From the South to the North Island

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We left Abel Tasman fairly early Wednesday morning (as we knew it would be a longish drive to Blenheim) and we weren’t too sure as to which route we wanted to take to get there. We had had a brilliant time in Abel Tasman (and we had the sand fly bites to prove it), and it looked like we were leaving at the right time, as we could see a big bank of clouds heading in our direction.

So it was back on the twisty, yet scenic drive out of Abel Tasman National Park. It was a fairly plain drive until we hit the Marlborough region and then the scenery changed. It felt a bit like the Cape area with the vineyards stretching for miles and with mountains forming the background, it was beautiful. There is an abundance of orchards and vineyards, with stalls along the way selling their produce, not what i had been expecting to see.

We arrived in Blenheim around lunchtime and, after setting up camp, decided to take a walk into town and explore. The town itself is quite ordinary, i think Blenheim’s charm is in it’s surrounding countryside, with vineyards stretching as far as the eye can see, and if we had had another day to explore, i think i would have rented a bicycle and had fun soaking it all in.

That night in Blenheim has to go down as our coldest yet. It was freezing, i am sure that it must have dropped to 0’C as the car had some ice on it’s windscreen in the morning!!! Luckily i had a sleeping bag that had a comfort level of -12’C (well actually it was Billy’s). But we were not expecting to get out our COLD clothes yet. And it was definitely our quickest tent pack up the following morning - i do not know how we will do it when it is proper cold in America, watch this space......................

Our ferry departed from Picton (about 30km north of Blenheim) at 13.10 and we had to be there at least 45 minutes before. We managed to fit everything bag into our bags, but it was a tight squeeze and i fear that we will need to buy another piece of luggage soon. The ferry takes just over 3 hours to get to Wellington, and (as i am not the greatest when it comes to boats) i was expecting the worst, but the journey was not bad at all. And we enjoyed the beautiful sights, as we left Picton, from the sundeck. We spent about 1 hour weaving around the Sounds and islands of the South Island, marvelling at the farms dotted on each island, watching as the mountains gradually became smaller until we reached open sea (the Cook Strait).

By the time we had collected our luggage and car it was about 5pm, so we headed for our campsite which was actually in Hutt valley (about 15km out of Wellington). We only had that day in Wellington, and in hindsight, it would have been better to have an extra day, but that is how things go sometimes. After setting up our tent, we enjoyed a wonderful sunset - such beautiful colours of orange. I am sorry to say that i was not quick enough with my camera Hayley, but we will never forget those colours. After dinner, we decided to take a drive into the city, to try get a feel for Wellington. It was a lot bigger than i had expected and had a lovely buzz to it. It reminded us a bit of Durban - maybe that it is because it overlooks a bay/harbour.

Our next stopover was Napier - i must say that it was becoming a bit tiresome having to put up our tent for one night, only to take it down the following morning, but i don’t think i can really complain. As we headed out of Wellington, we admired the expansive harbour.

Napier is situated within Hawkes Bay and was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1930’s, and so has many art-deco buildings which must have been built out of the rubble. We enjoyed walking around the town taking in all the architecture. I have to say though, that Billy and i are not the type of people to appreciate this sort of thing, but we had fun walking around town spotting all the buildings. We took a drive up to Bluff Hill lookout and enjoyed the panoramic views of Hawkes Bay, with the clouds adding to the contrasting colours of the sea, it was a beautiful sight.

Despite these cities all being stopover places, we tried our best to see as much as we could, and have enjoyed the diversity of each of these cities. We head off next to Rotorua, where i have heard that it can be a bit smelly! Oh joys.

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