We got up on Boxing Day expecting it to be overcast but instead were honoured by the sun still hanging around.  After a run and breakfast – and a quick stock up of Jalepenos as we ran out last night and planned fajitas for dinner tonight – we headed on our way, leaving Te Anau behind us onto the Southern ‘Scenic’ route.

We didn’t get very far though having decided to walk another little section of the Kepler Track which was only about 10km out of town. This little stretch was from Rainbow Reech to Shallow Bay and it was another fairly easy walk through the forest along side the river and then down onto Lake Manapouri, a lovely spot to have lunch before heading back and on our way.

The road worked its way through the farming land with hills and mountains around us until we got to the ‘Clifden Suspension Bridge’ built in the late 1800’s in the same style as the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol – apparently a claim to fame – not bad, but ours is better and it still has traffic going over it!

Back on the road we had planned on stopping for the night at Tautapere, apparently is the Sausage Capital of New Zealand, however whilst driving through it it was evident that the little piggies may have unfortunately left town so we continued on, trying to stop at a freedom camping spot at Monkey Island which was over-run with campervans, before finally stopping at Riverton/Aparima where we parked up at the RSA club.  The club was closed, as was everything else – I guess that is Boxing Day for you – but we stayed anyway and it was incredibly tranquil apart from the rain that fell in spurts, literally!

The spurts of rain carried on until about 10:15am and then subsided enabling us to stay pretty dry whilst out walking round the headland.  We had hoped to a bit of a loop back through the reserve but after just over an hour and a half we had got half way along the beach and couldn’t see a path inland (….. I had also made the stupid decision not to bring the sandwiches with us and we were getting a bit close to pushing ‘lunch’ one step too far) – so we turned back, retracing our steps. It was still a lovely walk though, beautiful, rugged coastline.

After being reunited with our lunch back at the motorhome we set off into Invercargill which although we hadn’t originally planned to stop in, worked out best on timings so we didn’t have to rush. We picked up a few bits at the supermarket and had a look around – finding a Kathmandu shop with a sale – eventually parking up at the Workingmans Club for the night which was huge by comparison to any we have stayed at previously.

Invercargill surprised us, possibly because it was between Christmas and New Year but it looked like it had lost its soul. A large number of shops were closed – many looked like they were gone for good – several had closing down signs in the window and a high number were second hand shops – very sad as it is a fairly big town for New Zealand.

Our night at the Workingmans club was quiet though and I had a lovely run round Queens Park in the morning with an unexpected sight….. Emu’s!  They obviously keep them in their Avery but as they are very similar to the extinct Moa which I have taken an interest in, I did do a double take when I passed them!

Leaving Invercargill we continued on our last Southern stretch down to Bluff to hit the Southern most point of the South Island.

Parked up (and with sandwiches in hand this time) we had a lovely circular walk up to Bluff Hill which provided great views in all directions before coming back down to Stirling Point again, just a shame that it was slightly hazy as the views out over Stewart Island weren’t as clear as they could have been.

Happily walked, we continued on the ‘Southern Scenic Route’ into the Catlins, which I want to say is a Nature Reserve but I don’t think it is as a whole, it is just an area of the South of the South Island.  The Catlins has an outstanding amount of unspoilt beauty, possibly something to do with the huge amount of unspoilt forest which provides everything from Waterfalls to Beaches as well as Sealions to Penguins… that is if you believe them as we still haven’t seen the Yellow Eyed Penguins yet, although to be fair they are rare with apparently only roughly 300 surviving couples.

We stayed the night at Niagara Falls NZMCA …. and yes, there was a little waterfall alongside it.  Apparently the surveyor who named them was having a little joke as the waterfalls are probably better described as a few boulders with water flowing over them … to be fair they were pretty and a fair few people stopped to have a look but I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit them!

It was a good stopover though (apart from the sandflies which again appear to have bitten me to death) which meant that we could be up and get to Curio Bay at a decent time which was what I was most looking forwards to ….

Yellow Eyed Penguins, Sea lions, Hector Dolphins and 170 million year old petrified forest …. well the Penguins, Sea Lions and Dolphins didn’t turn up but I can confirm that the petrified forest was still there ….

The long line that you can see going from the bottom right of the above photo up through the center is a tree trunk … the only known fossilised wood.  It is the nesting season for the Yellow Eyed Penguins so they are around (apparently) but generally they are seen at dusk, so unfortunately it is unlikely that we will get a chance to see them as we have only just past the longest day over here – dusk would be around 21:30.

Leaving Curio Bay we did a few pit stops along the route as there are so many places to go and see.  We tried to get to Cathedral Caves but it wasn’t low tide so had to pass them by, we did however do a quick stop at Lake Wilkie which was slightly more reflective than our last attempt at Lake Mathieson but still nothing to write home about, however the Florence Hill Lookout did provide pretty spectactular views.

Slightly further round and we stopped for a walk through the woodlands and along the beach at Papatowai before having lunch … they do put picnic benches in some wonderful places!

It always helps when it is low tide as the textures and colours are that much more distinctive but the beach was beautiful and practically empty,  you could walk for miles.

Leaving the beaches behind us, we got back into the motorhome and headed to see the most photographed waterfalls in New Zealand…  the Purakaunui Falls.  It was a short detour on a dirt track but to be fair, they probably are the best ones we have seen yet in New Zealand – if you discount the ones in Doubtful Sound that is!

With enough stops and a little ‘Sightseeing’d Out’, we headed North on another slightly longer dirt track to get to the Catlins River DOC campsite which really is in the middle of nowhere, up a valley with a fair few sand flies!

We haven’t had any phone coverage for a couple of days so we had no way of booking the site to ensure that it wasn’t a wasted journey – thankfully however there was ample space.  We paid our fees into the little box ($8 pppn) and headed out up one of the tracks which climbed up into the hills within the forest.  We had only wanted to stretch our legs as we planned the bigger walk in the morning but it would have been nice to get some decent views after 45 minutes climbing … apparently we weren’t worthy and needed to do more as we only got a glimpse on the way back down which wasn’t really photo-worthy.

Although it was windy and with a little rain, it was very warm and close which didn’t help the sleep or the bites from itching but it was a very quiet location. We got up at a reasonable time and headed out to tackle the Catlins River Walk.  We had planned to do the return loop which was 24km but one of our neighbouring campers told us that part of the track was closed and also that the track took a lot longer than we had expected as the footing was complicated … loads of tree roots coupled with a lot of uneven climbing up and down.  We were happy though and just walked out until we got to what seemed to be a good point and turned around and came back, doing a total of just over 5 hours.

It was probably one of the nicest – albeit complicated – river walks we have done.  It just would have been nice to have been able to take our eyes off of the floor for more than 5 seconds at a time without fearing a broken ankle…. or falling over the edge!

Back at the campsite at a reasonable time, we packed everything up and headed for Owaka to empty/refill before a quick detour via Nugget Point.  Nugget Point was another possible viewing point for Penguins and Seals …. we got the seals at least but we are definately hitting the wrong time of the day for the Penguins… either that or they are a figure of their imagination!

The views out beyond the lighthouse were fantastic despite the fog coming in and taking over the coastline which was a shame as the drive north along the coastal road was stunning.

Last stop of the day was the A&P Showground at Balclutha which was $10 a night. We were the only people there which was surprising as it was a great little quiet spot on the edge of town. It rained a fair bit over night, briefly stopping at about 7:15am, enough to lure us out – me to go for a run and Keith to do his exercise – only to let the heavens open again for about ten minutes to give me a good soaking …. keith managed to find a sheltered spot – oh well, the clothes needed a wash anyway!

After a quick trip to the Supermarket to get a few essentials – wine, beer, etc – we headed North stopping at Tunnel Beach for lunch and a walk.

Tunnel Beach used to be part of the Cargill family land – a local politician in the 1870’s – and he commissioned a tunnel to be built for his children to go down through the rock to the beach.  The white Sandstone rock is beautiful just like the Jurassic coast in the UK and the tunnel is still there, leading you to the following beach and views…

Heading north again we passed through the outskirts of Dunedin before wiggling our way round the coastal road of the Otago Peninsula until I stupidly decided to take a right turn and head up into the clouds to have a look at Larnach Castle, New Zealand’s only castle.  Unfortunately we couldn’t see much further than about 50ft in front of us so although I am sure that the castle itself is lovely, the views would have been spectacular on a clear day so we decided to give it a miss today.  We continued on the ‘high’ road, wiggling our way North until we re-joined the coastal road, passing through a little village called Portabello before finding our little field out the back of a hall to stop in for the night. Apart from the seagulls, birds, one other bus and the possible Sealions, Albatrosses and Penguins I have a feeling it is going to be a very quiet night!!

We did jump on the bikes and cycled up towards the Royal Albatross Center but my back is playing up on the bikes so we needed to turn back.

I know a little early but Happy New Year everyone. 2018 seems to have flown by and not only did we have an amazing summer in the UK, we also said goodbye to Mika and gained a new member of our family – Hattie, with whom we are looking forward to lots of new adventures in 2019… once we are done with NZ that is!!

So in my last blog I said that we had bought ourselves an expensive little treat but I didn’t elaborate … well the treat was an overnight trip on a little boat on the Doubtful Sounds which to many of you probably means absolutely nothing so I can only apologise yet again for the influx of photos.

Doubtful Sounds is the lesser known area of Fjordland in the South West of New Zealand, coming in second to Milford Sounds which is smaller and far more accessible as you can get in and out by road so lots of people opt for a day trip leading to it now being New Zealands top tourist destination.  Doubtful Sounds is roughly 200km south of Milford Sounds but you need to take a bus, then a ferry over a lake for 50 minutes and then drive on New Zealands most expensive road for another 50 minutes to get to Deep Cove which is the closest edge of it…. the journey however is nothing in comparison to the sand flies ….. we have never seen so many, you really need to be dedicated to want to come this far!

Seriously, that isn’t the case – it just takes more time to get to and there are far fewer boats that go out which makes it a much more tranquil area and although it is far larger than Milford Sounds, they say that Milford is more dramatic as it is narrower with steeper hills/mountains that come down to the water…. we still opted for the more tranquil option!

So, we left Wanaka and as we had to be ready for our little trip at 8:30am on Saturday morning we figured we needed to get to Te Anau on Friday night so we planned to take the Highway 6 over to Queenstown and then work our way down afterwards.  There came the first issue, although it wasn’t really a problem – we took the wrong road, which took us up through the valley then over the top before descending down into Queenstown…. well worth the mistake!  Although it was overcast and low cloud the route via Cardrona Alpine Resort was stunning.  The road was lined with beautiful blue and purple flowers – sorry, nowhere to stop to take photos – before we climbed and then dropped quite dramatically before arriving at Queenstown.

We stopped just at the bottom of our descent for a walk around Hayes Lake which was roughly 8km to stretch our legs.  Thankfully the rain held off until just after we stopped for lunch but it did give us a little shower on the the way back to the motorhome.

The rest of the route was pretty good and we arrived at Te Anau late afternoon and parked up at the NZMCA before heading into town for a look around and to pick up some more information to do some reading up on the next part of the South Island we are about to explore.

Bags packed and rain falling we were up early to ensure that we didn’t miss our pick up by Fiordland Cruises to start our overnight trip on ‘The Southern Secret’.

After a bit of an ominous start (the minibus broke down) and the weather on the ferry looking pretty dull, we arrived at the other side to be met by sunshine and sandflies …. I think we actually preferred the low cloud and grey skies …. seriously, they were that bad!

We made it though and by the time we got to the boat itself we were peeling off the layers and we had managed to shake off most of the sandflies so we were happy.

The boat took a maximum of twelve guests and we were eleven plus two crew.  An American family of four (the children were 13 and 16) who were really nice, both parents worked in medical research for Malaria and HIV working for the US embassy currently living in Bangkok, A Kiwi girl with her Australian boyfriend who live south of Perth who were both winemakers and a retired husband and wife who do house swapping from the US with the wife’s sister – all really friendly.

We had a double en-suite which was perfect for what we needed and the lounge area  was light and welcoming so we soon settled into the rhythm of things and lunch was served.

We were presented with a beautiful buffet of salads, fresh bread and lots of fresh crayfish that they had caught on the previous trip.  Keith hadn’t ever had Crayfish and it is fair to say that we didn’t let any go to waste.  It was so fresh and light … just delicious – although it was obvious that food wasn’t going to be an issue on the trip.  No sooner had we finished lunch, cake and fruit appeared …. then later in the afternoon a fantastic cheeseboard….

We cruised into and out of different arms of the sounds and stopped to do some fishing on several occasions.  On the first stop Keith caught a couple of fish and I caught one – all were thrown back in as they were at the bottom end of the pecking order and apparently a bit mushy when cooked.  The second stop was a little better and some Blue Cod and Sea Perch were caught… most of which were keepers, the third had larger blue cod (not caught by either of us) and a 4 ft Shark…. which again got thrown back in.  Regulation is really tight regarding what you can and can’t fish both on quantity and size, we did however between us manage to get enough for dinner thankfully!

We pulled into a nice quiet Bay Area where we anchored down and we were able to go kayaking, swim or do more fishing if we wanted to.  So, we went kayaking round the island and over to a waterfall and then once we were back on the boat did a quick dive in to the water for a swim.  It was fresh to say the least but so clear and although the photo doesn’t show it, very calm…. needless to say we went swimming before we had caught the shark!!

After a quick shower to warm up we did a bit more fishing and we started to move on again to explore a bit more.

We found Bottle Nosed Dolphins that were huge in comparison to the Dusky Dolphins that we saw in Kaikoura.  They were playful but not quite as ‘showy’ as the duskies … mainly swimming along in front of the bow of the boat – impressive none the less.

We also came accross a blue eyed penguin who was having some chill out time …. we never realised how solitary they are, happily swimming around paying no attention to anything that is going on around them.  We had already been told that we weren’t likely to see the blue eyed penguins as the mating season is over so they have all disappeared back out to sea, we were happy though and hopefully when we get further round the coast I will actually get a decent photo that I can share as they are so small, I haven’t managed to get close enough despite my zoom lens!

A little further on and we stopped to pick up the Crayfish pot which was full.  Out of about 15 that were in the pot we kept 11 which was pretty good, the others were too small.  So although several were tomorrows lunch for the next group, we got Crayfish Cerviche and Crayfish Sashimi to go with our dinner which was amazing!

Dinner was pulled together by Kerstin who was a natural at everything she turned her hand at … she could certainly cook for us any time as she produced a banquet for us.  Unsurprisingly,  we ate a bit of everything and there was something for everyone … chicken, lamb, salads, fish cooked in two different ways as well as the Cerviche and Sashimi – all followed up by a fruit crumble.

We stayed up chatting to Jason (the Skipper) and Kerstin and watched the sun go down as it was the summer solstice as well as a full moon … so tranquil and beautiful.  It was a clear night so the stars and moon were amazing but it did go down to about 6 degrees so it was a little fresh to say the least in the morning.

As with any boat it doesn’t matter how lovely it is, sound insulation isn’t the best and the son of the family in the room next to us slipped as he was getting out of bed during the night whilst getting up to go to the bathroom … funny, although it did feel like he was actually in our bedroom!

Unable to sleep we were up early and went up on deck to watch the scenery unveil around us – spectacular… especially whilst no-one else was around.

Everyone else slowly started to emerge to get some caffeine around 7:15/7:30 and after breakfast we started to move on back to the quay … an amazing morning weather wise.

The trip was spectacular and we arrived back at the motorhome just before lunch, still feeling the cold as we hadn’t quite had enough time to warm up despite the sun shining back in Te Anau.  After lunch we did our Christmas haircut and then headed in to Te Anau to do the Christmas shopping which felt a bit weird.

Before heading out on the boat we had decided to stay in Te Anau for Christmas, leaving on the 26th as it is a nice site and there are several really nice walks to do linked with the Kepler Track.  So on Monday morning, as we were all stocked up and emptied/filled we headed off on a lovely 23km walk on the opposite river bank to the Kepler Track to return back to Ava to be invited to drinks along with all the other campers – a nice surprise before we set into our BBQ,  enjoying our burgers and bacon – yuummm… a nice way to ease into Christmas!

We were woken on Christmas Day by some Oyster Catchers (they are birds just in case you didn’t know…..) at about 5am, obviously on their way back from a heavy night out.  The sun was shining and it promised to be a corker so we got our morning exercise out of the way and once breakfasted, headed off to do the right hand arm of the Kepler Track which was in the forest along the side of the lake.  A lovely  undulating 25km walk – not too bad apart from the sand flies who appeared to want to join us at lunchtime.

Back at the motorhome we joined the others for a couple of Christmas drinks before cooking steak on the bar b q for dinner …. we do miss Turkey (or at least I do) but it was very good steak!!

Merry Christmas everyone – Enjoy, whatever you get up to, wherever you are!

Setting off from Murchison we headed West to Waimangaroa where we had decided to do a walk up an old miners track to Denniston.  The walk itself which was supposed to be the old miners track was unfortunately cut short after about a mile as there had been a landslide so we continued up hill on the windy road getting some good views out over Westport but turned around before we got to Denniston itself unfortunately.

The whole of the North of the West coast is famous for its mining, historically Gold – which is what many British people came over here for in the 1800’s – and more recently Coal, mostly premium quality and therefore it is exported and not used for the local market.

We had headed north of Westport following a recommendation from Chris and Karen (friends of John and Lorraine from Auckland) as there is a short walk called ‘The Charming Creek’ which was supposed to be spectacular, taking you up the old mining track alongside the river so we decided to give it a go.  We had found that we could park up for the night at the Ngakawau Tavern which is about 300m from the start of the walk so after sorting ourselves out we headed in for a drink or two before dinner.  The owner and the regulars were amazingly friendly and we learnt a fair bit about the area, the mines …. and some of their personal life too!! There are still several active coal mines in the area, one just out the back of the Tavern where one of the guys was working, industry is still strong. Having made some friends and of course tried some local beer, we headed back to the motorhome for dinner to watch a spectacular sunset … I am sure the first of many on the west coast assuming the weather holds out for us!

Woken early by the cockerel – he did wake up just before 5am, did his chant until 7am and then I swear he went back to sleep again – we were actually out reasonably early, getting onto the Charming Creek Track before 10am.  The track is reasonably flat and the first hour runs along the line and the tracks are still in place… except where they had been hit by a boulder or fallen into the river at least!  After about an hour you get to a swing bridge and then a lovely waterfall where most people turn back, we decided to continue on and do the whole route to the mine and back which although they said it would be 3hrs each way, ended up being about 4hr 10 in total.  We were surprised (and happy) as we didn’t see anyone until we turned back and then came across a cyclist, then managed to get back to just before the waterfalls where we stopped to eat our lunch and from there on in there were small groups all the way back.  We did however meet a park ranger en route who was doing some repairs who gave us some insight to the track and a few other suggestions further down the coast that we shouldn’t miss.

A lovely walk with a huge amount of history and varied scenery – well worth a trip if you are passing through Westport.

Back at Ava we packed everything up and after a quick supermarket stop, headed over to Cape Foulwind which is the other side of Westport where we parked up at the Star Inn for the night.  Not that we make a thing of stopping at Taverns all the way along the route but we had wanted to come this way and fancied eating out, so once again headed in to the bar and were welcomed as though we were locals.  We ended up eating fish and chips …. I had Rig (which is a type of Shark) and Keith had Turbot – both were lovely.

Instead of cockerels, this morning we woke to seagulls on the roof – no rest for the wicked apparently – but having scared them all away we got on with our morning routine and then set off on the beautiful walk around Cape Foulwind.  It is only about 3km each way but if you didn’t know which country you were in, you could have easily been mistaken for being in the UK in Devon or Cornwall.

We walked round to the seal colony and then back before heading south to Fox River where we had hoped to do a lovely long walk up the valley and back.

Once at Fox River, we parked up in the Camping area as we had planned to stay the night, setting off en route only to find that the original path had been shut and roughly 2.5km in you had to cross the big river which would have been a pretty hefty wade.  Unfortunately as I have precious feet that don’t like rocks, we decided to turn back and continue down the road … a bit of a disappointment but we did see some baby Weka’s and they were all cute and fluffy.

Next stop was another 15km down the road at the Truman Track which is just a short walk down to the beach through the forest but pretty impressive.  The native trees are huge and the pancake rocks and beach are beautiful.

Jumping back in the motorhome again we did another quick drive to get to the main Pancake Rocks themselves which are part of the reserve.  It used to be pancake rocks and blowholes but the blowholes don’t appear to exist anymore which is a shame and although they were lovely, the Truman Track was definitely superior and with far less people which is always a bonus!

Enough interim stops for the day we headed to Greymouth where we parked up at Jellyman Beach randomly overlooking the speedway track which was fantastic for a late Saturday afternoons entertainment before we settled in to cooking some Steak on the bar b q for dinner.

By the time the sun set the car park was full of campers of one type or another and at around 10pm a few cars joined us looking to have some fun which made us a little apprehensive – thankfully it was all calm by about midnight, just the sound of the waves to keep us awake.

A complete change from the previous day as we woke to grey skies … although still dry to be fair!  We set about our morning routine and by the time we were showered and breakfasted the sun had started to come out … obviously just doesn’t like Sunday mornings, I can understand that!

We headed South again, stopping en route just beyond Hokitika at Mananoui Lake where we decided to do the tramline walk which was another old mining track.  Almost at the other end we got diverted and headed down to the Mananoui lake where we had our picnic lunch before heading back on the road.  A couple of hours there and back, nothing too strenuous but at least we got out to stretch our legs before the drive to Franz Joseph.

We had been planning to do a heli-hike but over the last couple of days as we have been looking at the weather forecast we decided not too, so today we walked Frank Joseph Valley Glacier walk instead before heading back to Frank Joesph itself to find the NZMCA site.

I hadn’t realised that when I was here 20+ years ago the Glacier was actually still growing – unfortunately in the last five years alone it has shrunk more than 800m due to the climate change – quite scary when you see the signs as you walk up to it showing where the glacier used to come to …. when I was here last time it wasn’t too far from where we were standing when I took the photo above, very sad.

The NZMCA site was set in a great location on the edge of town with views up to the Franz Josef glacier in the distance.  We were surprised that we were only one of four on the site as we settled into our BBQ for the evening but happy with the tranquility of bird song and nothing else!

After a beautiful day on Sunday we woke to very low cloud – gutted for our neighbours who apparently had booked on a glacier heli-hike as it had obviously been cancelled.  I headed up the valley for a short run and couldn’t see anything above about 400m as it was covered in cloud – very pleased we did the walk late yesterday afternoon rather than leaving it until the morning.

We hit the road and headed South, hoping to make it over the Haast past before the strong winds came in stopping for a quick walk round Lake Matheson which is a spectacular Mirror Lake with the reflections of both Mt Cook and Mt Tasman when there is no wind or low cloud. Unfortunately for us there was both, therefore it was a pretty circular walk around a lake but without reflection and only the odd glimpse of Mt Cook or Mt Tasman when the clouds parted briefly …. still pleasant and a nice stretch of the legs.

A few miles further and we had a quick stop for lunch looking out over Bruce’s bay … Bruce – we were thinking of you!! Then we worked our way twisting and a turning into the mountains before stopping briefly at the Blue Pools for a very quick walk (due to the nasty biting insects… and too many people!)… although they were very pretty and begging you to go for a swim!

We finally arrived at Wanaka after a very beautiful journey and parked up at the Wanaka Club which is affiliated with NZMCA, deciding to hanker down for 4 nights as there is a fair amount of walking and things to do here.

The Club is just outside the center of Wanaka (above it to be fair) and looking through the trees you have a great view of the snow topped mountains.  It was an incredible tranquil night despite the wind being fairly high and although we had expected rain in the early hours it was only a light shower.  We headed into Wanaka after breakfast for a bit of a look around and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the shops … definitely somewhere to spend money if you are having a day or two off from some kind of activity… Keith is certainly doing a reasonable job at transitioning some of his outdoor gear over to New Zealand brands!  We did however also pop into the Tourist office to enquire about options for Milford Sounds and Doubtful Sounds and appear to have booked a bit of a treat….

Having spent all our money we headed out for a walk around the bay, which if the cloud was slightly higher would have been spectacular … although we were just glad that it was dry.

Wednesday was supposed to be a little greyer and cloudier and it was, but again it didn’t really rain as much as they had forecasted so although there were a couple of light showers – and it was a little moody – we managed to get another lovely walk in

around the other side of the lake passing briefly by someone playing around with a jet pack which was amusing and impressive, especially when she did dolphin dives in and out of the water!!

Due to the orientation most of the higher mountains and glaciers are on the South West side of the lake so the views from each side were hugely different. Tuesdays walk was a much flatter one on a wider track with views over to the snow topped mountains, Wednesday’s views were a little more subtle and the route itself was a little more wiggly and rough once you got a couple of kilometres out of town…. or to be fair, a little past the Wanaka Tree …

All in all a lovely walk, much more tranquil than Tuesday as the route was further out of town.

Today we had a few chores to do so we have stayed a little closer to Wanaka to catch up on washing and also go to the Farmers market and get some food in before we move on.

We did however manage to head up Mt Iron which sits about 1.5km outside Wanaka, providing an amazing 360 degree view over the area.  It is only 548m high but we struck lucky and although it was cloudy it was definately the best day out of the three to get the views….

We left Kaikoura with blue skies and sunshine and headed a slightly different route north, up the Wairau Valley, then over the Richmond Mountain Range to arrive at Motueka.  As we entered the Valley the clouds got lower and it is fair to say that we were lost in them for a while but it was a pretty route through some of the Ski areas.

Once we got back down to sea level on the other side of the Richmond Mountain Range the skies had cleared but the air was definitely a little fresher.  We were heading to Motueka for the night to buy our tickets for the water taxi into (and out of) the Abel Tasman National Park as well as to do some last minute shopping at the butchers naturally!

Motueka is actually not too bad a town considering it is the last ‘real’ town before a huge tourist attraction.  There are two reasonably sized supermarkets, a couple of camping shops, lots of cafes and bakeries and of course a butchers!  As we were heading for a campsite for four nights and from Friday morning the weather was forecast to be pretty good, we stocked up on all things BBQ…… BBQ Breakfast (Sausages, Bacon, Eggs and Tomatoes), Lamb Steaks, Mince for burgers and more sausages …. we don’t normally eat quite so much meat but aren’t going to complain for a few days!

Leaving Motueka on Thursday morning we headed all of 20km up the road (albeit the last 5km were pretty twisty) to Kaiteriteri where we parked up on the Kaiteriteri Beach Camp looking out over the bay.

Not that we are used to staying on many Campsites, the Campsites in New Zealand appear to have a different approach to those in Europe.  Several don’t actually have anywhere to dump waste (i.e. toilet and washing up/shower water) and the majority appear to charge for Showers on top of quite a hefty price for the site…. a little like Italy if I remember rightly.  This one is a pretty average price ($23 per person per night) and I am pleased to say that it does have a dump station for toilet and grey waste but they do charge for showers.  The price includes electricity, so we are actually plugged in for the first time in nearly six weeks – ironically with the weather forecast it is the time that we are least likely to need it. The Campsite is spotless, the staff are fantastically friendly and helpful and it is in a perfect location so we would definately recommend it and come back here if we wanted to do any more walking on the Abel Tasman…… its just those showers that nark me.

We had booked Wilson’s Water Taxi, which is one of the larger companies here and they offer as many boat trips as you want for three seperate days over a seven day period for a set price, so we decided to do three days walking.  On the first day (Friday) we took the boat from Kaiteriteri to Awaroa, the furthest point that you don’t have to plan around a tidal crossing which we couldn’t work around with our dates, then we walked back to Midlands Beach.

So, now comes the first real blog difficulty of the trip …. which photos to add without over doing it and boring you to death …. fingers crossed I get the right balance – I am sure you will let me know!

The walk from Awaroa takes you through the only ‘hotel’ type establishment in the National Park which also offers food and drinks – after that it is very much whatever you want, you bring in and take out as well.  There are a few huts and camps that have to be booked in advance if you want to stay over, as well as a handful of toilets along the route but you are pretty much on your own until you get picked up or walk out, depending on your approach.  We didn’t stop at Awaroa but headed on through to Onetahuti beach before we stopped for our lunch … to be fair I was still happy on my cooked breakfast but it was less weight to carry.  A beautiful beach and so nice that we didn’t have to share it with many people as it is still pretty quiet in the National Park.

From here most of the track was inland with just the odd glimpse of the coast as we worked our way up and then down again on multiple occasions.

Until we finally came towards Bark Bay when we were getting closer to low tide which for us definitely makes the views even more beautiful as you can see more variation in texture and colour … the photos just don’t do it justice.

We had however walked far too quickly.  They recommend 4 hours and we took just over three so we had an hour and a half to wait for our boat back to Kaiteriteri …. ah well, I can think of worst places!

Day two started with a few neighbouring campers looking on at us weirdly as we did our morning exercise routines – not much new there then – but with the show over, showered and breakfasted we headed off onto the boat again back up to Medlands Beach to start our walk back to Anchorage Bay.

There were a couple of side walks at the beginning, the first with a look out point and then another to Sandfly bay which didn’t give us too many hopes but both were nice little diversions before we headed on to find the longest suspension bridge in the park which stretches out 40m and you bounce all the way along it….

Once again the track stayed inland mostly, climbing up before coming down again and repeating itself several times – although nothing too strenuous.  Eventually we were rewarded with a lookout over the Torrent Bay Lagoon which looking at the colours of the sand and sea could have been in the tropics somewhere …

And then fairly soon afterwards the beauty of Torrent Bay itself from a high, the descent being the only thing between us and a toilet (I did say that they were few and far between at points) …..  oh and lunch!

Torrent Bay is the only place in the park where there are still a handful of private properties, some are rentals, some just holiday homes or ‘Bach’s’ as the Kiwi’s call them, all only accessible by sea or helicopter.  There is another tidal crossing at Torrent Bay although they have an alternative route here for high tide which they don’t have north of Awaroa.  We stopped and ate our lunch by the quay before heading on round the high tide route which provided equally beautiful views as well as a diversion up to Cleopatra pools.

A day in and a little more experienced in the timings of the walks, we changed the return boat for today to a slightly earlier one so only had forty five minutes to spare, enough time to explore the caves at the end of the beach a little more before being picked up!

Day three was an even warmer start with the sun and the humidity giving us a warm wake up call.  This was our last day in the Abel Tasman Park and as the last hour and a halfs’ walk isn’t that pretty as you come back into Marahau we had decided to get the boat back up to Anchorage bay and do a walk round the headland before continuing on the main trail to Apple Tree Bay for the final pick up.

We have found a fair bit of wildlife on our route but we hadn’t expected to fall upon wild boar, especially not a sow and her four piglets. Unfortunately for us when we came accross them, the piglets ran the opposite direction to mum so we were prepared to be ambushed for a while although she obviously was glad to be rid of them as after the initial search the piglets wandered off and she didn’t seem to be following.

The rest of the headland route after we left them behind was a little less eventful, with beautiful views and ending up on a lovely little beach before heading back to Anchorage bay.  We then got back onto the main track and climbed up ……finding a not too bad a place to stop for lunch if we do say so ourselves!

There were quite a few optional ‘diversions’ on todays route …. almost all appeared to be down to be a beach – which obviously meant climbing back up again – but each and everyone delivered on views and colour.

We worked out that they put a nice little bench at the top of any steep walk down to a beach so that you have somewhere to rest when you actually manage to make it back up again …. not that we are complaining as it was all stunning and we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Despite taking all the side routes we were still slightly early for our pick up, so we ventured a little further down the path and managed to get some lovely views over Apple Tree Beach before we finally said goodbye to Abel Tasman and hopped back on the boat to get back to Kaiteriteri.

Having not thought too much about next steps for a few days we got the maps back out again and after changing our minds on our destination a couple of times, we packed everything up and retraced our steps back towards a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite at the end of the road between Kenepuru Sound and The Queen Charlotte Sounds.  We had been wanting to walk a bit of the Queen Charlotte Sounds track since we arrived two weeks ago but the weather was so bad we had pretty much written it off.  Bullet bitten we hit the road, stopping briefly in Motueka to get some shopping in and then in Havelock for lunch before tackling the 55km out to Kenepuru Head Camp.  The first 15km of the road was old ground as we did it when we travelled from Picton to Nelson a couple of weeks ago, however the next 40km was new territory.  As we turned off we were faced with a sign stating that the road was ‘uneven’ in places and that there wasn’t any provisions available so we should be prepared…… The next 40km took roughly 1hr 15minutes.  Although the road is tarmac it is narrow and very twisty and falling away in places which means getting over 35km/h was pretty much impossible so we just took our time and I enjoyed the views as Keith was driving!

When we finally got to the Kenepuru Head DOC Camp ($13 per person per night) it was fair to say that we were in the middle of nowhere with only Weka’s and Tui’s (Kiwi bird’s) for company and the views were amazing.  As all Brits do, we put the kettle on to have a cup of tea before we headed out to stretch our legs only to realise that the gas had run out …. of all the times and all the places it had to be when we were a long way from anywhere to exchange it. Thankfully due to the way that Geoff and Tracey have the van set up we could switch over to use the BBQ gas bottle temporarily … I can confirm that it kept us fed and washed for the two days – and I am sure that there is still plenty to spare – until we got back to Havelock… back up plan was cold showers in the morning!

We walked round the end of Kenepuru Sound and admired our surroundings, taking in the tranquility before heading back to take up our lovely viewing spot, watching the tide come back in again.

After probably one of the most tranquil nights we have had yet – or at least it was after some of our fellow campers went to bed – we headed over to the other side of the peninsula to see a bit more of the Queen Charlotte Sounds.  Unfortunately the track isn’t accessible from where we were camped up so unintentionally, we took Ava on a little adventure up a dirt road to Camp Bay, it was only about 8km (5km of which were on the dirt track) but too far to walk and then do part of the track as well…. it is fair to say that Ava needed a bit of a dusting down by the time we got back to Camp at the end of the day though.

Ava parked up safely, we set off North on the Queen Charlotte Track which winds its way down to the sounds and then round each cove.  Unfortunately this part of the track is quite heavy with foliage so although it was nice the views were pretty limited.  There were however lots of streams and waterfalls, one of which providing a lovely little spot for lunch before we turned and headed back – all in all a nice little 20km walk.

The journey back to Havelock this morning was equally as beautiful and once in Havelock again we swapped the gas, emptied and filled the tanks and set off through the valley to Murchison, the home of the Buller river where there were Gold mines and now a lot of water sports.  We have parked up in another NZMCA site in the center of town – which is tiny – and having had a quick walk round, are settled back in Ava watching the rain fall down around us …. he ho, I guess it was inevitable and is our welcome to the Westcoast!

Unlike the American’s who search out storms, we are now officially storm – or perhaps just bad weather – ‘avoiders’…. if at all possible. For the first time in ages the rain was so heavy we opted to take an extra rest day and lay off on the exercise – it was proper nasty out there.

Despite the low cloud and rain we took the scenic route over to Havelock and to be fair the glimpses of Marlborough Sounds through the cloud were stunning – in a mysterious kind of way.  As we worked our way over the hills and twisted and turned with the coastline the cloud started to lift presenting us with the beautiful backdrop of the hills and a slightly red-ish sand where the tide had gone out.  Havelock was just a quick pit stop to ‘un-load’ all things dirty and ‘re-load’ of fresh water but interestingly it is the World’s Green She’ll Mussel Capital … They are green lipped and huge – and I thought the ones in Spain were on steroids, these are about three times larger!

Forgetting the mussels for the time being, we headed to Nelson to look at options for walking and cycling in the area whilst also reviewing the weather as the next weeks’ forecast isn’t looking that great.

Nelson is a bit of a hub for travellers, some of which use it as a base and a fair number seem to just stop and work – each to their own I guess but it isn’t a particularly pretty place, more of an entry point to the region.

We found a pub/hotel called ‘The Honest Lawyer’ in a little place called Monaco which is part of a nature reserve where they allow NZMCA members to stay for up to two nights for $20 which is refundable if you eat/drink with them.  It is roughly 6km outside Nelson, a beautiful location and more importantly for us … close to Pic’s Peanut Butter factory where we had booked on a tour on Thursday morning along with a visit to the Proper Crisps factory.  As it would be rude not to, we headed into the pub on Wednesday evening and were not disappointed.  Keith had Fish and Chips and I opted for a Chowder accompanied by a couple of glasses of red wine for me and Beer and Mead for Keith …. always like to keep it local!

So when we first arrived in NZ, the wonderful friends that we met in Spain a couple of years ago – John and Lorraine – gave us a huge goody bag filled with all their favourite things ‘Kiwi’.  Apart from the recycled/re-usable hessian bag which is a big thing here – almost no plastic bags at all which is fantastic – we had a lovely bottle of NZ Red wine, a packet of Pineapple Lumps, a bar of Whittakers Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate, a book on ‘Instant Kiwi’, a loaf of Vogel Bread, a pack of Proper Crisps and two slugs of Pic’s Peanut Butter …. I don’t think I have forgotten anything but if so many apologies John and Lorraine, it will be something to do with the fact that we probably ate it/drunk it so quickly!!

We started to work our way through the bag of goodies and although the Pineapple Lumps are a flavour burst, I am saddened to say that they aren’t up there on our list of favourites although everything else hit the spot, so much so that Keith decided he wanted to do the factory tour at Pic’s and Proper crisps when we got to Nelson.  The only problem being that when he went onto Proper Crisps website he found that they didn’t do tours.  Distraught, as you would be, Keith got in touch with them and made a bit of a joke about it and they invited us in to have a chat and take a photo with Ava.

Bright eyed and bushey tailed we got to Pic’s Peanut Butter factory at 9:30, Keith was concerned we would be late for the 10am start so instead we figured we would turn up for their Sales and Marketing staff meeting – they were very welcoming!  Pic’s is 100% natural Peanut Butter and it is fair to say that it is tastier than the Meridian that we had been buying in the UK …. must be something to do with the quality of the nuts!  The forty minute tour takes you through the process – did you know it takes 18 weeks to grow peanuts and that when they come out the ground as what we know as ‘Monkey Nuts’, they are a legume and not a nut? …. it is in fact a pea in the shape of a nut, which is where it gets the name ‘peanut’ from!

After our initial overview and education on nuts, we went into the factory where they currently still hand fill the jars. We then came back out to make our own peanut butter and taste all the other spreads that they offer…. Crunchy (which was still warm!), Smooth, Almond, Cashew and recently they have brought out a Boysenberry Jelly…. all pretty delicious, although it is a shame that they didn’t offer up tastings of the ice-cream that they make too!!

After topping up our cupboards with another jar of nutty butter we moved on round the corner to go and meet Emma from Proper Crisps.  We hadn’t really expected anything but it was lovely that they responded to Keith as it demonstrated that they really believe in their customer feedback.  Emma who has only been with Proper Crisps for seven months did an amazing job of talking us through the history of the company as well as the process of making the crisps, of which every element still has some manual input – the company really is still very small.  They make eleven different products – two half popped corn, two Kumara (or sweet potato in our world), one Vegetable medley (i.e. beetroot, parsnips and Kumara), one parsnip and five different flavours of crisps – all with natural ingredients.  Before coming to the factory we had been doing our best to work our way though the different flavours, happily demolishing the Marlborough Sea Salt and Paprika Crisps, the Chipotle and Garlic Kumara Crisps and The Marlborough Sea Salt half Popped Poporn …. however we now have a new challenge to work our way through over the next few weeks – Thank you Emma and Proper Crisps for your kindness!

Back at the Honest Lawyer, we took the bikes out onto the ‘Taste Bike Trail’ to Rabbit Island, which apart from passing the timber factory was a very pretty 37km ride.

Having looked at the weather we decided to hedge our bets and not venture further towards the Abel Tasman, but instead re-trace our steps a little.  The plan, which changed four times within the space of 24 hours, was to go to Havelock for a couple of days, then a Department of Conservation site on Charlotte Sounds, then Picton but as we arrived into Havelock – having stopped briefly at Pelorus Bridge for a lovely walk and lunch – the skies opened and we decided to continue on to Blenheim ….. plans are made to be changed!

Arriving into Blenheim the sun came out and although it did rain a little during the afternoon, it was nothing in comparison to Havelock.  We parked up at the Bowls club for $5 donation with the NZMCA along with several others motorhomes and went for a walk into town to explore and stretch the legs.

Blenheim is the main town within Marlborough, the largest wine region in New Zealand.  Surprisingly it is nothing like the towns that are at the center of the other wine areas we have visited to date perhaps due to the fact that the vineyards are a little further out, therefore the town itself felt very normal.  Whilst we were having a mooch around we popped into Kathmandu and Macpac as Keith was still thinking about buying a new waterproof jacket as his has started to leak.  After much contemplation we left with a nice new jacket in hand … hoping that it will keep the rain away for a while!

Blenheim had its Christmas market on Saturday morning so although it still feels a bit odd as it is summer down here and nothing to do with the fact we are not particular fans of them, we thought we would wander in and have a look around and we are glad we did. The market was pretty big, taking up most of the center of town with a mixture of artisanal stalls, food (to eat), food (to buy and take home) and Christmassy stuff – we even bought some wax wrappers for food which we have been contemplating for a while – a good way to wrap up sandwiches and cheese that is re-usable rather than having to use cling film.

After lunch we set off for a nice walk up Mount Vernon and back along the ridge which is just a couple of kilometres outside Blenheim, the round trip being 15km in total with the highest point being 422m – not too high but enough to give great views over the area.  Whilst at the top of Mount Vernon we were reading up on the area and found that Blenheim is the closest town to the fault line and has the highest probability of earthquakes in the world… not really what you want to read 422m up and in the middle of nowhere, although I guess it would be a quick way of getting down again!

Before setting off in the morning we headed to the local farmers market where although we missed out on the local blueberries, we managed to get some fresh Strawberries, French Pate and make friends with a baby goat … who incidentally was selling his ice-cream…. and yes it was blueberry!

Cupboards stocked we hit the road heading for Kaikoura continuing to run away from the bad weather, hoping that we would be as lucky as we have been over the last couple of days and avoid the worst of it.

Along the route we were exposed to the fantastic coastline and thunderous waves that we are used into in the UK … oh and lots and lots of seals playing on the rocks!

For those of you who didn’t know/don’t remember, Kaikoura was hit by a really bad earthquake in November 2016 – the second largest to have hit New Zealand since European settlement.  The town of Kaikoura was cut off completely for five weeks and on the 1st December (i.e. this last week) the first train ran through Kaikoura which is a huge advancement although the roads are also now open but still in a state of disrepair.  Just to put it in perspective – Cape Campbell, at the north-eastern tip of the South Island, moved to the north-northeast (closer to the North Island) by more than two metres –  and rose almost one metre. Kaikoura moved to the northeast by nearly one metre, and rose seventy centimetres….. nature is quite incredible but also quite scary, thankfully in this particular earthquake there were very few deaths despite the destruction caused.

After parking up up the Trotting club in Kaikoura (which is an NZMCA site), we headed out for a walk despite it being foggy.

We decided to go round the peninsula rather than just straight into town and got to see the amazing rock formation that surrounds the Peninsula along with even more seals.

The walk ended up being roughly 3 hours which I hadn’t expected but we are so glad that we did it as although it was foggy, on reflection it was actually fairly clear as the following day we could barely see the edge of the cliff, let alone any further…. why anyone wanted to go Kayaaking in this weather – I don’t know!

This morning however was different as we woke and could see blue skies. As I went out for my run I turned back to see the backdrop behind the motorhome of the slightly snow dusted mountains which we haven’t seen since we arrived, a lovely view and as the day went on the views became even clearer.

When we arrived on Sunday we booked ourselves onto a Whale watching trip as from a tourism perspective that is what Kaikoura is known for.  Considering the weather over the last couple of days we weren’t that hopeful however that all changed this morning. The sea was calm close to shore but when we checked in at the office the crew had put quite severe restrictions on the boat and its passengers, expecting a rough ride.  As we headed out to sea the swell was high for a small catamaran with several people looking green. However, after a couple of false starts we found a Fin Whale and then within a few minutes the star of the show…. a Sperm Whale who we sat and watched for nearly ten minutes before he disappeared again.  Sperm Whales apparently come to the surface for about 10 minutes to digest their food and re-oxygenate, just lying there spouting air quietly before slowly ducking below the water and diving down, flipping their tale in the air as they do so to return to the deep waters for another 45-60 minutes before they come up again – silently beautiful in a strange kind of way.  After he disappeared we turned back towards shore, finding lots of playful dusky dolphins to watch dive and jump around us for a good ten minutes which was good fun – a well worthwhile trip.

Waking to blue skies and sunshine again has led us to start losing faith in the weather forecast and are now just going to start believing that the sun will shine every day for us …. ha ha, yep – right, dream on!

After breakfast we headed towards to the train station and for $15 return each, within half an hour we were in the center of Wellington … not too bad. Although the sky was threatening to be emotional – very moody clouds – we decided to risk it and head up through Bolton Street Memorial Park and on into the Botanical Gardens and Observatory so we could look out over the city from high.  The route took us past the ‘Beehive’ Houses of Parliament (above) and then through Wellingtons oldest cemetery dating back to the 1840’s. The cemetery itself was closed to new burials in the 1890’s but controversially, it was split in two by a motorway in the mid 1970’s, requiring roughly 3700 graves to be exhumed.  The cemetery is the oldest in Wellington and is in three sections, one part each for Catholics, Anglicans and Jews … the Jewish section only having 40 gravestones, although to be fair there were only 1334 headstones in the whole cemetery – of which 35 are made of wood – for what they believe to be 8500 people buried so there may be a few more Jewish graves in there somewhere. Not wishing to ramble on about cemeteries I will conclude by saying that it is worth a visit if you are nearby!

We walked up to the Observatory which offered pretty impressive views out over the bay and then over to where the cable car (which originally started in 1902) comes up as well before heading back down through the botanical gardens which were beautiful, offering a lovely place for a quiet walk as well as lots of spots for educational sessions for kids.  Very impressive at the way that they have incorporated it into the NZ educational programme and made it such a lovely space for everyone to enjoy.

Pleased that we had managed to take in the views on a clear-ish day we decided to walk round the waterfront and out past Oriental Bay.  In contrast to Auckland, Wellington has started to really make the most of the waterfront, providing promenades for walkers/runners and cycle paths for bikes as well as lots of activity centres for climbing, indoor football, kayaking, etc…. encouraging everyone to get involved and off their backsides.  There also appear to be lots of bars and restaurants all the way along the front, some just little coffee or shake huts,  others providing a more comprehensive ‘dining’ experience – nothing we saw appeared to be too ‘posh’, everything was pretty normal and open to everyone no matter if you were out for a business lunch or with young kids which is unusual for water frontage in big cities.  I am sure that there are some really expensive places hidden in there somewhere but we didn’t come across them!

After watching the swimmers and kayakers in the bay whilst eating our lunch, we headed into town to explore Cuba Street and some of the quirky cafe’s and shops, before finally heading back on the train to Plimmerton with tired feet.

I spoke too early as we have apparently run out of blue and yellow in the sky pallet and Day 2 in Wellington brought rain.   Although it started to rain gently whilst I was out for a run, upping the anti roughly ten minutes from the end, thankfully it didn’t really pour down except for while we were inside so we were happy! Considering the weather, we had decided to bite the bullet and headed straight for the Te Papa (New Zealands National museum), surprising ourselves by actually managing to pretty much complete the whole thing … to be fair one floor was an Art exhibition, which took less time to look around and a couple of the other exhibits were closed … needless to say, I think we will be holding off on any other museums for a little while!!

The history of New Zealand is incredibly interesting and for us although we were aware that the government is doing everything they can to protect the species of birds and animals that they have here, I don’t think we were quite so aware of the quantity of animals native to New Zealand that are now either extinct or nearly extinct – specifically birds.  Evolution is cruel and as New Zealand was such a safe and protected place without predators, many of the birds got lazy and lost the use of their wings over time so when vermin such as Rats and Possoms were introduced they were easy picking.  A couple of birds worth mentioning are the Kakapo, of which their are currently only 148 known living birds, it is the largest and heaviest of the Parrot family (look it up as they are also pretty odd looking and very unusual in their breeding habits) and the Kiwi which although is still around in different sub-species, is also classed as endangered.  I hadn’t realised until we read it in the museum that they also lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any bird in the world…. learning something everyday!

Properly ‘museumed out’ we headed to the Leeds Street Bakery for a Chai Latte and Hot Chocolate before we meandered back through the center to catch our train back to Ava in Plimmerton.

Leaving Wellington behind us we had planned this weekend around some friends (John and Jo) who moved over here nearly five years ago and have now settled in Martinborough, one of the other areas (in addition to Hawkes Bay where we were last week) renowned for vineyards in New Zealand, this area being particularly well known for its Pinot Noir.

Both John and Jo work in Wellington and weren’t going to be back until later, so we decided to take a slow wander over to Martinborough, stopping to do some food shopping in Upper Hut – which appears to constantly have a grey cloud over it -before heading up into the cloud to get over the hills to reach Featherstone, a little village known for its cheese shop.  We are a little spoilt in Europe in regards to cheese but it is fair to say that ‘C’est Cheese’ does an excellent job of offering the Kiwi equivalent… although some of the cheeses on offer were French or Dutch, the majority were local.  Naturally we bought a selection of Goat, Blue, Cheddar and unusually for us, a vintage Gouda …. all of which were tucked into on Saturday night after a beautiful Steak cooked on the Bar B Q by John’s fair hands and were delicious.

Second stop after Featherstone was Greytown which apparently won the prize for New Zealand’s most beautiful small town in 2017.  It is full of boutique shops, cafe’s, restaurants and a lovely butcher where we stocked up on some chicken and a couple of varieties of sausages to go in a cassoulet before finally heading over to Martinborough to park up and settle for the weekend.

Martinborough is tiny with a population of just over 1600 people although in contrast it has nearly 40 vineyards … not bad proportions if you ask me!  The town itself was founded in the 19th century by John Martin who designed it in the form of the Union Jack – something only really visible from the air but an interesting concept none the less.  We headed out to stretch our legs before John and Jo got home and fell upon the only brewery in town – The Martinborough Brewery – and felt obliged to stop and do a little tasting before heading back to put the casserole on just to help ease us into the weekend – little did we know that John and Jo know everyone in Martinborough and we would meet the owner and brewer in one of the bars on several occasions over the weekend!

It was lovely to catch up and we tasted several different wines, including a lovely bottle that John and Jo had kindly laid down for us in one of their local establishments before heading back for the well cooked casserole on Friday night. The town definately has a lovely feeling to it, a real community.

Saturday was wine tasting day and after some delicious bacon sandwiches for breakfast, we headed out on foot to explore a small handful of vineyards. We stopped in at Schubert, Tirohana Estate, Poppies, Stonecutter and then finally Columbo tasting different versions of Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Rose and Pinot Noir in the whole with a couple of additional Germanic grapes and Syrah’s thrown in as well.  We were lucky with the weather until we got to Columbo when the skies opened so we took it as a hint that it was time to get some food then head home for the evening.

Waking to grey clouds, John very kindly took us out for a drive to see a bit more of the local area whilst Jo caught up on some Ironing. I think that between us we turned the house into a bit of a Chinese laundry on Sunday morning, when one of us took a load out of the machine the next put one in… playing catch up!

We drove out to see Lake Ferry which has volcanic black sand, then round the coast to Cape Palliser which is beautiful in parts and then a little bleak as you get further round as it is very rugged and dry. We learnt a lot about New Zealand farming as the company John came over to work for provides software for cattle and sheep farms …. just a little bit different from email and web security, but all very interesting and it helped us understand more about some of the farms we have seen so far in New Zealand and their set up.

Hungry, we headed back to find Jo, hoping that she hadn’t been completely consumed by the ironing and to head out for lunch and a lazy afternoon before Jo cooked Toad in the hole for dinner…. not really what we were expecting half way round the world but it was very tasty despite the oven being a little on the temperamental side.

Trying to find a dry day to do the crossing over to the South Island (whilst also being swayed by one of John and Jo’s favourite places cooking a curry on Monday night) we decided to stay and extra night and book the crossing for Tuesday.  So with a free day … albeit very grey and rainy, we booked ourselves in for lunch at Poppies, something John and Jo had hoped to do with us on Saturday but it was full.

Needless to say we were not disappointed, apart from being a fantastic venue, the platter contained pretty much everything you could think of … roast beef, freshly smoked salmon, brie, houmus, polenta cake, tapenade, pepper stuffed with cheese, vine leaves stuffed with rice, pork belly, tortilla, roasted red onion and pickled red cabbage – delicious.  All washed down with a lovely glass of Poppies Rose which is definitely one of our favourites from the last few days.

Contented, we set out in search of some Lighthouse Gin as my stock levels appear to be getting low and John introduced me to a local one which was pretty tasty on Saturday.  We followed the road and ended up in the Te Kairanga Vineyard where they distill the gin and also produce some nice Sauvignon Blanc’s and Pinot Noir’s which we decided to try before making our purchase and heading back to the house to wait for John and Jo to go out for our last night in Martinborough.

Unknown to us, Martinborough can become a little cut off when it comes to rain and as it had been raining heavily for 48 hours the water levels had increased quite dramatically closing the normal route to Featherstone and Wellington.  More cumbersome for John and Jo in the morning to get their train at some ungodly hour, we just set off slightly earlier and although the rivers were running high and several fields were flooded it didn’t impact our journey to the ferry terminal too much – although it looked like we were in for a rough ride.

Despite taking an addition 15 minutes and probably having 45 minutes of a bit of a rough ride, it was wet, windy and very grey but not too bad considering what we were looking at when we started out from Wellington AND we saw a Penguin …. which is worth 3-4 meter swells any time!!

Arriving into Picton just before 7pm we headed for the RSA club to park up tonight to welcome in the South Island and the next part of our trip.

I am pleased to say that Keith was not disappointed.  After a tranquil night we set off to walk to some hot springs, leaving the motorhome at the Tavern and we fell upon some mud baths which provided ample mud, air and loads of plop …. just what we were looking for!

The noise as the air bubble bursts in the mud is actually oddly relaxing … although still fairly smell!

After a wander back to find Ava and helpIng some South American damsels in distress … their hired campervan (if you can call it that as it was a death trap) had a flat battery so we push started it to get them going again, encouraging  them to call the rental company as the tyres were bald, brake light wasn’t working and apparently the fridge didn’t work either and that was the second time the battery had gone completely flat…. not a good sign.

After we sorted ourselves out, we set off en route to Taupo where we stopped and sat by the lake to eat our lunch before having a wander through the town, getting coffee and a lassi and finding a butcher to get some meat for dinner over the next couple of days.  Taupo was pretty much as I remembered it – fairly touristy and not a huge amount going on but it is a central hub for the area and any sports activities so it had some fantastic outdoors and bike shops.

We had decided to stop over at a NZMCA just by the airport which was lovely, spacious and peaceful…. until the morning at least when the first plane went up with parachutes at the crack of dawn – but to be fair they were few and far between.  The location of the NZMCA site was great as, although on the highest point, it wasn’t too far to walk down to the lake where there was a lovely cycle path which enabled us to  head out for a bit of an afternoon stroll to enjoy the sunshine before the night set in.

With the weather looking like it is going to close in on us after the weekend we decided to do a hop, skip and a jump over to Napier where we had planned to chill out for a few days and take in some of the vinyards.  We headed for the NZMCA site which is just outside Napier and once again were pleasantly surprised as it was a lovely open, peaceful site not too far from the seafront… this time we were welcomed by a bag of lemons on the gate …. it would be rude not to, although we did only take the one!  Boring as it may be we needed to catch up on washing so trekked into Napier and a couple of hours later were fully fresh and clean! …. why we chose here where the launderette is 5km away when most days there is one about 500m from where we park I don’t know !!

After a peaceful nights sleep and a nice morning run we set off into Napier to search out the Art Deco buildings and the Saturday market and although we didn’t find anything interesting or pretty yesterday whilst looking for the launderette, just a couple of blocks further on and we struck gold – A cultural town with lots of colour and style.

The market was like a farmers market where almost everything was organic and seasonal, with lettuce, broccoli, Avocado’s, Broad Beans and Strawberry’s to name a few bits currently in season over here and we even spotted some rhubarb! A taster market before the big one tomorrow apparently, so we only bought the necessities to get us through the night…. and 6 Advocados…

Back at the motorhome and we actually had a couple of hours to chill and relax in the sunshine trying to fend off the mosquitos by topping up the G&T levels (I’ll use any excuse but the little buggers have been doing their damage!) before enjoying a bit of Dijon Chicken on the Bar B Q for dinner.

We set off in the morning towards Hastings which is only 20km away, stopping at the Hawkes Bay farmers market en route to stock up the cupboards.  The market was exceptional, almost like a small food festival in the UK with musicians and about 65 local producers selling everything from Wine to Milk and Cupcakes to Bacon Butties, thankfully the weather has been holding out and they were having a good morning so we managed to pick up some Asparagus, Lamb Sausages, Beef (for a chilli), Smoked Gem Fish and some kind of white fish (sorry John and Lorraine we are useless at remembering the Kiwi names!!), Grapefruits, Soft Cheese as well as some lovely Black Pudding …. certainly enough to give this weeks menu a bit of a helping hand!  With dinner sorted for tonight we headed into Hastings for a look around, finding more Art Deco buildings to admire although it was a little bit of a ghost town in comparison to Napier.

We parked up at the Havelock North Club which has a small car park behind it that they allow NZMCA members to use – another really quiet spot just on the edge of the very pretty, yet quite affluent village/town of Havelock North.

For those of you unfamiliar with New Zealand, Napier, Hastings, Havelock North and Te Awanga are all in the Hawkes Bay Area which is one of New Zealand’s big Vinyard areas so we thought it would be rude not to partake whilst here and wandered up the road to find a couple of small producers to do some tastings!

First stop was Red Barrel which is a tiny producer with only 2.62 Hectares of vine … a real ‘micro-boutique’ vinyard.  The owner of the Piku Izakaya Japanese restaurant (which currently sits at the front of the vinyard as it is moving into Havelock North next July) did the tasting with us and he was not only generous but also took his time to explain each wine although he was also managing the tail end of Sunday lunch.  The wines we tasted were a mixture of Chardonnay, Rose, Merlot and Syrah – all delicious and it is fair to say that both the Chardonnay we tried were exceptional.

Moving on from the Red Barrel, we headed slightly further down the road to the Black Barn which is also small (although not as small as the Red Barrel) but certainly understands the words ‘diversification’ and ‘marketing’.  The wine was obviously the core product but over the years they have grown to do Weddings, Conferences and Events in their restaurant and amphitheatre as well as offering 18 properties for accommodation to rent.  The Cellar room is just behind the restaurant which opens out onto the vinyard and the valley, a beautiful setting to relax, have a glass of wine or two and perhaps a bite to eat.

Unfortunately, although the setting was lovely we were a little put off by the staff.  The tasting was paid for – which wasn’t an issue – but it felt a bit lacking in detail and passion which you kind of want from a small producer who is trying to get people to buy his/her wares.  Needless to say, we drank our wine and headed back to the motorhome to settle in for a quiet night.

In the morning, after a quick shop to top up our market produce we headed over to Te Awanga where we parked up on the beach in the nature reserve, looking over towards Cape Kidnapper listening to the waves crash down just a couple of meters away from us.

Not too bad …. it was dry so we headed out to see if we could find any Gannets – as that is apparently what Cape Kidnapper is famous for – but within fifteen minutes the skies had opened and we were in for a pretty wet walk.  We didn’t find any Gannets as the tide was high so we couldn’t walk around the cape at all, although we probably wouldn’t have gone much further considering the weather and time anyway. So we found somewhere to stop to eat our sandwiches whilst the rain held off for a few minutes and then headed back to the vineyards to do a bit more wine tasting.

The closest was Te Awanga which is a mid-sized vineyard but still family owned.  As we headed up the driveway the rain got heavier and heavier so our presence was felt as we walked through the doors looking like slightly desperate drowned rats despite the fact that we had our waterproofs on.  They were very welcoming though and the Cellar Bar was warm so we tasted five different wines, learnt a bit about their vineyard and process and chatted with a couple of the locals before buying a bottle of wine and moving on 500m up the road to find the next Vineyard.

We ended up spending quite a long time at Te Awanga so we had managed to dry off  a little and things were looking hopefull as it was only spitting slightly when we left.  Unfortunately we only got half way down the drive before it settled in again, leaving us damp, although not quite as damp, for our second tasting of the day.

Clearwater Vineyard is quite a different set up, rustic and welcoming and a good family run feel coming through. We got a good tasting of six different wines between us along with a bit of history – all in all a good tasting session.

Not particularly wanting to leave as it was torrential outside we hung around, looked at a few articles and fell upon a book of all the Vineyard dogs obviously put together by someone who had way too much time/money but quite amusing all the same!  When the other set of clients left we decided to take our leave too and were pleasantly surprised that the rain had eased slightly, enabling us to make it back to the motorhome without getting completely drenched again.  The original plan was also to go to Elephant Hill Vineyard for a tasting as well as for dinner but we were put off by the prospect of the restaurant being too formal and possibly a little protenscious so cancelled but still planned to go for a tasting, however as it happened our time ran out (they closed the tastings at 4pm) so we settled back in the motorhome, cooking dinner with the waves thundering down near by.

The waves and the rain gave us a good concert through the night …. it felt a little like the battle of the proms although I think the waves had the staying power at the end of the day as we woke to clear blue skies and sunshine again, although a little crisper.

Today was a long drive (in our terms ….. actually only 240km) as we wanted to get to a place called Plimmerton which is just outside Wellington so we can spend the next couple of days exploring the city.  We found another NZMCA site and the station is five minutes walk away with trains into the city every half an hour …. so we are all set to explore tomorrow.

Plimmerton itself is a pretty little coastal commutertown which we managed to enjoy in the sunshine this afternoon walking along Sunset Boulevard.

Don’t forget if you want to visualise where we are you can have a look at the map on Travellerspoint by clicking here

Now we have spent a bit longer in Ava (the campervan), we have had the chance to get to know her a bit better.  It is a bit of a change from the Concorde …. but all in all, for her size, the configuration is really good, the bed is comfy, the lounge and seating area is fantastically light and spacious, the only thing that takes a bit of getting used to is the combined shower/toilet and remembering that we need to take the loo roll out before we have a shower – so far so good!

It’s great though as being in a smaller motorhome means that you appreciate what you have all the more and we are so glad that we decided to do this trip in a motorhome rather than a car and hotel/airbnb as even only after a couple of weeks we have parked up in some beautifully tranquil spots, waking up to amazing views and we can only see this getting better as we head further South.

After a lovely run from Rainbow Falls in the humid sunshine, the cloud started to close in dampening our hopes of eating breakfast outside … thankfully not literally as we stayed inside but it was fair to say that the best part of the day had gone by 9am.

We hit the road again and after a impromptu/subconscious detour via Kawakaw to see the famous Hundertwasser toilets we headed back to John and Lorraine’s to cook them some Paella for dinner.  Although we still have eleven weeks in New Zealand, we were heading south of Auckland and they flew out to Nelson for the weekend so the likelihood of us catching up again before we actually leave was minimal.  As always, it is such a treat to have locals who show you a different side to a country and we couldn’t have had a better introduction to New Zealand, we were even introduced to Pinapple Lumps – although we were a little aprehensive when they were described to us as pinapple encased in chocolate – assuming they were crystallised – however, we were pleasantly surprised when we tucked into them and found effectively what can only be described as pinapple flavoured honeycombe encased in chocolate … a real flavour burst… we get it now!!

Waking to birdsong and after a walk down and along Long Beach in the morning – something to do with the fact that last week I went the wrong way when I went out for a run – we popped by the local butcher and then headed South, tackling the Auckland traffic – which was practically non existent at mid-day – towards a place called Ray’s Rest, recommended by Geoff and Tracey.  We parked up and ate our lunch whilst looking out over the bay and Wetlands before heading out for a walk towards the Miranda hot springs with the black clouds looming.  Unfortunately they didn’t ‘loom’ as long as we had hoped and 6km in to the walk the skies opened and it poured down.  Rather than battling on, we decided to turn around and head back to the dry where if it had been a nice day we would have been able to watch a lovely sunset, instead we settled in and Keith cooked a lovely Chilli Con Carne … although he forgot to add the kidney beans…apparently that is how they do it in the USA so as we learnt at the Smoke and Fire Festrival over the summer …. again the subconscious kicking in – It was still very tasty though!

Waking to the sea lapping about two meters from the motorhome we admired the view out of our bedroom window – what a fantastic thing to do – before our normal morning routine and heading off towards the Coromandel Peninsula and more specifically Coromandel town.

What an amazing journey – the road twisted and turned and each time it did, the bay looked beautiful but in a different way.  It wasn’t however until we climbed up into the hills and looked down over the peninsula that we really got to appreciate the full beauty of it all … personally, I would say even more beautiful than the Bay of Islands, although I am sure that I will get criticism for such an agressive opinion!!

We parked up at the NZMCA site in Coromandel ($3 per person, per night) which is pretty average as a site goes but it is in a fantastic location. After lunch we walked out onto the Wyuna Bay which is on the peninsula where thankfully most of the houses that were for sale that we walked past didn’t have a price on them as we would have happily signed on the dotted line there and then …. the photos don’t do it justice, it was stunning!

Coromundal is home to many of New Zealand’s Mussel farms and also I believe a fair few Oyster farms as you can see in some of the photos. It is a small town centralised around fishing with a fair few cafe’s, bars and restaurants – not bad for a stopover.

In the morning after a quick empty and fill, we set off on the long windy road over the top and down into Whitianga.  Although different to the West coast of the Coromandel peninsula, it was beautiful in a different way.  We had been invited to go and stay on Karen’s parents driveway but we didn’t want to impose so instead, we parked up at the NZMCA site just at the edge of town which again was $3 per person per night.  It is a fairly new site, peaceful with just grass and a fresh water tap – perfect for what we needed.  As we arrived reasonably early we decided to walk into town and eat our sandwiches on the bay ….  stunning.

It is obvious that Whitianga is a fairly touristy town due to the Nature Reserve, Cathedral Cove and the Hot Water Beach which are not too far away but it also has a ‘real’ town feel which gives it a lovely ambiance.  Although we didn’t go stay with Karen’s parents, we popped over with a bottle of wine and some beers for a drink and took in the afternoon sunshine with views out onto the estuary – what an amazing position for a house.

Lots of lovely stories, a bit more wine, a cheese platter which ended up evolving into dinner and we had lost five hours – a lovely evening!

We had obviously worn out the sunshine as we woke to grey cloud and rain and despite having been told that the weather forecast was rarely right, it appeared to be pretty spot on today unfortunately.  We had planned to stay a couple of nights and take a boat round to Cathedral Cove but as the forecast was grim for a couple of days we bit the bullet and decided to move on although as we were driving close to Hahei Beach – which is where you can park and walk to Cathedral Cove – we decided to take the detour as the rain had stopped for a bit.  It was obviously fate as it stayed dry for the majority of the walk and the weather had kept the majority of people away, enabling us to enjoy a ‘moody’ Cathedral Cove in peace!

As the day went on and we headed further south the clouds lifted giving us some hope that we were going to be moving to nicer weather.  Parking up at Waihi Beach NZMCA (again $3 per person per night) we managed to get out for a walk and get the first BBQ in, unfortunately however, Monday morning brought with it low cloud and rain … thankfully not until 9am so we got a most dry run/exercise in.  We decided to hold out on setting out to explore in the hope that it might dry up catching up with some work…. ah well, has to be done at some time I guess!

The rain did ease a little just after lunch so we decided to make an exit and walk along to Waihi Beach with the hope of walking up to the trig point and seeing the views out over the bay.  Unfortunately no sooner had we left Ava, the rain started to fall again so we settled for a nice walk to the surf club, checking out Waihi Beach and the waves on the way… not too bad really and the rain did give us a break on the way return leg – we can only say that as it really chucked it down after we got back!

After a lovely Kedgeree and a good nights sleep we woke to blue skies and a little too much warmth (we had left the windows mostly closed to stop the rain coming in).  Quite quickly the clouds started to come in just as we were eating breakfast but we weren’t going to be put off and decided to drive out to Waihi to do the Hauraki cycle track out to the Karangahake Gorge.  Roughly 30km later and with a sore back (me – I am so not used to being on a bike any more) –  we were happy, although rather (sweaty) bunnies!

Happy to sit on a normal seat rather than in a saddle we headed to Tauranga where we parked up at an RSA (Returned and Serviceman’s club) for the night in one of the suburbs and settled into some delicious New Zealand Lamb for dinner.  It was busy … I think that the line dancing turned into a bit of an open mike night before calming down by about 10pm providing with us with a reasonable nights sleep!

With the sun still on our side – I have to say that as it is threatening to disappear on us – we headed over to Mount Maunganui this morning which is just the other side of the Bay of Plenty and sits 232m above sea level. The area itself surrounding the mount has fantastic surfing beaches and a real cafe culture and if you take the path up to the top of Mount Maunganui, it provides the most amazing views over the bay.

After a lovely walk and a bite to eat we set off south to Rotorua to see the bubbling mud pools and thermal springs …. the mud pools in the town itself were a littledisappointing so perhaps we will see better tomorrow or perhaps it is just the time of year.

Tonight after a bit of a search around for somewhere to stay we have ended up in Waiotapu at the Waiotapu Tavern which has a little area for campers out the back as the three places we tried before here were either full or no-one around to check in…. must be coming into that kind of season!  All good though and Keith has tried his first pint of TUI whilst I had a nice cold glass of Chardonnay in the bar.

Having packed everything up in Hattie we took her down to storage and then loaded ourselves and my mum onto the plane at Heathrow ahead of the long flights to Auckland via Singapore.  Surprisingly, the journey was far better than any of us expected and we all arrived in Auckland a little tired but able to make it through to a lovely Israeli meal before we passed out at about 8pm local time!

I have always been rubbish at sleeping and changing timezones and this trip doesn’t appear to be an exception but thankfully both Keith and my mum were slightly better so we were able to get up and after Keith and I had a quick visit to the gym, we explored Auckland despite the rain that it had decided to offer us!

We walked around the shopping area and then up into Parnell before passing back through the Auckland museum grounds to take in the views over the city and returning through the University quarter … all in all not to bad considering jet lag and the weather.  It is fair to say that we aren’t really city people and although it was a good place to catch up on ourselves and also catch up with Paddy and Marie (Paddy was an old Bath Uni friend of Keiths’), we were all (including my mum) happy to move on after a couple of nights.

So on Wednesday morning we packed our bags and set off to drop my mum off at her hotel in prep for her Moatrek tour and we headed to go and meet Paddy and Marie for a lovely lunch and catch up before John very kindly tackled the Auckland traffic in the elongated rush hour – yes, it really is that bad – to be taken out to the suburbs to pick up the motorhome.

We met John and Lorraine in San Juan, Alicante a couple of years ago when they were taking a year out to travel through Europe and we hit it off (possibly the love of food, wine and the outdoors helped) and haven’t looked back since.  When we said we were looking to come out to New Zealand they were kind enough to introduce us to some of their friends who have agreed to lend us their motorhome for our New Zealand adventure…..

So, here we are, one week in with Ava (as we have now named her) which means ‘like a bird’.  She is 6.5m long (with the bikes on the back), has a lovely light lounge area at the back with a drop down bed and suits our needs perfectly for this trip.  We set off on Thursday last week and made it all the way back to John and Lorraine’s (roughly 25km’s)  to park on their driveway for the night and be fed with Oysters (cooked and Raw) and Whitebait Fritters – Kiwi style …. their whitebait are nothing like ours, measuring in at roughly 1 inch, completely transparent except the eye – despite my reservations – all absolutely delicious.

Moving on from John and Lorraine’s driveway we headed up the coast to One Tree Hill which is where John and Lorraine have their holiday house shared with Chris and Karen … or Bach as it is called over here.

The drive up the coast gave us our first insight to what the North is really about ….beautiful sandy beaches that just go on and on….

The house is right on the estuary, the garden big enough for us to park up and the views from our back window weren’t too bad either…..

We were treated like royalty with John, Lorraine, Karen and Chris inviting us into their home – although we did sleep in the motorhome – and showing us a beautiful part of the North both in terms of the the food and the scenary.  Saturday morning … or to be fair it was probably almost afternoon by the time we got there, we set off up Mount Manaia which is situated directly across from where the Bach is, although about an hours drive away.

A long walk up but stunning views once we were there.

Following lots of steps, we were rewarded by the most delicious seafood platter at one of the local watering holes that looked out over the bay afterwards ….albeit that we were conscious that we didn’t want to spoil our appetite for the roast lamb that Lorraine was cooking for dinner …. she had obviously forgotten our appetites and love for food!!

The following day, after a fabulous cooked breakfast containing Chris’ golf winnings along with some left overs from last nights’ dinner we set off, leaving John, Lorraine, Karen and Chris in peace to venture northwards before they unfortunately had to head back towards Auckland.

Before coming over to New Zealand we joined the NZMCA which is the Kiwi equivalent of the motorhome club and provides a selection of places to stay – Sunday night was a service man’s club in Paihia costing just $5 a night to park up.  Safe and Tranquil and only five minutes walk to the seafront.

We were using Paihia as a stop over to get to Russell as although it was fairly quiet when we were there it is evident that it is a tourist trap and in the height of summer it would be horrific!

After a run up into the park where the treaty was signed (me) and a bit of exercise whilst being invaded by school kids (Keith) we ran down the road and caught the ferry to Russell.  It is still a little overcast up here on occasions and the boat trip was a bit choppy but it didn’t stop us from walking up to Topeka Point via Flagstaff hill where the views out over the bay of Islands and back into Russell were incredible.

And we even managed to see some Kiwis … the bird, not the fruit!  Two adults and two babies, seperately – apparently they are normally night birds so we were quite lucky although it was too dark to take photos and we didn’t want to scare them.

Moving on from Russell we were conscious that unfortunately the poverty in the local community is high and as we didn’t want to invite any problems we found ourselves a nice little campsite to stay at in Pukenui costing us NZ $32 a night and as the evening was looking pretty good we decided to bite the bullet and drive up to Cape Reinga to take in the northern most point of NZ before settling in for the night.

Not only is it the northern most point of New Zealand, but it is also the place where the Tasmanian Sea and Pacific Ocean meet providing a dramatic view out past the lighthouse.  This part is also famous for its 90 mile beach and sand dunes … although why it is called a 90 mile beach when it is only 90km I don’t know!

Having taken in the northerly most point we headed back to the campsite to cook our steak on the campsite bar b q for dinner before settling in for the evening.

Woken by birdsong this morning we both got up and did our exercises before showering, breakfasting and heading back South to a beautiful spot at Rainbow falls near Kerikeri where we are staying tonight.

We are parked roughly 100m from the waterfalls themselves and there is a walk that goes from the NZMCA site (which is $3 per person) all the way along the river into Kerikeri which is a lovely little town.

As we are on countdown now to go to New Zealand I was looking at the map of where we have been in Europe over the last four and a bit years – each colour is a different trip and it is definitely fair to say that the darker/olive green, which was our first year and a half away was far more extensive!  Year two/three was the lighter/grass green, followed by Year three/four in blue and we are now just starting Year five which is purple, but won’t fit on this map as we are flying out on Saturday to New Zealand to start eleven weeks of a new mini adventure…. its quite impressive though – although it does make us realise how slowly we go!

I am not quite sure where the last four weeks has gone – I could have sworn it was only a couple of weeks since the last blog…. obviously the wonderful English weather is going to my head – or perhaps that is what I am trying to convince myself whilst our teeth are chattering when we crawl out of the van to do our exercise in the morning …. to be fair it hasn’t gone below 3 degrees yet overnight but we are hopeful we aren’t going to be around long enough to see any minus numbers!

We have been keeping busy though not only making lots of lovely Autumnal food including a really tasty Lentil Ragu, experimenting with Pizzas as well as cooking Halloumi on the BBQ and for the first time – I can only say that we are late starters as it will definitely be repeated! But also helping my mum run a Macmillan Cancer Coffee Morning.  Unfortunately, it has got to the point where pretty much everyone has been touched by Cancer and it is fair to say that the Macmillan nurses aren’t the only people who do an amazing job but as we love baking so much, this was an easy task!  We were overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone … even the postie stayed for a coffee and a brownie, helping to raise an enormous total of £345… and all the cakes were delicious too – well we had to try what we had made to ensure we weren’t poisoning anyone!!

Taking a break from cakes we decided to venture over to St Albans with Hattie for a few days (Woodstock CL £14 per night inc.). Although I had warned the owners of our size – possibly a little larger having consumed rather a lot of cake – they had forgotten to tell us that there was an electric cable at 3.2m over the entrance. Thankfully there was someone on site who cleared the way through the rubbish so we could get into the site … passing the remnants of the all night summer party on our way to the top of the field.

Once Parked up Hattie had a great view … although she did feel a little light as her front wheels were dangling in the air – wouldn’t want to be doing this for more than a few days and I wouldn’t have wanted to be the caravan directly in front of us at the bottom of the field!

Although a little grey we managed to get out and did a lovely circular walk on the Sunday and went into St Albans on Monday for a look around and again on Tuesday to meet my mum for a mooch, dog walk and lunch – all very civilised. We were a little disappointed though as our expectations of St Albans were very high and although the old town and the park were very pretty, the rest was a little bit underwhelming unfortunately … apparently this is what happens when you start to visit lots of beautiful places!

We headed back at the farm in Holyport for a couple of nights before leaving Hattie and heading away to Weymouth for the weekend with the Andersons – a good location for a family get together despite the gale force winds …. a sobering run on Saturday morning to say the least.

We had decided to set a food challenge for Saturday lunch – each couple having to prepare something ahead of time from a category pulled from a hat.  The Categories that we all agreed ahead of time were open to interpretation and the results were pretty good as follows:-

• Savoury Pastry – Lentil and Meat Sausage rolls
• Biscuits – Raspberry and White Chocolate
• Bread/Rolls – Focaccia, Water Biscuits and a nice white loaf
• Cakes/Muffins – Lemon drizzle cup cakes
• Pizza – Spinach, Goats cheese and Caramelised Onion on one and Chorizo on the other
• Wildcard – Black Pudding and Sausage Meat Scotch Eggs

… although way too much food and we did eat the huge Scotch Eggs for Breakfast as Paul and Carly didn’t make it down in time for lunch.

After an amazing summer in the UK both in terms of the weather but also exploring new areas with Hattie, the countdown is now nearly over and we are pretty much ready to take Hattie to storage ahead of our flights to New Zealand on Saturday.  It’s only eleven weeks and I am sure that it will fly by but watch this space for updates and hopefully lots of photos!

…and just in case you need some more of the UK before we go, here are a couple from last weekend in Christmas Common which I can’t believe we haven’t ever visited before as it is so close … thank you Jonah and Karen!