New Zealand Day 15: Abel Tasman to Kaikoura

Last night it rained all night, so, as you can imagine, neither of us had a very good night’s sleep because all we could hear was the pitter-patter of rain multiplied by a hundred on the tin roof of the campervan. 

Luckily by the time we had woken up the rain had stopped and it was turning into a nice day. We had planned to get the 9am water taxi up the Abel Tasman coast to Bark Bay and then walk back to Marahau, about a six hour trek. Unfortunately, we slept in by accident and it turned out that the next water taxi wasn’t until 12:30pm. We decided instead to walk from Marahau to Torrent Bay, about a four hour trek, and then catch the water taxi back to Marahau at 3:30pm. 

It was a really beautiful walk; the perfect temperature, and some gorgeous scenery too. All in all we must have walked around 22km – we were both very tired by the time we arrived at Torrent Bay – a rest on the swing was a must...

 Our water taxi arrived half an hour early – lucky we were already there as it would have gone without us otherwise, as they were just about to leave when we rocked up. It was an interesting ride back to Marahau with two red-neck North Carolinians and two Asian girls, followed by being pulled out of the water by a sea-faring tractor, which then drove us to our final destination. It was quite surreal being pulled along in a boat, by a tractor, on the road.

 The next leg of the trip was the four hour journey to Kaikoura on the west coast – we stopped along the way for some Thai food, and finally arrived at the campsite (having thought we were going to run out of petrol, as at least the last 40 minutes of the journey was spent on the red) at about 9pm. 

Tired from walking and driving we were soon asleep...after the bed had been put up of course, which is always a half an hour effort with Anal Dave (my new nickname for him) as he has to get his ruler out and make sure everything is symmetrical, parallel, perpendicular, blah blah blah.

New Zealand Day 14: Tapawera to Nelson to Marahau

We woke up this morning to spitting rain, which as we had our breakfast, gradually got worse. The plan had been to drive up to Mount Arthur and do a three-hour hike but we soon cancelled that as the weather was too bad, and just getting up there in the campervan would have been impossible. Instead we decided to drive to Nelson, one of the larger towns in the north of the South Island, to have a look around the shops. They were all fairly uninspiring – cities in NZ seem comparable to small towns in the UK so, as you can imagine, it’s not really the country for a good old shopping spree.

An afternoon in a cafe it was; we found a lovely little place called Zatori, which was beautifully decorated and sold the most divine cakes. We settled down with the moistest and most delicious carrot cake I’ve ever eaten, chai lattes each and a book, and enjoyed the warmth for a couple of hours. 

Next it was on to Marahau, the gateway to the Abel Tasman, as we wanted to do some more tramping. Turns out Marahau is yet another dead NZ town in the winter, so it was another night in our tin can with a lovely dinner of pasta, a book and a few films. Quite cosy really!

New Zealand Day 13: Hokitika to Tapawera

Our first full Skinsless day. While I won’t go so far as to say we had withdrawal symptoms; his farting, egoism and pissing outside of the campervan door was sorely missed. 

After having a fairly expensive, yet inactive holiday so far we decided we’d do what we can to change it for the next week or so- New Zealand is a naturally beautiful place and is famed for it’s hikes and walks, or if you’re a Kiwi or Aussie its ‘tramps’. 

We went up the coast past Greymouth to a place called Punakaiki famous for its pancake rocks and blowholes. Both of which were amusing and interesting, though not spectacular, and certainly nothing you can’t see to some extent on the south coast of Ireland. 

We visited the tourist centre in Punakaiki to do a bit of research around the Fox River Caves, a cave system a couple of hours walk inland with a few unabridged river crossings en route. Possibly the only thing in NZ you do not have to pay for (I suspect because to police entry to the cave itself would be a fairly impossible task), or are not obliged to buy photos of yourself doing afterwards. The very helpful assistant lent us her head torch and told us that the track was very well signposted all the way to the caves. 

We began our walk down some scrubby tracks, across rivers and up some very steep terrain following the illusive orange triangles dangling from trees. The walk itself was quite difficult, with some assents so steep it was more like climbing, and made even more difficult by the slippery moss on the rocks. 

 When we got to the cave, and Lucia had finally plucked up the courage to enter the pitch black whole we spent about 20 minutes walking to the end of the cave system which was also quite challenging in itself, mainly because of the single torch! 

 When we emerged again it had started raining, so all of a sudden the rocks were more slippery, and lots of mini streams had sprung up right across our track. We made it back to the van with one fairly minor fall, four fairly wet feet and two very hungry stomachs.

After lunch we headed for Lake Rotoroa, but for one reason or another decided to shoot straight past it and head for Tapawera, where we docked up for the night. The campsite itself was fairly cheap, but unlike the previous night we got what we paid for and stayed in a crap hole.

New Zealand Day 12: Franz Josef to Greymouth to Hokitika

Today was quite an unspectacular day. Our main task was to deliver Skins to Greymouth in time for his 4-hour bus ride back to Christchurch. Being the organised people we are, we managed this without too much difficulty and, having said our (tearful) goodbyes we headed back on ourselves to Hokitika, the best place in New Zealand to buy jade (or pounamu in Maori ), which is a culturally invaluable raw material, and big business.

Initially, I had been the one who wanted to visit Hokitika as I had planned to design and have carved a piece of jade jewellery as a memento of my time in Enzed; turns out that I don’t actually like jade that much, and would rather stick to my favourite, turquoise. Still, we wandered around the many jade shops and factories in, the otherwise dead, Hokitika. We then did some food shopping. Doesn’t this blog just get more exciting as I write??

Having booked into our $15 (cheapest so far) campsite, we sat with a lovely dinner of vegetable Thai red curry and luxuriated in our now Skins-less and roomy campervan. A brief fling with the idea of going to the cinema followed, but it was soon quashed by the fact that we were quickly running out of money. Instead a night in, campervan style, watching Blood Diamond, blog writing, and planning the next few legs of our trip ensued.

New Zealand Day 11: Franz Josef

We had a bit of a lay in today for a couple of reasons; firstly we didn’t have to meet for our glacier hike until noon, and secondly, I had been up during the night being sick, possibly as a result of the night before.  

At noon we went to the meeting spot and got bussed up the valley to the drop off point to begin our 3km walk to the beginning of the Glacier itself. Sally, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and filled us in with useless nuggets of knowledge on the trip to the ‘terminal’(or the front of the glacier to the layman). 

 From afar the glacier did not look too spectacular, but, like Milford Sound, that’s because we had no context to put it into. Once we were level with the terminal itself the sheer size of it really became apparent.

Once we reached the ice we all strapped on our crampons and after stumbling around for a short while we managed to walk quite competently, apart from Skins who walked as incompetently as usual, but we’re confident he’ll learn soon. 

 

 The walk itself was a lot of fun and, surprisingly (considering we were walking on ice), really quite warm. We saw lots of crevasses and (insert other GCSE geography buzz word) in action and had the opportunity to go down some of the deeper crevasses into the heart of the glacier. 

 When we reached the top of the glacier we were given another crash course in glacial formation while eating our picnic before descending along the same path and heading back to the car. Fun though the walk was, at times it did feel a little like we were being spoon fed...the guide was going in front of us with a pick-axe carving out staircases as we went.

 To finish off the day we’d booked to spend the evening in the hot pools complex, a selection of outdoor spa pools at 36, 38 and 40 degrees. This was a very relaxing way to finish off a fairly active day, ending in a bite to eat at the Landing Bar on the way back to the campervan.

New Zealand Day 10: Wanaka to Franz Josef

Today was a day mainly of driving as the trip from Wanaka to Franz Josef was around four and a half hours. Before setting off we stopped off at Puzzling World in Wanaka, which, as the name suggests, is a theme-style park full of puzzles! 

 There was the Illusion Room where water appears to drain backwards, balls on pool tables roll uphill and you stand upright at a 45 degree angle – all very disturbing and quite stomach-wrenching too. 

 Then there was the Ames Room where one person appears really big, and the other tiny – apparently an illusion they used in Lord of the Rings. 

 To finish the morning off we attempted the Great Maze, but got bored after about 15 minutes and used the emergency exit! 

We had planned a supermarket stop but it turned out that between Wanaka and Franz Josef there was pretty much nothing – we managed to find a cafe for lunch, where Dave and Skins had school-style fish and chips (or fush and chups if you’re a Kiwi) and I had soup. We eventually arrived into Franz Josef at around 4pm. Having booked our half-day glacier walk, we went to the shops to stock up on food for dinner and the glacier walk the next day.

It turned out that the campsite we were staying on was a bit of a party-backpacker style campsite where the Kiwi Experience bus (a bit like the Greyhound I think) was stopping for the night. In the pub on the site, there was a traffic light party going on so we spent the night there with our new found friends Ben and Becky. After going back to their campervan (mainly to compare) for a glass of wine, we eventually fell into a very cold bed at 1am.

New Zealand Day 9: Queenstown to Wanaka

Everybody got up looking forward to the day’s events, and much less apprehensive than yesterday. We had arranged to all go for a game of crazy golf (somehow Lucia won!), a walk around the shops and lunch at Ferg again. After lunch we split up; Lucia went for an afternoon of spas, flotation tanks and massages while Skins and I had an afternoon on the Shotover river planned. 

The Shotover Jet, something we’d heard lots about, involved a jetboat hurtling at stupid speeds up and down the Shotover River through a very tiny canyon narrowly missing the river banks and protruding rocks on many occasions. While this was fun, it was nowhere near as exhilarating as the day before and not really as good value for money. It probably speaks volumes when I say the highlight of this trip was probably that the boat had heated handrails- how novel.

 Later in the afternoon we were bussed through the mountains to the start point of the white water rafting. The road we took was called Skippers Canyon Road which is world-renowned for being one of the most precarious roads in the world, and the guide at the front of the bus took great delight in reciting death statistics, pointing out the most accident prone corners, and generally making everyone feel uneasy throughout the duration of the trip. 

When we arrived at the top of the Shotover we got unpacked and jumped in the dinghy. Not only was this my first experience of white water rafting, but we were also fortunate enough to be doing it in the snow! Needless to say, it was cold and wet. The Shotover white water rafting is the most challenging commercially guided rapids there are in NZ with a few instances of grade four rapids. 

Much to our dismay, however, the river was quite tame on the day and neither of the three boats were flipped over or smashed against the rocks- all in all a bit tamer than we were hoping for but good fun nonetheless.

We came back to town to meet Lucia, who had been massaged, floated, spa-ed, and hit the road quickly on the way to Wanaka. We were hoping to get there in time to scoff a quick dinner down and go to a small boutique cinema. Unfortunately, the dinner took its time cooking and we missed the cinema, so went for a few drinks to plot the next couple of legs of our NZ adventure.