rouse the interest of another German tourist who had the previous model, the Nikon D2x (all technical blabber I know but bear with me.) Whilst I was standing beside Caroline with camera strung around neck, he would invade our personal space, literally, and stand not half a foot away and stare at the camera. This must have happened 2-3 times, like he was taking notes on it. Several times later I was standing on the deck looking out when he would swing his lens straight into my field of view and very nearly hitting me in the face with it, start shooting off photos’. I paid him no heed but he was dying for some attention or something. The journey was 3 hours long, and Caroline left her sea legs back in Wellington so was down below deck trying to sleep away the sea sick feeling.
The time passed pretty quickly I must say. The scenery was indeed spectacular along the way and well deserved of its title as a great ferry ride. Once we depart in Picton, we had a look around, quite a nice sea side town. Pretty much a tourist haven and backpacker stop over as the ferry is probably the biggest business in town. From Picton we carried on towards Nelson city where our first overnight stop in the South Island was planned for. It was a winding sea cliff top road which brought us there, arriving around late lunch time we set off in search of food. We settled for some Italian place which we definitely hadn’t high hopes for but as with everything, turned out pretty damn good!
We had only laid out a loose plan at that stage for what we were to be doing for our last month of touring but later that night we had a more solid one worked out and ready to put in to action! An early rise on the 29th meant a drive towards the town of Kaiteriteri near the Abel Tasman National Park. This is the launching town for ventures in to the park and a hotspot for New Zealander’s going on holidays of their own. When we got there it was early morning, roughly 8:30/9am, and upon arriving we booked a book ride up the length of the coast to see the views and a few kayaker’s and trampers along the way. The ride itself was a 3 hour return journey which started at 10:30am and got us back around lunchtime, and by that point it seemed that everyone and his mother had come to town! The place was heaving! Heavy tan’s and speed boats were the order of the day but we were leaving all that behind to head for the Top 10 at Motueka town, about 15km’s from Kaiteriteri. The following morning (today the 30th) we were up bright and early again (very luckily actually as we got the last spot in the park that night, the south island seems to be much busier that the north) to get underway again and drive towards Lake Roroiti and get a few photos’. We seem to be getting to all the picturesque places along the way at least! Once we left the Nelson Lake Reserve area we continued our drive on to Blenheim, passing through major vineyard country. The plains we were driving along were lined either side, sometimes for 10-15km’s at a time with rows upon rows of manicured grape vines growing up 6 foot wooden poles. Certainly wine in this area is a big business as there were some nice accompanying homes and processing facilities to match the large land crops too. Blenheim Township was a bustling little hive with a square and smaller streets running around it. We stopped off and bought a few items (board shorts, flip flops’ essentials really!) and then made our way to the rest stop for the night. The weather today was scorching, it felt like mid twenties and lead us to stocking up on a lot of water as its never good to run out when your miles away from a shop (the same with petrol).
So tomorrow we head for Kaikoura for two nights. There are some nice walks around the vicinity and it’s the Whale Watching and Dolphin Watching capital of the pacific, if not the world. So we plan to stagger a cruise to spot the wild-life each day, and a spot of walking to weather permitting. That’s assuming we can, as its New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
