South Island Day 3. AKA Tired, cold and bitten to death! Day 4 Pancake Rocks, Arthur's Pass and a lot of driving! Day 5 : Kaikora (not)

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My third entry for the trip to South Island will be shorter and more succinct as I can tell, but not show in too much detail, what we've been up to.

Firstly, if you are ever in Central South Island, around Nelson Lakes, then I FIRMLY recommend you camp at Murchison. The hosts are welcoming, it's very clean and a perfect base for adventure.

Secondly, I did what I said I would in the post 2 days ago on day 3 : I rested and fished in the Buller River for the day. Wowzers! 6 very large fresh water fish caught on Spam! I released them all as fresh water fish always tastes like mud to me. BBQ garlic lamb shish kebabs. Bed.

Thirdly : You are going to be bitten a lot by Sandflies, mossies and all sorts of fleas and other flying things on South Island. Pack DEET. I didn't. My poor legs, neck, head, arms and buttocks have been mercilessly bitten and are red raw and itchy!

Day 4 : Headed out to the West Coast with Westport, Cape Foulwind and the Seal colony to view before heading on to Pancake Rocks for the blowholes. Westport is quaint but not remakable. Annoyingly, I seemed to remember there was a very reasonable cafe last time I visted Pancake Rocks, which has been replaced with an art gallery. No matter, the owner (an Aussie) made me a coffee and we chatted about travel, the UK, Boris Johnson and HP sauce for a while.

After coffee, I got my brave face on and headed for Arthurs Pass to Christchurch. Greymouth was exactly that : grey, and unwelcoming but the rain was driving down at this point. After filling Katie up, we headed for the pass!!! Annoyingly, the weather remained dreary, cold and nasty and I got within 10km of the pass but decided that this would be served another day with less wind, less kayak stapped to the roof and more time to enjoy the twisty turny stuff to follow. Instead, I turned up through a lovely little village by a lake called Moana and on into the gold rush hills! I thoroughly enjoyed the drive but was starting to feel a little fatigued when I spied a DOC site for an old gold panning site with campground and rest area. I stopped and...well...although the view was spectacular you can see the cuts in the DOC budget as the site was dirty and unmanaged. Bugger. No more DOC sites for now. I headed back to Murchison and feasted on Italian style sausage and sourdough bread before bed and a thought to visit Kiakora in the morning.

Day 5 : Kaikora was struck by a strong earthquake not long ago and the usual 151km route from Murchison is now 280km one way. Nope. Too far. I retraced my steps up to Abel Tasman and enjoyed a driving tour of the bits I hadn't seen but wanted to remember from my last trip, including a stupendous bacon and egg pie from a particularly seedy looking bakery and a fish at Collingwood. Tired, hungry and very much in need of rest, I drove Katie back through endless hop fields to Murchison, from where I will strike back toward Picton in the morning.

Taking the afternoon crossing tomorrow may well result in some whale spotting in the Cook Straight so keep an eye on my final post when I am back in Hunua. I intend to stop at Levin overnight and then drive the remaining 500km back to Hunua to return late Saturday evening. This will allow me 2 full days to wash clothes, rest and get ready for next week. I am going to try to take Big Sis, neice and nephew to Victor Wero next Friday if possible. I need to get my classroom ready to go for Term 4 in order to do this. Plus I miss my bed. Plus I miss my bathroom. Plus I miss tending cows, potatoes and crazy farm dogs. Yes this visit has been AMAZING and I've loved every minute of it, but I am now 43 and sleeping rough (ish) with no creature comforts has been harder that I wish. I need to come up with a few modifications to Katie before the next big trip to make our time on the road more pleasant.

Anyway, peace and love...

Sid

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