Day 15 - Leaving Golden Bay

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Today is our last day in Golden Bay. We have had such a lovely time here. The accommodation was fantastic and we were able to just relax for the three nights we were here.

Unfortunately, it was time to leave and we had another big drive in front of us. This time we were off to Hanmer Springs which is the location of a thermal springs resort, which is something we didn’t get an opportunity to do last time we were in NZ. Rather than taking the direct route and going through Buller Gorge again, we decided to take the scenic route along the coast. This would mean an extra 100kms, but we decided it’d be worth the drive. As we would discover later, 50 of those extra 100 kms were the slowest and curviest we ever had seen in NZ.

Our first stop was Nelson to see the World of Wearable Art and Collectable Cars. Needless to say which of us were interested in each half. The Wearable Art gallery was bizarre. It had many bizarre costumes which were all contemporary art pieces designed to be worn. This included the Bizarre Bra section which had very weirdly designed art pieces to be worn as a bra. The gallery was done as a robotic catwalk so that you could see all of the art pieces.

The Collectible Cars section was full of not just classic cars, but more modern cars which have become collectors items. These include the Honda NSX supercar, the Plymouth Prowler, and the Ferrari 308 GTS. And a couple of Mustangs to boot.

We then drove through the Queen Charlotte Sound. This is where Captain Cook used to hang out on his various journeys through NZ. The main town in this area is Picton. Nothing of interest there other than being the departure point for the Interislander Ferry. It is a very beautiful drive, but it took nearly an hour to drive the 50 kms from Havelock to Picton.

We then drove on to Kaikoura, the road to which is a very picturesque drive. We were running short on time so we pressed on to Hamner Springs. As we arrived late, there was not enough time to make it to the thermal springs, so we left that for the next day.

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Photos

Wearable Art
A Bizarre Bra