Day 3 - Cape Foulwind and Beyond

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Tom was the only one who joined Pam and me in the hot springs. Clearly, the town of Hamner Springs thrives on them. The water is so hot, apparently, that it needs to be cooled before putting in the pools, which are at various temperatures. The sulphurous smells in the pools, however, are not a patch on those in the master bedroom at Elm Cottage at midnight on any given Friday after a visit to the Hook Tandoori.

Tom is a sound fellow. Mid-sixties, tall and rangy, far away look in his eyes. He says he does “accounting” in Seattle, but he seems to have got a significant number of motorcycle trip under his belt, so I remain convinced he is a high-powered recluse of some monster .com unicorn. Keeps himself to himself, but just when you think he is totally zoned out he jumps in with an insightful quip.

After our quick dip, we head off back down toward Springs junction, where I had gone solo the day before because of the sodden wife. Amazing the difference that a dry road and sunny weather makes. We head on to Reefton, then northward to Westport on the coast, for a stop at the romantically named Cape Foulwind. There, at Tauranga Bay, there is a seal colony, but its barely populated at this time of year. We make a stop to grab some photos and then its down the coast we go to our lodges at Punakaiki.

The coast road is spectacular. The weather is blustery yet warm, the Tasman sea to our right still pretty active from the recent cyclone. There are numerous wash-outs on the road still under repair from the damage caused by the storms. It has a look of Cornwall, but bigger and wilder, and absolutely no boats or ships in sight, neither commercial nor pleasure craft. This is a really, really deserted part of the planet. Once a day, I notice a solitary con-trail in the sky heading north, probably from Queenstown or Invercargill - those are the only airports of any size between where we are and Antarctica.

We arrive at our Villa, ditch our stuff and head over to the lodge on the other side of the road, where John is preparing dinner, which will be pan fried scallops followed by steak on the barbie. But first there is a dip in the Tasman sea to be done. Pam and I clamber over the dune on the pebble beach, where a few other souls are walking or paddling. We are the only swimmers due to vicious rip tides that keep everyone away and the 17°C sea temperature. We roll around in the surf like a pair of inelegant sea-lions, not daring to venture out further than knee depth. But it was fun and bracing, our second dip of the day and another tick in a box.

The sunset was a magical moment. Most of us headed out to the deck outside the lodge to see if we could spot the "green flash" as the sun disappeared. And we did! Unfortunately nobody caught it on camera, but it we saw it, honest.

Beer in New Zealand has gone trendy. It is almost impossible to find local lager without the hoppy, designer taste that seems all the rage. John however, had catered for my taste and obtained a case of Tsingtao, which whilst Chinese, is brewed in New Zealand and is perfectly good. So I drank seven or eight of them during dinner, which was pleasantly congenial, gathered round the tall island unit in the lodge on the shore. The Bose Mini, which I brought along, came into its own and everyone got their favourites played.

And then it was lights out, big time, for Pam, who fell asleep on the sofa waiting for desert. Everyone wondered where she had gone, and a search party was nearly formed. I was quite relaxed about the whole thing and in any case, she was soon discovered under her wrap, snoring gently. I left her there until the Tsingtao had run out and it was time for bed.

Later that night, I awoke and looked out the full height window in front of our bed. Our villa was perched up a hillside and I had a good view of the sky. Now that the moon had set, the stars were blazing so brightly you could hardly make out the constellations. The Milky Way was brilliantly illuminating half the sky. And of course the Southern Cross was there – John had shown us how to use it to identify the Southern Pole around which the night sky rotates. Must try and get a shot at some point on the trip.

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