Blogs from Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

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

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

I am so far behind with the travel blog I'm not really sure where to start! But yes we are back in the beautiful South Island after spending the winter in Papamoa/Rotorua whilst Lance worked and I recovered after successful Hip surgery. We did manage a little adventure with a trip to Fiji in the middle winter with friends, can’t beat a bit of sun and warmth. We sailed across to Picton on the Thursday 7th February, heading straight to Havelock as I had booked the Pelorus Mail Cruise for next day. The cruise on Friday takes you out to the outer islands including Forsyth Island. My grandfather was a Sheep & Cattle Manager there in around 1941. Friday with a bit of a bite in the air and plenty of sunshine we headed out on ... read more

Die Überfahrt mit der Fähre von Wellington auf die Südinsel ist traumhaft schön und sehr ruhig. Unseren Mittagsburger haben wir dann wirklich fast gegessen (das Einchecken auf die Fähre ging dann nämlich wirklich schnell) und wir sind gut in Picton gelandet. Der Malborough Sound ist wirklich sehr schön und auch die schneebedeckten Berge sind wunderschön zum ansehen. Eine gewundene Schlangenstraße führt uns zu unserem nächsten (etwas weniger steilen) Stellplatz direkt am Sound. Mittlerweile ist alles erledigt und mal wieder kurz vor zwölf – Buenos Noches! Regen, Regen, Regen und nochmals Regen – die Nacht hatte es sturmtechnisch in sich und wir entscheiden uns gegen die Post-Schiffstour. Nach einer Runde liegen brechen wir Richtung Havelock auf um uns dort zu informieren, da wir damit spekulieren, die Route umzudrehen und zuerst nach Süden zu fahren. Bei der Info ... read more

Saturday 3/4/17 and the skys are dark and we are in for another weather bomb. So we opt to hunker down in Richmond for a few days before heading off to French Pass Tuesday 6/4/17 finally we are on our way to French Pass in the Marlborough Sounds. This was on our list the last time we visited the area but we hadn’t realised it was a long weekend and there was no room at the camp so we didn’t get there. The road out is windy and long from Elaine Bay. A little narrow in places and as they have widened the road there are some Power poles virtually on the road so you need to be careful in large vehicles or towing. A fellow camper arrived the next day at camp with his brand ... read more