The Homeward Journey Begins

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It is always sad when a holiday one has thoroughly enjoyed and with such magnificent weather (well in most places) has that feeling of coming to an end. Even though we are now both retired from paid work it would be stretching things to simply carry on and in any case it will also be nice to get back to our own bed again, not that most of our accommodation hasn’t provided a good nights sleep. And then of course there is Barney the Bunny who has been staying with his breeder while we have been away from home and we both miss him and the grandkids too very much.

The West Coast weather has been absolutely fabulous and again this morning the sun is warm as we pack up the Corolla for the short run of 151km down the coast for our next stay at Punakaiki for the night.

Today is Sunday and SH67 in both directions is very quiet.However,things were about to change at our first stop of Lake Hanlon a short way into the hills once we left the coast at Little Wanganui.

We think we have been to Karamea on 4 occasions including this trip and therefore we had passed the sign post to Lake Hanlon 7 times when each direction is taken into account, and we had never stopped to walk into the forest and see what the lake looked like.

So passing number 8 was to be the first time we stopped to take the short trail through more NZ native forest that is regenerating from logging until 50 or so years ago.

We were the only vehicle stopped in the car park, which we suppose was unsurprising considering the day of the week, time of the morning,10am and isolation of this beautiful part of New Zealand.

The trail is advertised by DOC as being 30 minutes return but we think that DOC have got this one wrong as there was a ridge to get over on a long zigzag and although we did spend a good amount of time admiring the view of the lake, we were the best part of an hour getting back to the car.

What a gem Lake Hanlon is with kahikatea at the water’s edge backed by beech forest enclosing in the lake itself fully.

Again the stillness of the day made the most of a chance of getting reflections of the forest in the water of the lake and we were not disappointed one bit.

As we stood on the lakeside viewing deck jutting out into the lake we felt very privileged and pleased that after passing this location on 7 previous occasions that we finally did stop and take the short walk to a view that matched Lake Mathieson further south near Fox Glacier but without the Southern Alps in the background of the reflections. Even without the Alps in the background the view we had was awesome and quite unforgettable.

Standing in absolute quietness, except for the birds singing, for several minutes we then noticed the noise of approaching feet down the trail and then another tourist appeared. Chatting to him he said he had left his wife behind in their campervan as she had had a fall from her mountain bike while on the Heaphy Track yesterday and wasn’t up to walking just yet and therefore he was on his own. Like so many other tourists we have spoken to over the past almost 3 weeks he was from the North Island and heading south for an indeterminable time.

After he left we spent a few more minutes admiring the view and then hit the trail ourselves back to the car park only to pass 4 other tourists on their way to the view.

So after not seeing anyone other vehicles between Karamea and the Lake we now knew that there were at least 3 other vehicles on the road in the immediate area.

Pushing on we negotiated all the slip areas without coming across any other vehicle, other which is of what we could see in the distance as we descended from the hills down to Mohikinui.

Gretchen had sussed out another walk at Seddonville, a short distance of the SH67 but when we got to the starting point for the walk to Chasm Creek we found that the track was close due to bridges you have to cross being damaged. So we went back to SH67 and retraced our steps through the small ‘coal’ villages that hug the coastline until we got down to Westport.

The coastline down to Westport resembles what we have lived with for the last 37 years, and that is the gentle curving coast of the Bay of Plenty. The main difference though is that the Bay of Plenty generally has calm seas and gentle winds whereas the West Coast around Westport has to contend with the strong westerly wind that flows for most of the year across the Tasman Sea and seas that are often unabated.

We had never actually been ‘down to the beach’ at Westport and our curiosity demanded a visit today as we had plenty of time before check in at Punakaiki.

We didn’t have any great expectations of a ‘Marine Parade ‘with multimillion dollar houses as Westport has a housing stock of mostly pre 1950 houses but we did think that if there was a road that parelled the flat, light grey sandy beach, that there might be the odd grand looking home taking advantage of the sea views.

However, there was no road that ran close enough to the beach to get those sea views and indeed there was very little housing even as close as 100 metres back from the inviting beach which today had gentle very low waves lapping in from the Tasman Sea.

With that satisfied there was time for a coffee and a muffin and off further south to nearby Tauranga Bay to put some past demons to bed.

We have mentioned before about our last trip to the area 18 months ago with our daughter and son in law and their 2 boys when we arrived the same time a ‘weather bomb’ crashed into the area with a full force of fury that our #2 grandson is still getting over that experience today.

However, today the picture before us as we drove along Tauranga Bay was one of calmness, blue sky and 100 % different from that of the ‘weather bomb ‘with its howling westerly wind and rain that drove in horizontally leaving no where to find shelter than in the car.

Taking the track around to a viewing platform above where seals live amongst the rocks it seemed that the older seals were out hunting for food for their new born and the seals that were visible frolicking in a rock pool and a few that were moving to join them from further back below the platform, were all small and appeared to be this season’s crop of new borns.

There is a relatively new seaside subdivision of large sections on the southern side of the bay and we took a drive and finally discovered where people with money were building their seaside or holiday home in the Westport area as there were some large and expensive looking new houses that had been built all with low profiles to suit the coastal and dune surroundings.

It was just another 60km down the coast to our overnight stop at Ocean View Resort and we were pleased we had chosen this place as it was going to round off our holiday with a bit of luxury, at least up to the level we wanted to pay.

Our room was level 1 of 2 and so we were assured of a direct and clear ocean view and hopefully a sunset into the Tasman Sea that we missed in Karamea.

From our balcony while we had nibbles and wine that we had to drink as we didn’t plan to take it back home with us, we firstly watched a campervan with a couple on board pull in and then a large flashy house float followed. Both had couple in them and after a few minutes up at reception they reappeared and let themselves into the unit below us.Odd, because we thought having a campervan meant that you stayed in a camp ground and not a resort. But perhaps they were tired of the smallish space of the campervan and wanted a bit of luxury for the night and dinner in the restaurant cooked by someone else.

The resort didn’t appear that busy but we still had to book a time for dinner at 7.15pm which suited us as that gave us time to consume the wine that needed to go.

We missed capturing the sunset on camera but did have a delicious dinner of Scotch fillet for Gretchen and Orange Roughy for the writer finished off by sharing the Chocolate Torte.

With almost no other light than a couple of parking area lights at a low level the surroundings were quite dark and we easily drifted off to sleep with the windows and curtains open and the ambient sound of the ocean in the background.

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