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Published: November 27th 2009
Hawkes Bay - Napier As we went to bed we realised that the tent was a bit lose inside, but it needed to be taken apart and put back together, so we just left it. I said to Zo, ‘A long as it doesn’t rain, we should be fine.’ We had planed to get up a bit later, 9am, because we had had two early starts, have a nice shower and get on the road. The heavens opened in the night and it didn’t stop raining all night. I woke up after an awful night sleep to go to the toilet at about 6.30am and realised that everywhere around us was flooded!! We worked fast and un pegged the tent, in the rain, before moving it undercover to dismantle it. The relaxing morning was out the window and on the road we got at stupid o’clock! It didn’t stop raining all the way to Taupo and then we got on SH5 to Napier. We could do with some petrol, but thought there was bound to be one on the way. SH5 was a road in the middle of baron country. About 25km in we saw an old petrol station and
pulled in, ‘sorry’ the woman said. ‘We have no petrol and the next stop is 110km, in Napier. Oh sh*t!! We turned around and headed back to Taupo to refuel, only just making it. Good thing we didn’t carry on going, because we would have been stuck in the wilderness in the pouring rain. Lesson learnt!! We refuelled and repeated the journey we had just done, still raining hard. By the time we got to Napier, we had added over and hour and a half to our journey!! Turned up at the top 10 camp park, just out of town and decided it was too wet to put up our tent so got a cabin for the night, turns out it is the same price as a tent pitch anyway!! As there is nothing to do in the rain we drove around town to see what was going on and went to Coutdown, not Richard Whitely’s - God bless his soul, but the food shop. Stocked up on essential ‘Laughing Cow’ cheese and bread and also some wine!! It isn’t that cheap out here but Zo got herself a nice Hawke’s Bay white and I stuck to the beers!! Back
to the cabin for some drinks before the weather eased up and we walked into town for dinner. A lot of the restaurants are quite expensive for us, cheap if you are on holiday, so we tend to eat in pubs. Walked into Rosie O’Gradys only to find out quiz night was just starting. We entered under the team name ‘The Wanderers’ and sat down confident for the first round, a picture round!! That confidence soon went when we realised we didn’t really have a clue. The rounds kept on coming, along with the alcohol, and it was really good fun. We came in 2nd to last, but as the only team with 2 people, we were happy. We also got a $10 bar tab as well for being 2nd to last - they say people can come last on purpose but it is natural stupidity that makes you 2nd to last. Forgot to mention that a lot of questions were about Kiwi culture and laws - E.g How many points do they get on their licence for using a mobile phone?? 20!!!!!! So that made it harder for us. Went back to cabin for sleep on the most soft
Napier Prison
Tom needs to cut his hair as it is now an offence so much so it goes off the scale!!singles beds ever!
Next morning we were woken by the builders at about 7.30am to a beautifully sunny day. Crazy NZ weather!! We purchased a 4 attractions for $37 ticket and set off for the first one…..The NZ National Aquarium. Well, for an island nation there was not a lot of fish there - they need to go to Vietnam and Vinpearl to see how an aquarium should really be done. We saw the diver feeding the fish but it was such a small tank and there wasn’t much room for the fish and turtles. Not very impressed. The only good thing was the Kiwi house and we got to see our first kiwis - Yeah… at an Aquarium!! We then moved onto Napier Museum. If we though the aquarium was bad then this was worse. Very strange exhibitions, for example a dolls house miniatures story book. The only interesting bit was about the 1931 earthquake that hit Hawke’s Bay but still not that interesting. We had done 2 out of the 4 in less than an hour! Next up was crazy golf. It was good fun and nice to be out in the sun. The fake grass was
Wellington
A view over the city from the viewing point next to the botanical gardens at the top of the cable car. very thin and the ball moved at super speed which made for a few interesting holes, even Tiger would have struggled. We then decided to drive to Hastings . It is about 20km south of Napier. Lets just say there is as much to do there as in it’s twin on the south coast of England…..nothing. And all the people were weird - must be a Hastings things. We then chose to do the 1.30pm tour of Napier Prison. We got there at 1.10pm only to find out the tour was at 1pm - bugger!! Not to worry we were the only people there and were shown around by our tour guide Mark. He was a Yank who was allowed to stay at the prison for free in exchange for doing tours. He was a little bit weird, but it turns out it was his first tour!! It was quite interesting but he dragged it on a bit because it was only a small prison - 40-50 prisoners. We saw the hanging yard and he gave us some history on it. The 4th activity was the Spa, and this was the best. We sat out in the hot tub with
Jaws
At the aqurium the sun on us, just relaxing. We then drove down to the harbour to see what was about and have a quick drink at the Gintrap. Back to the cabin and drove out for dinner at Speight’s Ale House, also by the harbour. Nice food, but massive. All the portions out here are as huge as America and a lot of people are on the large side!! Speight’s do a few nice ales and I had the new summer harvest - weird to think we are coming into the summer and all the kids are breaking up for their 6 weeks hols. The beers in general are pretty nice but they are all cold - lagers and bitter.
Palmerston North and Wellington Packed up our car and off we went to go to Parmelston North. The drive was beautiful, through the mountains and along canyons. We got to PN and realised there was nothing to do except the rugby museum. We decided we would go to that and then head on to Wellington for the Friday night buzz. Went around the Rugby Museum which was interesting for me but very old. They hadn’t updated the exhibition for the
Diver
At the National Aquirium 2005 Lions tour which was a bit disappointing. They also had lots of captions for reasons why they haven’t won the World Cup since 1987, chokers!! The worst things though was that they had a huge section on Welsh rugby!!! We got back in the car and set off for Wellington. Again the drive was lovely going in between the Tasman Sea and the Mountains. Got into Wellington at about 3pm and decided that we wanted to be in the centre of town. Most camp sites are quite far out of town, which means one of us has to drive. We chose to stay in the Comfort Hotel, which was reasonably priced and is located on Cuba Street. This is the most vibrant street and a bit bohemian - the NZ version of Bourbon Street but not as good. We got to our room and realised how nice it was to have a shower and toilet so close. Not walking in the rain and dark to have a pee in the night!! We took a walk into town, which is about 15 mins and went on the cable car up to Victoria Peak to look over Wellington. Not quite as
Colussus Squid
At the Museum of New Zealand impressive as Hong Kong but still good. Went for a couple of drinks in the Black Harp and realised it was the same pub that was full of Lions fans 4 years ago. Went back to get changed and then out to D4 for a drink and back to the Black Harp for dinner. They had a band playing old Irish songs called Shenanigans. Was good fun and had a few more bevvies. Back to the hotel for a good sleep.
Next morning we got up after an nice sleep in a bed and had a shower in a room which didn’t require walking across a field to get there. We headed off into town and the first stop was the Museum of New Zealand. It was very interesting and huge. We saw the colossus squid and a few other exhibitions we wanted to see but didn’t want to spend the whole day in there. Aunty Kathy must have been in there for days!! The best thing was it was free!! We walked round the harbour for a bit to Mac’s Brewery for a beer (Mac’s Sassy Red) and some lunch before walking to The Old Saint Pauls. It
Old Saint Paul's
A window at the wooden church is an old church made out of wood with a few nice stain glass windows. Pretty much like any old church but with quite a lot of history for NZ. As we arrived a woman who worked there came to talk to us. I told her how pretty it was and she said’ You wont get anything like this in London.’ We wanted to mention that we also have a place called Saint Paul’s which is a little bit more impressive. Stupid womam - that’s religion for you!! From there we walked a bit further to NZ Parliament. Unfortunately we had just missed the tour and we didn’t want to wait another hour for another one. Back to the hotel to get the car and off to the Weta Cave we went. Weta is the CGI and animation company set up by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Director) and a few of his mates. They had a few of the models out, like Golum, and we got to watch a 20min dvd about the company and how things are done. Very interesting. That night we headed into town to find somewhere to eat and drink, but everywhere was very
The Beehive
the newer parliment building in Wellington quiet. We decided to go to the waterfront and luckily got talking to the barman who recommended a few places to go. We had dinner and hit the busiest bar we had been in so far - some people were even standing up. Back to the hotel for a film and another night in a comfortable bed before the early rise for the rugby.
Decided that the 3.20am start for the rugby was a little bit stupid so watched the repeat at 7.30am and was slightly impressed considering all the bad press I had heard the week before. We had our last nice shower, packed up our stuff and checked out at 10am. We weren’t getting the InterIslander ferry to the south island until 2pm so had some time to kill. It was Sunday and nothing in Wellington really opened until 11am. We got a Starbucks but had to leave because we were getting attacked by a bird - inside!! We walked around town and looked in some shops. Spent quite a while in a massive Borders book shop looking at their vast collection of books. Zo bought herself a book on photography, to hopefully improve our photos, and
an overpriced Glamour magazine - crazy price!! I had the choice of 2 classic book and couldn’t decide. The first was Iliad by Homer or Hulk Hogan - Life Outside the Ring. I decided on the latter as I thought it would be more educational, finished it in a day and a half!! From there we continued to walk around town looking in all the Christmas shops, secretly wishing we were at home, but glad we are away as well. Stopped off for a Subway and to get our loyalty card - brilliant idea!.. Drove down to the ferry port, where I found out Zo had never been on a car ferry before. She was so excited and asking all these questions. I gave her a quick run down on the Zebrugger disaster just as we got on and up on deck we went. Her excitement died down when she realised there isn’t much to do! The Cook Straight is supposed to be the roughest stretch of water in the world - not today, it was like ice. We stood out on the front, don’t know the nautical term - maybe bowle, and enjoyed the sea breeze and views as
we left Wellington harbour. Shorts and flip flops are probably not the best attire for that sort of journey and it didn’t take long for my legs and feet to go numb. We sat inside and had a beer/wine and carried on reading our book. (If anyone is a fan of Hulk Hogan, get his book as it is awesome). We realised that we were coming into the Marlborough Sounds so we went back our front to brave the weather and enjoy the spectacular views. It is probably the best view coming into a harbour in the world. I remember going to Tilbury docks with dad a few years back, but it just pips that!! It was amazing and we took loads of photos - it was so good we forgot the fact that we couldn’t feel our legs!!
Picton We arrived in Picton , got off the ferry and drove all of 2km to our campsite out of town! Picton is a really small harbour town but has some lovely views and is right on the edge of the Sounds. We drove into town to see what was around and it was pretty dead. We stopped
The Interislander
Relaxing with a beer on board for a beer in a Scottish pub and on our way back to drop the car off we found the trusty old Irish Pub. Zo popped in to see the menu and they were serving food until 10pm, 2 hours later than anyone else, they also had a band setting up. We walked back after dropping off the car and there was a really good atmosphere. Had some food, Guinness (best so far in NZ) and watched this 2 man band play. A guy on an acoustic guitar and a girl singer. They were really good and played until 12.30. Playing some classics and lots of MJ! Over this time we had managed to rack up a hefty bar tab as it was a 12 pinter night. Sat around after talking to the band and the barman. By this time the pub was full of drunks. People dancing on their own and clapping out of time, falling asleep in the corner and generally having good times. It was one of the best night we have had and at 1.30am we headed of quietly back to our tent.
Blenheim We got up at usual time and drove the short
distance to Blenheim. It is a nice small town, surrounded by wineries. We set up camp in a lovely place right by a river. There we ducks and sheep everywhere. We were sitting down by the river, trying to make some lunch and then we got mobbed by loads of ducks. We had to finish our lunch in the car. After lunch we drove out to Makana Confections to sample some chocolates and see how it was made. A bit rubbish really but the free samples were worth it. On the way back to town we hit our first Winery - Saint Clair Family Estate. It was in a beautiful setting, with vineyards in the shadows of the mountain. Oh yeah, forgot to say that the South Island is amazing for scenery and beauty - absolutely stunning, everywhere you go. Back to the important news, we walked in and over to the wine tasting woman. She was really helpful and ran us through 5 wines The Sauvignon Blanc was amazing and I’m not a big white drinker. Zo bought a couple of bottles of Sauvignon Blanc but the reds in NZ aren’t really up to scratch. Going to have to
wait for Pegasus Bay and Australia for the full body flavour. We went to the preservative jam and pickle place over the road but the main reason was because they have a xmas shop!! The xmas shop was upstairs and was not up to ‘What! Home and Leisure’ standard - we also had to wait 10 mins for these old dears to get up the stairs before we could go down. Back to camp we went and sat out and read our books by the river. A bit of background knowledge on campsites……They tend to be in beautiful locations on the outskirts of town which makes having a few drinks in the eve a pain. All the amenities are in a block that tends to be a walk away from the tents. Not many people have tents, most have campervans - this means at night me and Zo don’t really have anywhere to go because our tent is so small. We have to charge all our electricals in the TV room or laundry - but…. The locations are amazing and the wildlife is abundant. We sat out reading and a big group of ducks waddled over to us, they were
in a long line and looked like a police forensic team looking for clues in a field. After they had left the sheep turned up over the other side of the small river. There were 2 lambs playing around and they nearly fell in the river. Behind us were mountains followed by more mountains and when we came back after dinner we saw the most beautiful sunset. Well worth all the other minor problem for benefits like that. Anyway, we didn’t have a great night sleep because of the train noise and the airbed wasn’t fully tightened so it went down in the night, but a beautifully sunny morning to wake up to.
Nelson We woke up to a lovely day, the weather has been good since we have been on the South Island. Packed up and headed back north to Nelson. Before we left we had to visit another winery, that being Montana. World famous and we got there for wine tasting at 10am, as it opened!! Had another good tasting session, with a nicer pinot noir this time but didn’t buy anything as it is so easy to get at home. Off to Nelson we went.
Nelson is a city with 40,000 people - wow! It has more sunshine than any other place in NZ and we were there on a sunny day. Found camp and set up before driving down to Tahunanui beach. It was only a short drive but very nice along the sea. We took a walk down the beach in the sea and it was lovely. In the distance you could see snow capped mountain, with cloud below, then the sea and then the sand. An amazing sight and very hard to capture on film. We drove around town then back to camp to read our books and enjoy the sunshine. Drove into town for some dinner and then back to camp for a reasonable early night because we hadn’t slept that well the night before. This is the end of wine country for the moment but we will be coming back to it later on in our trip.
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Joe
non-member comment
South Island
You will love the South Island, it is stunning. I hope the weather holds for you, NZ weather is a bit too wet and British for my liking. Tom get that hair cut! Only 3 weeks left for me and then back to blighty to find a job :-( Enjoy yourselves Cheers Joe