Completing the South Island

Kaikoura:  Continuing north from Christchurch, we passed through many miles of vineyards.  Wonderful high hills, deep river valleys, along with an odd glimpse of the sea.. . . .  A fabulous coastal road, winding past a turquoise blue sea, with impressive jagged rock formations, led us the final 12 miles into Kaikoura.

Our accommodation here was at the top of town, but with a very convenient 10 min walk DOWNHILL to shops and restaurants.  This meant we ‘walked off our supper’ on the way back up the hill!  Our host was a retired Army Police-dog handler – as you can imagine there was a lot of military talk going on! 

Kaikoura is known for its seal colonies.  All along its rocky coast it is easy to watch literally hundreds of fur seals.  Luckily for us, there were many seal pups to watch frolicking in the water, lying sunning themselves on the rocks, or suckling from mother. 

We were prebooked on a whale watching cruise but sadly high winds overnight had woken the sea up!  35 passengers on the trip before ours had been seasick!!  Only one whale had been spotted over the past couple of days . . . . it was an easy decision to cancel our whale-watching trip!

Nelson:  Continuing north through Marlborough County, we noticed changes in the countryside.  The deep greens of the south gave way to very dry grassy slopes.  Browns and yellows were interspersed with odd rectangles of green pine forest or huge windbreak hedges.  Vineyards covered all the north facing slopes  (remember, we’re in the Southern Hemisphere!) and many valleys too.  The vines are carefully irrigated so that the grapes fatten up and ripen, according to the acidity needed. 

Passing over yet another mountain pass, we encountered RAIN!  Yes, that wet stuff that UK is fed up with, finally arrived on our holiday here in sunny NZ!    We descended into the city of Nelson (population 56,000) on the Tasman Sea and found our way to the lovely apartment of a golfing friend of Peter’s, who kindly offered us accommodation for our time in Nelson.  Despite the inclement weather, our very hospitable hosts took us for a walk on Nelson beach, as well as leading us to the top of the hill to take in the views from the geographical Centre of New Zealand.  Coffee in the Queen’s Gardens, was followed by a short trip up the coast to the Wharf at Mapau, where we disregarded the rain and enjoyed a good lunch. 

Abel Tasman National Park is renowned for its golden beaches, granite cliffs and its many walking tracks.  Sunshine and fluffy clouds accompanied us as we took a cruise with commentary, all the way up the coast of the park. On the return journey we were dropped off and walked through thick native forest for two hours to another pick up point.  The park is administered by the Department of Conservation – tourism is their income.  Yes, the boat was crowded but there was space for everyone.  We saw relatively few people on our walk and were able to sit quietly on the beach waiting for our return boat journey.  The monitoring of where everyone was at all times was efficient but unobtrusive. 

Picton & The Interislander Ferry:  Today, we concluded almost four weeks of breath-taking travel on the South Island.  Once again in brilliant sunshine with never-ending blue skies, we journeyed up and over two mountain passes from Nelson to Picton on the North-East coast.  We returned our hire car to a site immediately adjacent to the ferry terminal.  Yet again, we were lucky – we had a SMOOTH CROSSING to Wellington!  The Cook Strait is notorious for rough seas, but today we treasured a relaxing time in the sunshine on the top deck. 

See you again soon with our adventures on North Island.