Post Glacier Hike

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Ok, this is where I have been naughty and not written my blog for a while and we are only up to the 20th December. After the Franz Josef hike we hit the road and stayed overnight in a lay by (OPPOSITE THE RAILWAY! DOH!) in Greymouth...not much there apart from the Monteiths Brewery. Getting a shower in Greymouth the next morning proved the biggest challenge ever!! The swimming baths weren't open till the afternoon, the community centre wasn't open....so last resort pluck up the courage to ask the tourist information, where can we go to get a shower?.......yes how embaressing hi, haven't showered for a couple of days where can i scav a shower....lol. But it was fine, not the 1st time that that question had been asked, we were told that u could freedom camp behind the carltex petrol station (Doh) and that you can get a shower there.....this car park behind the petrol station was the most bizarre thing, just anything was going on here, cars for sale, people camped there for the week with their washing out on the line and then the promise land, showers!!! It was $4 for 8 minutes of hot water, the room was big so both got in there, ready to jump in the shower and it was probably the best shower I have had on the whole trip, after the hike and yeh nice!

After Greymouth we made tracks (300km tracks) to Nelson, really liked Nelson. We looked around the city centre and strolled along the beach, topped up at Pak 'n' Save and left to find camp for the night. Going along the high and windy roads we spotted a secluded picnic area, result! Not a lay by and far enough away from the road, also safety in numbers there were 3 other vans there. We parked up and got talking to the guy next to us, he invited us over for a drink later on. Had dinner and then took a bottle over to their van, was good to chat to other human beings and they lived in the North Island.....also picked their brains about freedom camping as we had been moved on twice. They had the bible on where to camp in New Zealand so used that to find a place in Picton. Nice couple, Hank and his wife are both originally from Holland but have lived in New Zealand for the last 30 odd years, they had recently retired, bought a van and were going to travel the South Island for however long, whether it be months or years. Nice!

On the way to Picton we stopped off at Havelock, a very small place but it is the Green Lipped Mussel capital of the world.....so of course had to try the mussels, I ordered the special which was mussels with pesto and cream, yum? Well I have had mussels a couple of times before and they were really good but these tipped up and they were really big and scary, ate one but didn't go down too well :-( Where's Dad when u need him eh?!

Picton is such a pretty place, although it is really just a ferry port but a few shops to look round and the wood export was interesting...never seen so much wood! Had a good nights sleep in the place we found with Hank and were woken by the rain the next morning. Yay! We have only had 7 days of sun in 4 weeks here in New Zealand, the rain has been sightly annoying but it hasn't stopped us from doing things and when the sun comes out it is gorgeous.

Ok we're at Christmas Eve, we drove to Kaikoura Christmas Eve, renowned for its wildlife; seals, whales, dolphins and lots of different birds. We treated ourselves to a campsite Christmas Eve, which means we get power to the van! And gain a microwave, use of the toaster, can charge the mobiles and can turn on the heated towel rail. Exciting times. Before reaching the site we pulled up to have lunch (in the drizzle) and we were parked overlooking the beach and spotted dolphins popping out of the sea....amazing.

The site was good, showers, toilets and a pool (which we didnt use) and close to the whale watching beach, there was a good atmosphere at the campsite as it was christmas eve and little kiddies were getting excited. I cooked our Christmas Dinner Christmas Eve night as we had POWER! Dan did all our washing, he is the washing man! We had chicken with a blue cheese sauce with mash and peas! I can't remember the last time we had eaten meat, McDonalds doesn't count!! Was really good to have a proper meal, lol. Yup that's right get the violins out. After dinner we strolled around the village and saw a beautiful sunset next to the snow capped mountains.

Christmas morning had arrived!!!! Opened our cards and 1 present each, played Uno and even had toast for breakfast, what a treat!! We left the campsite and drove to the peninsula where you can see the new zealand fur seals.....something i have never done on Christmas Day before! Throughout the day we made some scenic stops and had turkey rolls by the beach before reaching Leithfield, 30kms north of Christchurch. We stopped by here for the night in a picnic area before ringing home to wish Happy Christmas on Christmas morning for the UK....the damn phone card ran out! Cut off mid convo with Bob, called the folks the next morning to catch them Christmas Day evening.

We dropped off the campervan in Christchurch on boxing day and got a lift to the airport up the road. We managed 3100km in 17 days in the South Island, the camper cost us an absolute fortune but was the best way to see it and wouldn't change a thing. We were stranded at the airport on Boxing Day, our planned $5 each shuttle wasn't running as it was Boxing Day so called the folks and made our way to catch a bus to the city to get to our hostel for the night. We looked around more of Christchurch as we only had an hour there the otherside of the campervan trip. Stayed in a YHA that night in Christchurch and the sodding alarm the next morning went off at 5.30am, we got up to catch our 5.5 hour train to Picton to catch the 1.15pm ferry to Wellington. The journey was fine, was much more comfortable than the Greyhound experiences! We even spent 2 hours of the train journey working out our table plan! 2 hours I know!!!!!

Arrived in Wellington after 8 hours of travelling and being up at god knows what hour and checked in our hostel and explored Windy Welly. We ended up in a brewery along the waterfront where we tasted some different lagers and watched the cricket. Again stayed in a YHA and got some much needed sleep.

After ringing the Gobles we walked to Victoria Street and picked up our hire car on the 28th December. It was a Nissan Pulser, 1.6 auto and drove like a dream! Nippy and did more than 40kph up hills!! Before leaving Welly we drove up Mt Victoria to see the beautiful view of the capital.

Drove 350km to Napier that afternoon in some surprisingly gorgeous sunshine. We arrived shortly after 4pm and needed to find a place to stay. Our 1st picks were fully booked or only had one bed but we looked up the hostels in the lonely planet and there was a converted stables or an old prison left to try...we went to the stables 1st and they had a couple of beds no dramas. Was a cool hostel with plenty of character on Hastings Street in Napier.

We went for a beer in the centre of Napier, watched some cricket and then watched a couple of films back at the hostel and then went to bed which was the beginning of a very disruptful night of snoring and someone annoyingly in the early hours leaving the door to our room open from the veranda allowing all mossies to come in and feed off Dan and she was the heaviest snorer ever!!!!!


29th Dec - We checked out of the stable hostel the next morning and did the Art Deco walk around Napier. Napier suffered from the Earthquake that hit in the 1930s so all the buildings were rebuilt in the Art Deco era. It was a short drive from Napier to Lake Taupo and we saw hot springs with steam streaming above the,. It was a cool sight, unlike us in our bright green ponchos! Around Taupo we also saw the very impressive Haka Falls and Aratitia Rapids. The rapids were quite impressive as it was controlled by a near-by dam. This at 4pm released a surge of water and the rapids soon appeared crashing over the rocks and vegetation. From there it was only 80km to Rotorua, and we found Cactus Jacks to stay for the night. We can already smell the not so sweet smell of the sulphur!

I'm gonna have to leave it there for now as I have already been unsociable at Jayn's this morning and need to get ready as we're gonna hit the beach before a BBQ at Gill and Grahams.

Lots of Love xxxxx

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Comments

[bob]

showers!
Hope you are going to have a shower before i pick you up at the airport!!

[Jobo18]

Its the end of the non-showering! We have booked a hotel for Chicago...ooooooooooooooooo! xxxx