Hot springs and seal sanctuaries

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After a brief trip back into Christchurch we travelled north and then inland toward the Lewis Pass, stopping at the Windy Point car park 30km beyond Hamner Springs for the night. Before it got dark we had time for a quick 2 hour return walk up the Harper Pass track toward Lake Sumner, giving Lexa the opportunity to have her first exciting experience of a suspension swing bridge.

The following morning we returned to Hamner to enjoy the famous hot springs and for $15 each we had two entries into the pool and a free steam room session. So we started the day with a dip in springs to ease our aching bones (Geoff’s in particular) and then walked up to Mt Isobel waterfall before returning for a steam and an evening dip in the pools with temps ranging from 35 to 42 deg C - this is the life! After a day of ‘detox’ we splashed out on fish and chips after leaving pools at 7pm. Then we left driving 10k’s out of town and back towards the coast to a spot by the Waiau River we had stopped previously for a tea-and-toast break and earmarked it as a potential free camp site.

The following day we headed to the coast and Kaikoura, famed for its seal colonies and whale watching opportunities. After a while soaking up the gorgeous sunshine on the main beach we drove round to the peninsula carpark for lunch and a bit of seal spotting. Strangely the Japanese that arrived on a tour bus were intrigued by the camper and happily stood and filmed Lexa making lunch! Meanwhile the potentially snappy fur seals lay around in the bushes and on the rocks pretty much oblivious of anyone as long as you kept your distance. We then walked along the cliff top and saw some whales for free, which made us feel better about not being able to afford a proper trip out and walked down to Whalers Bay to another seal colony.

Puhi-Puhi scenic reserve north of Kaikoura served as our overnight spot and I somehow managed to convince Lexa to wash her hair in the river the next morning, as this was the main reason that we found ourselves heading back into proper campsites. Lexa also thought this was a good idea until the freezing water struck the back of her head, inducing excruitiating pain and louds yelps . I didn’t think it was that bad, but she refused to ever do it again….

Continuing northward we hit Blenheim where Lexa tried acupuncture for her dodgy knees and I booked an appointment to see a physio the following day in an attempt to sort out a lingering wrist injury picked up in Oz. In hindsight we are both still physical wrecks, but it was entertaining seeing the look on Lexa’s face when he put the needles in!

That night we spent ages trying to find a free campsite, heading west out of town down several different roads, before finally stopping on a rough patch of dirt and gravel on a random unsealed road toward the southwest. This was one of many nightmares we have had trying to find a suitable places to stop - sometimes it was so easy and came with a great view, at other times it would become a nightmare, where it would take an age to find anywhere and sometimes felt uneasy about our location and being ‘on display’ to anyone driving past. Talking of feeling safe and trying to hide ourselves away, we never actually had any real trouble in NZ, but we did have a few people honking horns as they passed and one shouting ‘cock-a-doodle-do!!!!’ as they drove past first thing in the morning!

Extracting ourselves successfully from our dirt road to nowhere we drove to Picton at the tip of the South Island and where the ferry leaves for the North Island. It rained a lot here, reminding me of my last visit when I arrived in the rain on my bike and set off out of town soaked to the skin. Far more comfortable this time around as we treated ourselves to a proper campsite, drooled over lots of expensive kayaking trips in the visitors centre, wrote blogs, sent emails and continued with our never-ending mission to arrange our Galapagos trip in October.

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