North of the South Island II

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
January 13th 2009

Published: January 14th 2009

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dinosontour

Kev ready to ride

Horse riding at Happy valley Adventures Farm

After the spit tour we went of to see Cape Farewell, the most northerly part of the south island, then round to Wharariki Beach on the top of the west coast….what a contrast to Golden Bay and Abel Tasman, wild and windy…. Beautiful but much too dangerous for swimming. We then went and had a look at Devils Boots …a couple of big rocks, strangely…. looking like a pair of huge boots. We walked through some nice rock fromations near Pohara. I persuaded Kev to drive right back round the bay, through Pohara, Tata Beach and Wainui Bay the into the Abel Tasman to Totaranui (which is usually the end of the walk from Marahua. 71km) I couldn’t persuade him to get a water taxi to Bark Bay and walk back (so we’d have walked the whole length) We then had to get back over Takaka Hill, past Nelson and on to Picton. We took a drive on a loop over the hills and round to Rarangi (up and coming place to be) and back to Picton. The journey over the hills was extreme…. I had to keep going in the back to clear up the carnage that was the back

Wendy on Charmer

of the van….our home! shovelling stuff back into the cupboards, sorting out the fridge and retrieving the fire extinguisher which had unclipped itself and was crashing about and threatening to go off. We passed many pretty bays including Oyster Bay an old whaling station and Robin Hood Bay where we saw a wild boar grazing on the picnic area. Spent two nights on a DOC campsite. With no power, thus no pc or internet, Kev has taken to photographing himself, after several beers ( I think he’s scared of the dark, being in the wilderness)….. He thoroughly amuses himself while I studiously try and ignore him. (I think the photos tell all!)
Took a boat ride out to Ships Cove, the end of the Queen Charlotte track and walked about 10 miles back to Endeavour Inlet where we were picked up by water taxi. We saw a few of the rare Hectors dolphins on the way out but they were busy feeding and didn’t entertain us at all. Last week… isn’t it always the way…. about 5 Orcas including a couple of calves were seen in the area. They’d travelled the full length of the sound before turning and swimming