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Published: October 13th 2011
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New Zealand is an amazing country with breathtaking scenery around every bend and friendly, humorous locals to meet in every town and village. It’s no surprise that so many people migrate here. We covered a lot of distance, 3,600km approx, from Queenstown to Auckland with quite a few diversions in between. On the south island we spent the first week in Queenstown and then drove up to Picton over nine days staying at campsites along the way. It took a while getting used to the cramped space and constantly transforming the bedroom into the living room and back again but we loved the freedom of coming and going as we pleased. Poor Ade shouldered the driving as Ash didn’t like it, getting beeped for holding up traffic being the lowlight for her.
After leaving Queenstown we drove to Haast through the mountains and via the beautiful lakes of the Wanaka region. We stopped at Puzzle World in Wanaka for a leg stretch and a wander through the maze. We’re disappointed to report that we only beat the recommended time by two minutes as we got lost multiple times trying to find the exit once we’d found all four corners. The
Illusion rooms kept us entertained for awhile, especially the Gravity room. There are a few Puzzle World’s in New Zealand, if you spot one while visiting it’s worth a stop. The rest of the drive to Haast was on windy, steep roads and we passed through the Haast Gates then over the Haast Pass bridge.
The next day was spent viewing glaciers, starting with Fox then on to Franz Joseph. We parked up the van and walked out to the terminal face of each. As it was off season we didn’t have to contend with busy pathways and so could fully enjoy the experience of walking in a glacial valley. It was a bit like walking in the moon we imagined with rocks and little ponds dotted along the trail.
Enlightened by the Lonely Planet, we spent the following day making our own knives in the tiny village of Barrytown with Stephen and Robyn. We took part in nearly every step beginning at forging steel into blades in the hot oven, cutting and shaping the handle and ending with sanding and polishing the gleaming blades. During the day we competed in axe throwing contests with each other and
the boys took turns on a giant swing. It was a great day and something completely unique.
Reefton, Hamner Springs and Kaikoura all passed without much to report. Kaikoura should have been a highlight but the poor weather prevented us from seeing the view and cancelled our dolphin encounter so we left disappointed for Blenheim in the Marlborough wine region. Kerry from Bubbly Grape wine tours took us around along with a boisterous Welsh family to taste at Saint Clair (didn’t like too many), Hunter’s (liked them all), Cloudy Bay (so-so), Allan Scott (liked quite a few), Fromm (not fans) and Villa Maria (quite nice). Some of the grounds were spectacular and the weather co-operated to make for a really fun day out. One of the many tips of the day was not to drink Welsh wine, and that’s from the locals! Kerry recommended Dodsen Street bar and restaurant for dinner as it was close to our campsite in Blenheim and housed in an old malt house. It was very atmospheric and indeed close by, we were wrecked after our day of sampling vino.
Marahou was our next stop at the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park.
Our campsite overlooked the water and was in a remote village with no shops or restaurants. It was a beautiful spot. Again the weather scuppered our plans, this time preventing us from kayaking around the islands and visiting the seal colony. We did get a couple of suggestions off Andy from Kahu Kayaks on how to fill our day though and so discovered the Anatoki Salmon Farm just outside Takaka. Here we were given two rods and a quick lesson before being sent to the lake filled with salmon and surrounded by hills and trees to try our luck without using any bait but the rubber pellets attached to the hook. Within half an hour Ash had caught the first salmon. Lack of skill meant the line went into freewheel and Ade had to come to rescue before she could start winching it in. By this stage poor fishy had nearly worn himself out so pulling it in wasn’t too hard. Needless to say Ade was in charge of netting and bludgeoning the catch. Quite some time passed before any more excitement including swapping sides of lake swap and rods (because it couldn’t be our fault) and we nearly resorted
to buying a bag of real food pellets but luckily a friendly local took pity on us and donated some pellets. On the last one Ade threw the pellet and Ash cast the rod and fishy number 2 was on the line! He wasn’t quite as big but we were happy to call it a day. The farm is run by a Dutch couple and has an on-site smoke service, we had one fishy smoked and one bagged fresh. The scenery along the drive from Marahau to Takaka was fabulous and we took turns spotting Shetland ponies, llamas (or creatures that resembled them) and of course sheep. We couldn’t find the abandoned house with the petrified cow remains but we did find an abandoned house with a sheep skull and hide on the front porch.
On the way to Nelson we stopped at a fruit stall selling kiwis and apples for $2 a bag. Each bag contained over 10 pieces of fruit. We took one of each leaving the cash in the honesty box. Also on this route we saw signs at farms and houses selling ‘Chicky Poo’ for $2 a bag and ‘Sheep Poo’ for $5 a bag.
You learn something new every day! That night we checked out the Free House bar located in a converted church. The atmosphere was great, busiest place we’d seen since Queenstown. After drinks we nipped across the street to the Indian Cafe which served up a tasty feed.
Our last day on the south island was spent driving from Nelson to Picton on the Queen Charlotte Drive looking out over the Queen Charlotte Sound. The views continued to amaze though the wind and windy narrow roads made for testing driving for Ade. We were warned that the weather would be ‘heavy’ on our crossing to Wellington on the Inter-Islander but it ended up being fine. They did close the canteen for awhile to encourage people to stay seated but it wasn’t really too bad , no-one was hurling and the bar stayed open. We were delayed by nearly an hour as we waited on some trucks that made it up from the south in the blizzards. We’d managed to miss some seriously bad weather although Wellington would try to make up for it as we soon discovered.
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