Advertisement
Published: March 25th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Our last day on the South Island, but it was quite fun. We drove down to Marahau in the early morning to Kahu Kayaks for our half day kayak trip out on the Tasman Bay, We had a great guide (once again) by the name of Ethan who fully outfitted us in waterproof aprons and gave us some good tips for the two-person kayaks, and then we were all driven down to the water front and off on the Sea, 3 groups and our guide, all within an hour of showing up. We started off by paddling across Sandy Bay, which because of the ridiculous tides, was totally full of water after being little more than a huge beach the afternoon before. We were once again blessed with good weather, and worked up a nice sweat. We kayaked down the coast, got some great history lessons from Ethan, then landed on a beach for tea, coffee & biscuits. After that nice rest we paddled across the bay to the bigger of the two islands, Adele Island. The winds weren’t too bad, so getting across was manageable, and then once on the leeward side we were well protected and treated to a
host of sea lions and their pups, basking in the sun, or lazily twirling in the water. A couple also came up and tried messing with the rudders on the kayaks, but with no damage done. We were also blessed with a penguin sighting, a little blue guy fishing between some rocks. Eventually we made our way to our destination beach, where we were picked up by the water taxi and brought back to our starting point. A fun day on the bay.
So after some lunch and provisioning, we set off for Nelson and checked out the WOW…the museum of wearable art and classic auto museum. Some pretty wild art designed by folks around the world who come to New Zealand for an annual world show and competition. It was very cool, and of course Wendy Rae enjoyed it more, but unfortunately no pictures were allowed. Wish I could describe some of them, but they are really beyond description. The classic car museum was very good also, with a few celebrity cars like Steve McQueen’s Mustang from Bullit, a Delorean like the one in Back to the Future, and of course, Austin Powers’ shagadelic Shaguar, but the also
had old classic American Caddys< model A’s & T’s, a Stutson Bearcat, old BMW’s, original Audi’s, and on and on…it was well worth it.
After that, we continued on our way to a DOC campground on a quiet little bay in the Queen Charlotte Sound by Picton (about 15km) so that we had less than a 30 minute drive in the morning to get to the Ferry.
We made the 7 AM check in time quite easily Tuesday morning for the Bluebridge, and by 7:30 had the camper parked on level 5, and were comfortably seated on deck 9 for the 3 ½ hour trip across Cook Straight. The Ferry had a really nice, comfortable layout, with seats around tables, or recliners facing in different directions so you could watch where you were coming to or going from, a nice café (mmm, another Long Black please), movies playing on nice HD screens in various lounges, and even private rooms if you wished to pay a few extra dollars. Once again, we lucked out, because even though it was raining and windy, the rolling in what can be once of the most turbulent ferry crossings in the world was
not all that bad, By 12:30 we were on the road again in the Capital of Wellington,
Driving in the city again was quite a culture shock, but we got to see how comfortable we had become with driving on the left side. Still, it was nice to get out of the city and back into rain forests, farms, and mountains, as we made our way up the West Coast, then into the center of the island and Tongariro National Park. It rained most of the day, but it was a good day of travel, and we rolled into the park village about 6, found the holiday park which is actually a nice and spread out one, and bunked down for the night. Tongariro is not only a national park but also a World Heritage Site, and site of 3 active volcanos. Tomorrow we are hoping to hike up Mt. Ngauruhoe, which is more famously known as Mt Doom of Mordor, from the Lord of the Rings movies. If I see Gollum I’m kicking his butt!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.131s; Tpl: 0.041s; cc: 12; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0594s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb