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Published: January 29th 2012
Photo 17
Pororari River, nr Punakaiki.New Zealand – Wk 3
Mon 23
rd January 2012
After spending yesterday evening and night in our luxurious Motel accommodation it’s time once again to move on.
The latter part of yesterday, Sunday was spent looking around the streets of Geraldine, eating Meat Pattie and Chips from the takeaway and publishing Wk 2s blog page, oh and also chatting to Family on Skype. Everything at home all seems ok which is nice to know.
After a second look around the town, this time with the shops open we hit the scenic route intending to press on for approx 120 k and stop at the beginning of Arthurs Pass, this takes you across to the West Coast. We didn’t quite get that far, after detouring off like we do to check out a place called Peel Forest and have a walk we came across a lovely camp site and decided to stop for the night. We were only 20 K out of Geraldine!. The main reason for stopping early i guess is not so much the delightful camp site but the fact that i am now into my third
day of Man Flu and actually feel like c**p so a day’s recuperation in the camp chair with a good book is what the Doctor ordered.
Enough of my suffering, here’s a few interesting facts about the town of Geraldine –
There is a complete replica of the Bayeux tapestry including a depiction of its missing panels. It was started in 1979 and completed in 1999. It is created out of 2.000.000 pieces of spring steel, off-cuts from a patterning disk used on an industrial knitting machine. The pieces where stuck down then the picture painted using the eight colours used in the original tapestry. It measures 42 mts and weighs approx 288 kilograms. Visit
www.1066.co.nz Also housed in this venue is the World’s biggest woolly jumper. No kidding, arms about 12’ long – XXXXXXXXXXXXL i think.
Geraldine has a Vintage Car & Machinery Museum housing 100 tractors from 1912 onwards, including the oldest working tractor in NZ.
The town also has Cafe Plum, a Swiss cake shop selling Geraldine Honey – nut cake, Almond – truffle Florentiner and Swiss Hazelnut cake, none of which we tried!
Photo 19
Greymouth Sunset And finally there is an antiques and collectables shop that had its window full of Wind Chimes and Singer sewing machines and an Alpaca Centre for all things woolly.
All very random really but a very nice little town.
Back to camp and having rested sufficiently Sue decided we needed a walk before supper so of up the nearest mountain we went returning 1 ½ later fully refreshed and in need of a Speight’s Cider, a case of which we purchased yesterday.
That concludes today apart from making plans for tomorrow which may now include a day back in Christchurch looking around the Antarctic Centre.
Tuesday 23 January 2.405.6 Sunny and Hot Hot Hot
Awoke this morning to heavy dew, outside of tent and grass was dripping. I was up first to make the Tea / Coffee and grab the campsite shower before the other campers were up and about.
The sun was shining nicely now and we stripped the outer layer of the tent off and hung it up to drip dry. It only took ½ hr for everything
Photo 2
Castle Rocks, How big! to be ok to pack away then we were off on the road.
Christchurch was now out of the question, too far to go and wouldn’t be enough time for the Antarctic Exhibition so we headed for the town of Springfield instead. An uneventful journey really, very straight roads again and passing through some lovely green flat countryside with Sheep, Cows, Deer grazing and the harvest in progress at various stages.
Arrived in Springfield about 14.00 and found the only campsite in town. Very cheap at $7.00 and quite adequate for our needs. Pitched the tent in front of an old sports pavilion and a field of Sheep, it turned out that the town used to be a busy Railway community and the workforce had their own Cricket, Hockey and Rugby teams with the pitches on what is now the Sheep field. The Railroad a few years ago closed down and so did the town and everyone moved away leaving just the farm community and an unused sports pavilion.
I am still struggling to shake off this Man Flu so again like the previous day spent the afternoon chilling out in
the warm sunshine with another book and my sodden hanky chief.
Five o’clock arrived and time to stretch the legs with a walk down a very straight road and back again, only 2 kl this time but very nice admiring how tidy and neat the local farmer is and how nice his house is set in about 5 acres of grass land. We have also noticed a lot of the NZ farmers are quite resourceful and cut the verges around the towns / villages for silage, making the roadsides very neat.
We noticed when we arrived the local Tavern was putting a $10.00 Steak night so we headed there about 19.30. Being a backwater community the cliental reflected this with the local farm hands sitting on the veranda casting a critical eye over all who dared enter. Inside the place was busy with other locals getting stuck in to their Steak and chips and Apple Pie on one side and others glued to the telly watching the Aussie Tennis Open. After ordering a couple of Speight’s Ciders we were directed out back with the other tourists in for a cheap Steak. It was ok
for $20.00 and better than using our cooker. On leaving we had a ½ hrs drive around the neighbourhood before settling down for the night and a back ground of sheep bidding each other goodnight. Bloody comical things Sheep.
Wednesday 24 January Heavy Dew / Low Cloud to start with....
Awoken early by the dawn chorus and Sheep eating just outside the tent, very rural. Stepped out to find a heavy Dew and low cloud / fine drizzle, a real contrast from the previous day.
Set up the stove on the Pavilion Veranda and brewed up in the dry then packed the car and made our exit from a very nice stop over. We have decided to head on over Arthurs Pass to the West Coast and stop for the night before heading back South to the Franz Josef and maybe the Fox Glaciers.
On the road out of Springfield we past an old tractor tyre on end, painted pink with a bite taken out of the side. This we decided was in honour of Homer Simpson and his affection for Doughnuts.
For about 15
Photo 8
Goats at Pukekura kl it remained grey and damp, about 12 deg. Then came a twisting hill to climb and around its last bend we drove into brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies and the temp shot up to 22 deg, this is a great example of never really knowing what the weather will be in NZ.
Our first coffee stop was taken at the Limestone Rock walk, ‘Castle Rocks’, on the Graigieburn Range. The attraction here was the many large limestone boulders embedded into the hill side looking a bit as if they were part of some very early settlement. As it turned out everything was entirely natural and was used as a stopping off point for the Maoris many moons ago. It is now a big attraction for the sport of Bouldering, not sure what this involves but we did see a couple of lads make their way up to the rocks carrying a large crash mat so we assume they jump from one to another as in the sport of free running. Some of these rocks were as large as two or three double Decker buses.
We carried on passing such places as Parapit
Rock, Paddy’s Bend, Mt Misery and Klondyke Corner before reaching the half way point between East and West known as Arthurs Pass. This i understand is named after the guy who discovered the original Maori track and developed it into a cart track for the settlers to travel on.
Not far on from here we stopped again at the Infamous ‘Death Corner’, a viewing area overlooking a gorge that the road runs along the side of. Above the road is a waterfall and potential land/rock slide area. Here the NZ engineers have built a concrete Shute extension to take the water out and over the road and also constructed a rock proof shelter to protect traffic. Alas. They are unable to build anything to protect tourist’s vehicles from the Kea Bird/ Parrot that haunt these stopping places. As soon as you leave your car they fly, jump, hop onto the roof and attack the wiper rubber or anything they can pinch. We saw them make off with someone’s sock! How it came off its owner’s foot we don’t know.
We finally hit the West coast at Kumara Junction and headed South along the route
6 stopping at Hokitika for a look around. The highlight here was the Driftwood and Sand exhibition on the beach, the Sock Museum and a Whitebait exhibition at the town hall. This is how random this country is.
The town itself resembled a wild west Felixstowe without the pier, needless to say we didn’t stay long and carried on the coast road until the historic Gold town of Ross where we checked out the camp site and cabins, gave it the thumbs down and moved on to the community of Pukehura.
Pukehura has a population of two, husband and wife who run the cafe, shop, museum, Deer, Goat, Wallaby Park and camp site. After paying our $20.00 for a pitch we doubled the population and pitched the tent. As this is the West coast the dreaded Sand Fly came out to play so out came the long trousers and long sleeves to help stave off the bites. The evening was spent blogging, reading and giving the hire car a badly needed was over and clean out. Thought we would nip out for a short drive and walk before supper and only managed to find
a small parking area that lead to nowhere but did contain two guilty looking lads who were in the process of rolling a spliff! We left them to it and spent the evening with a bottle of Cider, Book and IPod.
Thursday 26
th January
There’s a saying that goes something like ‘silence is deafening’, well that was our night camped on amidst the NZ Rain Forest. There was not a sound, nothing, just nothing. Between 23.00 and 05.00 you could have heard a pin drop; neither of us has heard silence like it, if that makes sense. Thank god for the dawn chorus and the goats waking up across the road.
Having got our hearing back we left camp and took the route 6 South to the Franz Josef Glacier. The trip down was uneventful; travelling along the edge of rain forest most of the way and passing through the villages of Harihari, Te Taho and Whataroa, this i guess is text language for ‘What a rower’! After an hour or so we came into F/Josef and parked up along with the other expectant day trippers. As we were not going
to part with several hundred dollars to take a helicopter to the glacier slopes we had to make do with a 2 kl trek along the length of the river bed stopping 100mts short of the ice and viewing it from there. It was still though fairly impressive from where we stood. About ½ an hour and 50 photos’ later we started the trek back to the car, this time in cold driving rain.
A short stop at the visitor centre and at the ‘time for a cake shop’ we headed back North this time to find a bed for the night. First stop was Hokitika for another look round and break the driving up. Here i tried my first NZ Pie, Steak and Cheese, bl**dy lovely. Having been revived we were drawn to the local Museum to check out the ‘Whitebait catchers’ exhibition and other Hokitika treasures. We don’t half live it up. On the way round the town afterwards we noticed the Cinema was showing ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ a film we both wanted to see. Now when i say Cinema it’s more like your local village hall and on enquiring whether we
Photo 10
FJ Glacier needed to book tickets we were politely told the maximum audience would be twentyish so it wouldn’t be necessary. And this was the opening night.
As it turned out we didn’t stay in Hokitiki as the camp sites were a bit limited so we pressed on to the town of Greymouth 30 kl further North and booked in to a $30.00 Chalet. The Chalet was taken on the advice of the receptionist who predicted heavy rain and gales that evening. Oh how right she was, all night it lasted, a wise decision. Sadly though the Cinema here wasn’t showing the film so a night of reading instead.
Friday 27
th January.
Its Friday again already, how the weeks fly past. Decided to stay here another day and night for a look around and do a spot of food shopping.
After stocking up at ‘New World’ Supermarket we took the coast road up to Punakaiki to check out the Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes after which we walked the banks of the Parorari River enveloped in Rain forest.
The Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes are something else,
Photo 5
Arthurs Pass well worth the trip. The rocks are set on Dolomite point and are flat layers of limestone which over the years have worn away to produce huge caverns and hollows that when the large Tasman rollers hit the rocks large water jets and spray pushed up through the blowholes. A spectacular site, especially today after the storm overnight and the afternoon HW. The sound is pretty good too, sounding like a great roaring Dragon about to leap out of the ground.
The river walk also was special with the path taking us through totally unspoilt dense rain forest with high limestone cliffs either side. This walk i would highly recommend.
We called into Greymouth on the way back so i could get a haircut only to find everyone booked up until after the weekend. Oh well i’ll carry on with the dreadlocks till next week.
The only down side to the day was the $40.00 ticket we got from the overzealous traffic warden for parking in the street against the flow of traffic, i had completely forgotten this traffic rule and should of known better. Live and learn.
The evening was spent in the sites TV lounge watching a movie and having a couple of Ciders.
Saturday 28
th January 3.199.7kl 14 Deg
Slept ok but strangely enough we miss the tent and the blow up mattress where we sleep like logs except when we are in the spooky rain forest!
Left site at ten and stopped off to see if the local Barbers were open, no luck so we made our way out of town along the route 6 north. On the bridge crossing the Grey River we came across a road block where the local Police where breathalysing every driver leaving town. At least i think that was what they were doing. It came to my turn and after the usual pleasant chat the guy shoved a small box under my nose and told me to count to five, this i managed successfully and was given the nod to be on our way. As the guy was in a good mood perhaps i should have pleaded my case with the previous days parking ticket.
We retraced our route from the day before again passing the
blowholes and coastline before briefly stopping at some caves for a look around, not a lot of good without a torch though so this experience was short lived.
On we drove through Tiromoana and Charleston, before we stopped again at an old Gold mine open to the public. A right old ramshackle place and not worth the ten dollars charge for looking around. As it turned out we didn’t see a sole so we quietly slipped away before Klondike Pete appeared waving his pick axe.
Just prior to entering Westport there is a large headland called ‘Cape Foulwind’ which is home to an impressive Seal Colony and some very forward Sea Gulls? Cape Foulwind despite its name is a beautiful and wild place with stunning scenery whichever way you look. We were lucky to see many Seals and pups chilling out on the rocks below the viewing platforms. If it’s something the Kiwi’s do well it is building accessible footways and vantage points to and from these points of interest.
Before going on up to the colony we were entertained by the local gull population who would sit surrounding the car
Photo 12
Blow Hole waiting for the opportunity of a sharing your sandwich crumbs. We soon learnt that these gulls have no fear, even before one small crumb thrown out of the window has touched the ground at least fifty birds are fighting over it, some within centemeters of the open car window, It’s like the old Hitchcock film ‘The Birds’. Unknown to Sue i had saved some crumbs for when we left the safety of the car and as she stood near the boot putting her coat on some of these crumbs accidentally fell to the ground and i watched in horror as she was enveloped in Gulls. Oh how she screamed. Ha Ha. I’m sure her revenge will be swift.
After the Cape we took in the sites of the Cape Foulwind lighthouse and could quite understand the likes of Abel Tasman all thoughs years ago not wanting to stay around the area due to the inhospitable land and rocks he saw.
Into Westport we went and found another Wild West town about the size of Woodbridge. We camped at a KIWI site pitching the tent in the late afternoon sunshine before settling down for afternoon
Tea and Cake and a long chat with a Kiwi game hunter we found chilling out in the TV lounge. This guy was employed to shoot the wild Deer, Goat and Pig that roamed the mountains in the area. He is indirectly employed by the local coal mining company who were about to open another mine and It is there duty to plough money back into the surrounding country side to help maintain its natural balance. He was an interesting guy with many tales to tell and some interesting facts about Kiwi life in general. He and his three dogs are flown by helicopter into the most inaccessible area’s and are left there for ten days to fend for themselves and shoot anything that moves. All the kills are left where they fall, none of it entering the human food chain. This shooting may sound cruel but if these animals are not culled natures infrastructure will collapse very quickly.
As he was due to fly out in the next day or so we left him to drink the row of tinned lager in front of him in peace an visited the town ourselves to buy beer. While
in town i popped into the Cinema and asked if the Dragon Tattoo movie was being shown. No the guy said, but if you like i can order it for you. How’s that for customer service.
Back at camp we cooked supper and sat with other campers to eat. Sue and one or two others were highly amused to watch an old guy eat his supper consisting of raw carrot, raw broccoli, apple and chocolate all washed down with the occasional swig from a squeezey brown sauce bottle. Ughhh. Obviously spent to much time on his own.
By this time the rain had started to we retired to our canvass house to read our books. At the moment i am reading an account of the Spanish revolution during Franco’s arrival, a horrific time in their history.
Sunday 29
th 3.341.8kl 15 deg
It rained all night and the good news is, still no leaks in the tent. Destination today is Hanmer Springs, about 60 kl from Kaikoura on the East coast.
Everything packed up carefully due to the continuing drizzle and we set of on the
route 6, 69 and 7. These roads took us through old mining country and through mile after mile of thick bush / forest.
Only stopped once for our coffee in the town of Reefton. A nice tea room which served sausage rolls and homemade cakes. It would have been rude to of refused. Sue’s Texan Coconut slice was lush with my s/roll a close second.
We arrived in Hanmer Springs at 14.30 and treated ourselves to two nights in a basic hut at a top Ten site. Sound basic but actually very comfortable.
The reason for coming here is the hot springs which tomorrow we shall immerse ourselves in for the day. The rest of today is spent sitting on the decking in the hot sun, no rain here, enjoying a beer or two and waiting for the UK to wake up so we can carry out the weekly Skype sessions.
That’s it for this week, please tune in for next week’s exiting instalment!!
Oh by the way, i forgot to mention the manflu has now gone and i’m feeling much better thanks..................
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Anne Elise
non-member comment
Congratulations with your super time
Dear Jono and Sue You will have trouble fitting in to your UK life when you get back. What you are doing sounds super and also unreal. Look after yourselves and eacht other Much love Anne Elise