Day 108 to 111 Abel Tasman, Queen Charlotte Sound and Kaikoura whales

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After seeing the glaciers, we headed north up the west coast stopping at a sweet little seaside town Hokitika, camping at a little further on in Greymouth. We’d been warned Greymouth was as it sounds a dull town, but on arriving quite late in the dark we had a lovely surprise to find our pitch was next to a path that led directly to a deserted beach…great. Our next plan was to have a long driving day to give ourselves time to stop, chill and relax. Something that seemed to be eluding us. NZ is a big country, and we were trying to fit a lot in, we are also battling with short days, it gets dark by 6pm, hence the long drive.



So off we head north again, stopping at a weird rock formation Punakaika, they call them ‘pancake rocks’ because they look like pancakes piled high. When the sea is at high tide and the conditions are right the waves whip up inside these chimney like rocks and they act like blow holes. Today the weather was not quite right, but there was enough rough sea to get the idea. We headed on through Westport, Bullers Gorge and into countryside with no villages or any signs of life for miles and miles. We finally stopped at a little campsite in Motueka at the edge of Abel Tasman National Park.



The following day we popped into the tourist info. (called I-site here in NZ), within 2 minutes she had us booked on a water taxi to Torrent Bay, advising us of a ‘good walk’ back. Sounded great, but we had to a) get lunch and b) get to the water taxi 30 mins drive away which gave us 5 minutes to spare! Some relaxation! A crazy, hasty drive later ( I don’t think there are any straight roads here they are all really windey) and we were looking at our water taxi perched on the back of a trailer… no it hadn’t broken down but was being loaded up with about 12 passengers whilst on the trailer, to be towed into the low tide water by a tractor! Very novel. The water taxi was great, gorgeous sunshine, fantastic green coast line, and beautiful little golden unspoilt beaches. We were dropped off, almost literally, as we had to wade off the boat, into Torrent Bay to start our walk back. The first part of the walk was fun across the beaches, but up on the banks it was hard to see the coastline at times, and it was a very long walk, over 14km. Super sunshine all day, but cool in the shade. Many people walk the whole or parts of this long narrow stretch of national park. It is named after a Dutchman, Abel Tasman who was the first European to find NZ a few years before our James Cook, and Tasman actually named New Zealand after a Dutch coastal province, but strangely he never set foot on the country.



Having had our day of relaxation (walking over 10 miles!) we drove on to Nelson a town further along the Northern coast. We had another day of driving to get us to our next chosen spot through the pretty town of Picton, and down the east coast to Kaikoura. It didn’t look far on the map, but as I think I may have mentioned already, the roads here although quiet are also very very windey. Along the top road of South Island it is gorgeous, on the banks of Marlborough and then Queen Charlotte Sounds. There are fabulous inlets, greenery and sparkling sea. If I don’t make it back home, you might just find me here in a little house overlooking the sea writing my memoirs! oh and I’ve found Kim his dream job as a water postie to all the little islands!



We came to Kaikoura for one specific reason to see whales. There is a natural underwater deep trench off the coast here which encourages the whales to come in close to the land. The Maori used to operate a whaling station here and caught many South Right Whales and Sperm Whales. Today Sperm Whales and the occasional Blue Whale use the waters, and the Maori now operate a sightseeing rather than harpooning operation. We had a 3 hour trip, on a lovely new jet boat, way out to sea. The crew listen and watch for whales, and encourage participation. The watching was as exciting as the finding … I absolutely wanted to be the one to shout ‘there she blows’! but I wasn’t. We did find an enormous Sperm Whale, they can only be seen when they come up for air, about once an hour. They spend about 7 minutes on the surface, blowing water into a spout, and then dive back down, and this is what we saw, plus a great view of their tail fin just before they dive.



As if whales were not enough, we had a spectacular experience seal watching. Now I know ‘everyone’ has seen a seal, but I bet you have never seen their pups act like this remarkable scene we found at a nearby waterfall. Over 50 seal pups clamber up river from the sea to play at the bottom of a waterfall in the autumn/winter period. So exciting to watch we voted this our number 1 wildlife experience of NZ…so far!

Time to get on with our travels we headed to Picton where it has to be said, the most beautifully scenic commercial car ferry journey ever, takes you to Wellington… and further adventures to be had in the North Island

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Photos

Whale of a tail.
Sperm Whale diving to the depths

Sperm Whale
18 metres long