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Published: June 14th 2009
Move over Chicago, there’s a new
Windy City around and it goes by the name of Wellington! After two days of futile attempts to leave the city of Wellington (the high winds cancelled the ferries) we finally had an 8:30 departure time on a dreary Monday morning.
You can blame it on the early start(well 8 am is an early start for us these days), or perhaps due to the choppy ocean causing Linds to feel a bit queasy on the ship, but whatever the culprit, we unfortunately had a rather unpleasant experience on the ferry. We moved from one lounge to another and Linds accidently forgot to grab her purse. Not 5 minutes later she finally remembered that she left it so she ran back to grab it only to discover that it was no longer there. Checking with security and lost and found with no luck, a panic quickly settled in as her purse had our whole lives in it; our new camera replacing our first one that got stolen in Malaysia and most importantly our passports! The staff on the ferry was very good and immediately went into search and recover mode. They made multiple announcements over
Sunset on the west coast
Still happy after all of this time....and living in a 4x4 van!the speakers and had all the staff on high alert for the purse. I guess this caused the person who grabbed it to panic a bit as it was found dumped in a garbage in the women’s washroom. We gave it a quick check through and found that all our cash had been taken but luckily (well, I suppose this really isn’t a lucky scenario at all) we still had the most important things.
We arrived at the port in Picton shortly after this upsetting ordeal and we got back on the road. About 20 minutes into the two hour drive on our way to the city of Nelson, we both realized that it was kind of quiet in the van so I asked Linds to put some music on the radio with her iPod. After dumping the contents in my purse we realized that that had also been taken. Needless to say our start on the South Island started off on the wrong foot. I found it quite ironic that for the 6 months that we were in SE Asia both our families couldn’t remind us often enough to be weary of our things and that they were
quite relieved for us to once again be in a “safer” Westernized country once again....then this happens! You really can’t let your guard down anywhere. It’s really an unpleasant feeling knowing that you’re in the presence of someone who is so dishonest to do something like this. Ok, enough of that rant. We’re okay, we have our passports, credit cards and our camera complete with memory card so we’re able to put this unfortunate situation behind us.
Gnarly Nelson and the Abel Tasman Track Within 2 hours we arrived in the quaint town of Nelson; yet another popular wine region. We were happy to finally see some sunshine after having 4 days of solid rain while in Wellington. We decided that we would head to the Abel Tasman track, perhaps one of New Zealands most famous “Great Walks” for a day or two hike. Wanting to make sure we take in all of the local delicacies, we ensured that we stop at a few wineries along the way.
We have learned by now that May and June are perhaps the quietest two months to visit New Zealand; right in between their summer and winter and therefore
right in between the beach season and snow season. In fact many of the restaurants and cafes in smaller towns completely close down until the next wave of tourists come for the winter. NZ also is currently between the seasons that they harvest a lot of the fruit and the grapes for wines so seasonal workers (backpackers) all leave as well. Trying to be optimistic this means that we rarely encounter any lineups (or people for that matter) while trying to enjoy the local favourite wine variety!
The next day we set out from the beginning of the Abel Tasman track. From start to finish this would be a 71 km one way hike. Most people take a water taxi to a point and then hike back to the start, however we opted for the cheaper version of just walking in and out. We decided to hike a third of this and purchased tickets from the Department of Conservation (DOC) for a nights stay at the Bark’s Bay hut. They told us this would take us about 6 or 7 hours to hike to. We have learned to cut off about a third of the amount of time quoted
by the DOC so we figured we could get there in about 4 or 5 instead. Since we no longer have our iPod, we no longer have any type of alarm to wake us in the morning so we ended up getting a late start on our hike. Luckily, this has got to be one of the easier hikes to do in NZ as it is almost all flat, running along the ocean so we knew we’d make up the time. We arrived at a point on the track where you can take a short cut through a bay when the tide is low and although we timed it perfectly that we could cross, we instead decided to stop at a different hut (Anchorage hut) for the remaining hour or so of sunlight so we could actually enjoy sitting on the beautiful beach and read a book or watch the dolphins jump in the waves. The sun sets here now about 5 pm so it usually makes for a pretty early night when you don’t have any electricity. We played a few games of Yahtzee and cards while hovering around the gas heater in the kitchen part of the cabin
before we braved the cold bunks (NZ generally doesn’t have central heating in any of their houses let alone in a camping hut). We were surprised to quite a few people on the walk and the hut was more than half full; so this is where everyone is! We were told that in the summer this walk is like a conveyor belt of people and with a beautiful golden sand beach and turquoise blue waters around every bend we can see why. The next morning we hiked back to the van and made our way back to Motueka, the closest town to the Abel Tasman track.
Modest Motueka We decided to check ourselves into a backpackers called Happy Apple so we could shower and cook a proper meal after hovering over our small, one burner grill for the past few days. It was just what we needed to shake the chill we still had from our cold camp out the night before. This place had everything: hot tub, wood fireplace, pool table, bbq, ping pong, satellite TV and even a Wii! Perfect! To top it off they gave us a reduced rate of only $20NZD/night since we
still slept in our van. Not too shabby. We spent 2 nights here because it was just so nice to actually have such amenities for a change. I even managed to take a bike out for the day and head out for a couple hours fishing (rather unsuccessfully once again). At the grocery store we saw a huge aquarium of fresh green lipped muscles so we decided to spoil ourselves to see how they compare to our east coast ones. The first thing to note is that green lip muscles are huge! You almost have to cut them in order to eat them, but clearly that isn’t an option. If you’ve eaten muscles you know not to look to closely before swallowing. A nice pot of muscles simmering in a wine broth sure gave the communal kitchen a ‘nice’ smell, but we definitely enjoyed the result!
After two days and a sore write from playing too much Wii bowling (or maybe we just need to get more exercise?) we knew that it was time to move on to the next place so we decided to head down to rugged beauty and desolation of the West Coast.
Punakaikii (pancake) Rocks
We set our goal to reach Greymouth by nightfall so that we could wake up first thing in the morning and hit up the Monteith’s brewery. New Zealand has lots of breweries and microbreweries which we are taking advantage of. The drive along the West coast of the South Island is absolutely stunning to say the least and also quite fun to manoeuvre around all the sharp turns. The west coast of the south island is subtropical and the roads are lined with lush and dense forests on the one side with the ocean, beautiful rock formations and raging surf on the other. One highlight along the way in particular included a protected seal colony breeding ground where all the seals play and sun themselves during the day. We also managed to sneak a peak at the amazing “pancake” rock formations and blowholes just before the sun set on the west coast. The pancake rocks literally look like giant stacks of pancakes. The rock formations have been formed over the years by eroding water flowing through the soft sandstone. The views along the west coast were so beautiful we decided to park along the side to have
a nice wake up.
Guzzling in Greymouth Many of the towns that line the West Coast began as gold mining towns around the turn of the last century so they are pretty quiet these days (even compared to the normal desolate feel that a lot of cities have these days during down season). With that being said, there’s really not much else to do in the town of Greymouth besides hit up the Montieth’s brewery; this suited us just fine. The highlight of the tour was not learning about the process of making beer, or necessarily even the beer itself but rather it was running into a nice couple from Christchurch. I was donning my newly acquired Chiefs scarf (given to us when we were at the rugby match in the north island) in support of the Super 14 Rugby final championship match that was played in South Africa the night before. I was disappointed that I missed the live broadcast of the game between the Waikato Chiefs and the South African Bulls the night previously but there was no way to get around it as it was a 3:30 am start. Daisy has a hard enough
time tuning in a radio station much less a Satellite TV station. Naturally in the land of rugby madness, my scarf sparked up a conversation. Much to my satisfaction/disappointment, we found out that the rugby game ended up being a blowout in the Bulls favour so I didn’t miss much. We explained to Paul and Jacky what we’re doing in NZ and told them that we were actually planning on heading through Arthur’s Pass on our way over to Christchurch later that afternoon. Maybe they took sympathy on us that we had been living and sleeping in a van, or they “sensed” that I was in need of a shower, but Paul and Jackie promptly invited us to stay with them. Seeing as we actually were in the market for a change of pace from our normal routine of “curling up next to each other to stay warm at night,” we decided to take them up on their offer and agreed to call them when we got into Christchurch.
Cool as a Cucumber Christchurch We took what is described the most beautiful drive in the South Island from Greymouth to Christchurch via Arthur’s Pass. It is a
perfect sea to mountain route, and our first exposure to snow! Snow has never fazed me. Every year it comes and goes like clockwork. We actually most years it doesn’t go like clockwork; it goes like a broken clock more so I suppose, and people see that it is about as useful as one by the end of winter as well. In any case, it has been longer than usual since either of us has seen snow so it was quite exciting to finally have snow covered trees and a beautiful white covering on the ground. I’m sure friends and family would find it crazy to know that someone misses the white stuff that you have finally just got rid of, but I suppose that is the snowboarders in us that makes it so exciting. Besides, as long as you have a warm fire going, is there anything more beautiful that a nice new blanket of snow dusting the ground? We also encountered our first Keas on our way through the pass. Keas are birds that resemble giant parrots and are probably much more intelligent. I’m not sure if you’d be able to teach one to talk ever, but if
you don’t watch your stuff, these little guys will take off for it. They’re feathery criminals, really. They’ve been known to open backpacks to get at food or even take off unsecured articles of clothing off unsuspecting tourists! They’re sneaky to say the least and are not at all timid to be around people. They’re just one of the hilarious birds that New Zealand has running around.
We reached Christchurch by dinner time and we stopped to take a look at the centre of town which, revolves around a rather picturesque gothic church. We grabbed a bite to eat at one of the many kebab places that you find everywhere in NZ. We managed to get a hold of Jacky and Paul and made our way to their house. We sat down for a few glasses of wine over a roaring fire and they were right, it was quite a nice change of pace! Seeing as the next day was one of the Queen’s birthdays (apparently she has two!) and therefore a holiday in NZ, Paul and Jacky offered to take us around the city. This was great! There’s usually not a better way to see a new city
than to have a local show you all the ins and outs and that’s just what they did. We went for a drive through all the small towns that surround the Christchurch area and then stopped into a local microbrewery pub for a few beers and some lunch snacks. Much to our surprise and delight, the pub was airing game 3 of the Stanley cup so it made for a difficult conversation since it’s been so long since either of us has watched a hockey game. After lunch we went for a walk through the botanical gardens.
We learned that on top of being great city guides, Paul and Jacky are both lovers of good wine, beer and gourmet meals (I know what you’re thinking, who doesn’t love all those things?). We found ourselves wondering what we did to deserve this treatment but chalked it up to maybe a good karma for our mishap on the ferry ride over here. In any case, lucky us! That night they cooked us an absolutely amazing venison shank dinner with a great bottle of wine! What a great day. How will we ever go back to baked beans and noodles?!
The
Monteith's Brewery
Matt pouring himself a Winter Ale next day we reluctantly said our
goodbyes and
thank yous to our great hosts and made our way onto Wanaka. Thanks Paul and Jacky for your hospitality!
Next up, we’ll head further inland and south to start the job hunt!
Love to all,
MandL
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Kim
non-member comment
awesome adventures and stories
Hey guys, Just wanted to let you know that I've been reading your blog every time it comes into my inbox and I love following your adventures! It's really nice that you take the time to write such creative stories to keep us not only updated but entertained. Your writing styles are very humourous and enjoyable to read. Thanks a bunch and lots of love, Kim