Wednesday 23rd March - Kaikoura

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Early start, we shower and just have time for a cup of coffee - long way to go today.
Di is not happy the weather forecast for Kaikoura is rain! But for Motueka (where we are) it is sunshine!!

We set off, heading back towards Nelson. The tide is out when we get there so it does not look half as impressive as when we previously passed through. We head back to Havelock, but not the Queen Charlotte Drive that we passed through from Picton, which was the long and winding road. Queen Charlotte Drive sounds such an innocuous name, but it is a bastard of a road.

We turn south and headed for Blenheim, as we approach Blenheim there are row and rows of vines. And some of the bigger vineyards are here, including Cloudy Bay and Stoneleigh. As we leave Blenheim we start to climb what must be the foothills of the Inland Kaikoura Mountains. As we approached the east coast the wind picked up and it was difficult to keep control of the Camper Van.

I stopped at a layby to have a rest. A guy is there in a camper van and he asks me for a lift back to his trike, which he has left 15km up the road towards Kaikoura. He has two sticks t assist him in walking. It turns out that he had broken his back in a paragliding accident that had left him paralysed from the waist down. He has since managed to be able to walk (with the aid of sticks) . He is now riding a recumbent trike from Bluff in the south to Cape Reina in the north (the complete length of New Zealand!). His aim is to raise money for the Spinal Injury Trust. His name on the card he gave me is Henry Van Campa (Not sure if this is his real name!), and if you want to donate you can do so on http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/HenryVanCampa

We arrive in Kaikoura and check in to the campsite and go for wander around. Not too impressed with the place, although it is dull and overcast. It is a former whaling town so a lot of the surroundings reflect this. We go on a mini-pub crawl. First to a bar called Sonic and on to a bar called the Whaler. We also use the time to plan where we will visit in the time we have left in New Zealand’s South Island. We will visit:
• Greymouth
• Franz Josef (2 nights)
• Queenstown (2 nights)
• Milford sound (2nights)
• Dunedin
• Timaru
So this is the plan! And being at Timaru on April 1st will put us about 2 hours away from Christchurch, where we will have to drop off the camper van by 13:00 on 2nd April.

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