Page 5 of Whiskers Travel Blog Posts


Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » West Coast » Hokitika April 24th 2021

One of our travelling party is having her birthday today. Whoops that gave it all away! It seems a bit unusual to be travelling on your birthday as it is normally time to sit back, kick your shoes off and be waited on rather than being the chief pilot of the rented Toyota Corolla with a few hundred kilometres of highway and scenery ahead. One fortunate feature of being independent travellers is that you can choose the time to get up, have breakfast and get on the road rather than being in a group party and have your suitcases out at the prescribed time. After a short discussion, about our travels so far and where we w ere going, with our hosts at the Air BnB we got the car pointing south and headed for a ... read more
Gretchen on the approach to the Kawatiri rail tunnel
The tunnel is nearly 100 years old
The other end of the Kawatiri rail tunnel 185 metres away

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Nelson Region » Nelson April 23rd 2021

The plan was to have a cruisy day and discover Nelson at a slow pace. We have been here before but most recently was still longer ago than we can remember and our stay was very brief as we hadn’t booked any accommodation before we arrived and the city was seemingly booked out forcing us to sleep in our car at the Tahunanui Motor Camp. So on that occasion we slept very little, woke up at sun up, very cold even though it was in the summer and drove south in search of somewhere for breakfast which we didn’t find for quite some time as it was so early in the morning. So we started out our exploration of the city with a visit to Tahunanui Beach which is rated one of the best in NZ.It ... read more
Tahananui Beach,Nelson
Trafalgar Street,Nelson
Nelson Cathedral

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Marlborough » Pelorus Sounds April 22nd 2021

As we had hoped the weather has turned out fine this morning and this gave us confidence that a side trip to French Pass would be a worthwhile exercise as we drove to our next stop in Nelson. With the aim of arriving in Nelson by around 4pm we needed to be on our way from TeMahia by around 9.30am and we managed this successfully. It didn’t seem to take as long to cover the distance back to the highway as it did going in on Monday and perhaps that was down to our thought that there may be some more challenges on the French Pass that might eat up a bit of time and we wanted to keep the hammer down. The town of Havelock was just a short distance further on and we decided ... read more
Pelorus River
Mussel Farm
Towards Tasman Bay from the French Pass Road

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Marlborough » Kenepuru Sound April 21st 2021

After the long drive from Christchurch on Monday and then yesterday the trip out to Anakoha Bay we were ready for a day of not even getting in the car and just sitting tight and watch what the world sent by us at TeMahia. As the light came up in the sky we could see that the hills across Kenepuru Sound from the resort were shrouded in low cloud. Although it had rained overnight that seemed to have now passed and we had great anticipation of the sun breaking through at any time and lift the low cloud. As we had breakfast the sun did break through and the low cloud broke up and drifted away except for a couple of small clouds low down on the hills on the other side of the sound. It ... read more
The last clouds to lift
The jetty
A stand of pungas around the bay.

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Marlborough » Kenepuru Sound April 20th 2021

For the first time in living memory we slept through the night with the curtains open as there was absolutely no light coming in through our picture window. And oddly enough we both had a long and restful sleep better than we had had in a long time, waking only as light came up in the sky around 7am. The clear blue sky of yesterday had moved on and now overhead was grey, ominous looking clouds. The forecast was for rain from a system coming down from the north later in the day so we decided to have another day or part thereof in the car and do some local sightseeing out beyond the end of Kenepuru Sound before any rain arrived. We weren’t exactly on the ball getting up and by the time we had ... read more
Jetty at Torea Bay,Queen Charlotte Sound.

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Marlborough » Kenepuru Sound April 19th 2021

We set two alarms 10 minutes apart so we would not miss rising to shower and drive to the airport to check in by 5.30am.But when you have one eye open all night to make sure you don’t miss the alarm you are always going to be ready and this morning proved this. So we had the car loaded and were on our way within 2 minutes of the target time only to get about half way there and have to turn around and return home as Gretchen had forgotten her camera. Despite this we were still at the airport in plenty of time to join those waiting for the first flights out to Christchurch(our destination),Wellington and Auckland. As usual the BBA had the rear seats(13A & B) on the Q300 aircraft. Well you may ask, ... read more
Part of the historic Hurunui Hotel
The historic Hurunui Hotel est 1868
Watters Cobb cottage just outside the village of Rotherham,Highway 70 C.1880

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Christchurch April 17th 2021

Planning a holiday, when you are independent travellers, can often take longer than the holiday trip itself and the upcoming Grand South Island Tour fits this absolutely. Mind you planning is always mixed with anticipation and this is really what makes travel such a wonderful experience. We love the anticipation and honestly can’t get enough of it. Not that this trip will take us to exotic places with names one has difficulty in pronouncing. Rather it will be a trip down memory lane in many respects but with some places added in that we have never visited before or just previously passed through. Now that is an awful admission for us, as for many years we had told people, who were interested in our travels that ,yes, we had seen all New Zealand had to offer ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Saint Arnaud October 1st 2020

The day dawned again with a partly overcast sky robbing us again of a full sunrise on the mountains surrounding Lake Rotoiti.There was still a hint of sun gleaming off the melting carpet of snow on the tops but we would be left to wonder what a fully clear sky might have bought by way of dramatic light as the sun rose above the mountains to the east. We joined the Hoofs again in their cottage for breakfast and then they readied themselves to head north to the Marlborough Sounds while we stayed encamped at the Tophouse for a further day and night. After the Hoofs departed we decided to put our feet up and spend the rest of the morning reading and just chilling out admiring the ever changing view of the mountains. Today was ... read more
New Zealand Bellbird just above on the track
View across to West Bay on the Peninsula Walk,St Arnaud
The edge of Mt Robert from a seat beside the lake just off the track

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Saint Arnaud September 30th 2020

It must have been overcast during the night as there was no frost on the ground outside our cottage at Tophouse,near St Arnaud but it was still decidedly chilly. The rising sun on the Mt Robert just across the lake from the DOC office down in the village was stunning and the forecast for the day was promising now that the 'weather bomb' was spinning off to the east far to the south of the country allowing an approaching high pressure to drape itself over New Zealand from the Tasman Sea for a day or two, bringing calm and clear conditions. I felt like I was still recovering after my brush with hypothermia a couple of days ago on the Heaphy Track so I 'booked' myself in for just the morning walk around the Honeydew Track ... read more
Brave woman,no wetsuit just in case she fell in !
Protected eels off the wharf at St Arnaud
Mt Robert

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Saint Arnaud September 29th 2020

The ‘weather bomb’ continued overnight with all three elements,wind,rain and thunder continuing although by the time daylight was making an impact on the day there did appear to be an easing of the conditions. One thing that had changed overnight was the wind direction which had moved from the west/norwest to the south and the air temperature outside had a definite chill to it. The radio news had details of a number of road closures including Highway 63, because of snow ,which we would eventually get to in our drive to St Arnaud today.This put some doubt around us reaching our destination but there was really no option but to head south back to Westport and see what the road closure news by the time we got there around midday. At least at Westport we had ... read more
Seas are still stormy near Granity
Traffic lights in the lower Buller Gorge
Not qute sure how this lookout got its name but it is just after Hawks Crag,Buller Gorge




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