4 wheels on my wagon

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Route:

Kaikoura - Lake Grasmere - Nelson - Bark Bay - Wakefield - Picton - Porirua - Wellington - Waikanae - Waiohine Gorge - Hastings - Havelock North.

Miles:

Lots very quickly!

Accident Compensation Scheme:

The Accident Compensation Scheme is the slimmed down Kiwi version of the UK welfare policy that produced the National Health Service. The scheme has serious limitations for Kiwi’s because free healthcare is for accidents only, so for heart attacks, hip replacements and the like you need additional insurance, but for travellers it is an absolute bonus. Any accident will be treated by the health service free of charge, so travel insurance is cheap because there is no need for any accident cover. Thea’s head wound was completely covered by the scheme (St John’s ambulance ride included) and we were able to go rock climbing without taking out specific insurance. It is not a legal requirement to have car insurance here either, because all physical injury is covered by the scheme so many drivers don’t bother as they see the cost of any vehicle damage as low risk. But the downside of that is with a legal driving age of 15 there are a lot of 16 year olds driving round Subaru Impretzias(?) at top speed.

But what has really struck me is that the Accident Compensation Scheme completely removes the litigious side of accidents, no one is in court seeking damages, and few people look to place blame. The benefit of that is the superb children’s playgrounds, you see everywhere. Every school and public park has a huge climbing frame, with zip wires, balance beams, difficult traverses, plus all the usual swings, slides and roundabouts. Parents are responsible for their children but if an accident happens no one is to blame, it is just seen as part of growing up.

Winter:

Despite the fact that we are still enjoying some unseasonally warm weather, the winter is definitely here. Once the sun goes down it gets very cold very quickly. Although our ‘motor home’ is very cosy it is nowhere near as warm as our tent was, it only has a single skin unlike the tent with an insulating layer between the inner and outer. However every time we stay in a Kiwi home I realise what softies we Brits are. Double glazing, central heating and cavity wall insulation are completely foreign words here. Kiwi’s just put another log on the fire and another jumper on themselves. Any heating they have is often in just one room, and the heat generated just goes straight through the ceiling so the rest of the house is freezing - very few floors have any insulation, most are just draughty floor boards or tiles laid directly on soil. But Kiwi’s are so used to it they just call it winter!

Diary:

Our first stop with the camper van was the supermarket to load up on all those luxuries we’d been denied on the bikes - real coffee, eggs, bottles of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, croissants etc. The we bought a few DVD’s for the girls to watch on long journeys and drove up to Kaikoura intent on a whale watching boat trip. But when we rolled up at tourist information bright and early the following morning we were told that no children under 3 were allowed on the boat!! Plane or helicopter were the only option at about the same price. With our hearts set on seeing whales we decided to take the plane.
The 4 of us loaded into a light aircraft and enjoyed a very smooth take off, however we then went into seemingly endless loops trying to locate a whale. They dive for 45 - 90 mins and surface for 15 mins so theoretically we should see at least one in our half hour flight as a large pod of male sperm whales live permanently off Kaikoura.
After 20 minutes the under 5’s were restless, and the over 40's were distinctly uncomfortable as the last time I'd been in a light aircraft searching for something low over the water it crashed. I’d discussed all the the dials on the control panel, flashing lights, how far away the surface of the sea was, how little the boats were, blah blah blah, and I was ready to land. I think the pilot was too, after Thea tried to tear the mouthpeice off my headset creating a loud wail in his earpiece...he looked round in horror as if there was a murder in progress on the back seats...not quite, but very NEARLY!! Then another aircraft radioed to say that they had spotted a whale and we dashed off to see it. Sure enough in the distance there was spouting water and a black blob on the surface, and the girls finally stopped fidgeting. I though, almost stopped breathing as the pilot then flew us in a tight spiral at an angle of about 30 degrees so that we could enjoy an aerial view of the whale whilst looking over our right shoulders; out of the side window that was now facing directly downwards! Talking in an increasingly pinched voice of mock excitement to the girls about the whale (which was now somewhat blurry as my vision had completely misted over) I wished with all my heart the bloody thing would dive. However, the pilot then suggested that having circled in one direction we should now circle the other way for those on the other side of the plane. So we turned and started circling with the whale below on our left shoulder. We were in this circuit with the aircraft that had radioed us to say they'd spotted the whale, only this was a slightly larger aircraft and their turbulent wake caused our downward pointing wing to rock so violently the whole plane felt desperately unsteady as if it was going to be catapaulted upside down at any time. Needless to say my light aircraft therapy session was well and truly over and I begged that we might level off and Ben certainly wasn’t clamouring for more of the centrifuging. So we leveled out and as we flew back towards solid ground, the whale finally dived and we saw the tail come up in the distance ...vertically!!
The drive to Nelson the following day covered the road we cycled 3 months ago, what was 2 days cycle took about 2 hours in the camper! On our way to and from Abel Tasman National Park we stayed with a couple we had met in Haast (well parked in their drive) and the girls enjoyed the opportunity to play with their grandchildren’s toys and play in their bath. For our trip in the Able Tasman we opted to take a water taxi to Torrent Bay, walk to Bark Bay and stay in a hut overnight. The bush walk along the coast was perfect as the weather was overcast and a bit drizzly - apart from the fact it was 8kms not the 5.5 promised. Lily managed it without a problem though she said she was very tired at the end, but poor old Thea was beside herself with tiredness. Ben and I were both carrying bags so spent a good deal of time bribing her to walk by feeding her almost constantly, with the promise of mashmellows if she made it. She did make it (3 hours) in the end and then promptly found the energy to jump and climb all over the alpine bunks!
The following morning was gorgeous and we played on the wonderful golden sand beach whilst we waited for the boat. Due to the tide and the size of the boat we had to don waist length waders to hike out to meet the boat with the girls on our shoulders. On the boat back we stopped by a rock pool full of baby seals romping around, leaping out and diving in. Back in Nelson we spent another day on the beach (Rabbit Island) with our friends, their children and grandchildren in the most glorious weather before heading off to Picton and the boat to the North Island.
Since then we have spent 3 days exploring Wellington, dragging the girls round galleries, museums and Kariori wildlife reserve, which looks more like a prison with it's 4 meter high fences to keep Possums, stoats, ferrets and mice out. Here they have reintroduced many endangered bird species, and we managed to see Kaka's, Tui's, robins and Stitch birds on our short trip and some sunbathing Tuataras.
After Wellington we headed up the East Coast stopping for a night at Waihone Gorge and we all enjoyed running to and fro on New Zealands longest swing bridge - suspended 40 meters up above the river. We all climbed Mount Dick for a great view of the surrounding Countryside and then visited DoC's wildlife reserve to view more endangered birds - all kept in aviaries and a nocturnal Kiwi house where we had a great view of one nosing around the window.
From there we drove up to Havelock North to visit Charlie's sister Suzi. What a fab time we had there: the girls played non-stop with Adan, who is 3 and a half, and Ben and I found ourselved in heaven because Suzi and Jason are both Pasty chefs..cake guru's to the rest of us. We met them at their cake stall in the farmers market in Hastings on Sunday morning and stuffed ourselves on gourmet cakes, then we ate the leftovers, then we went on a winery tour - educational of course for the girls - and as Jason is head of puddings (well something like that) at the winery restaurant we had to try a few of those and finally we were sent packing with a stack of chocolate brownies. We did lots of other lovely things too, as Charlie's parents were also staying they willingly babysat and shooed us gannets away. So Ben and I visited a few galleries, potters, and weavers - without being on small paws alert - and also went on an Art Deco tour of Napier. We also visited an apiary and looked at honey bees busy in behind glass walled hives, climbed to the top of Te Mata Peak and because the weather was so warm we ate fish and chips on the beach watching a glorious sunset. It was really sad to say 'bye bye' as we'd had such a lovely time, but we've only 4 weeks left and so much we still haven't seen..and won't see we realise.

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