Down in the South Island
Well, we’ve made it down to the South Island of New Zealand and if possible it’s even more beautiful than up north!
The last week has been very busy as usual. We reluctantly left Taupo and headed south with the plan to head to Wanganui for 1 night and then onto Wellington for 1 night before taking the Interislander ferry to the south island. But, plans changed once again as they’ve been having a tendancy to do!
The beginning of the drive was gorgeous, passing Tongeriro National Park with it’s snowcapped peaks and then going through the Rangriro desert…a bit of an oddity to have no trees except scrub brush for about 40miles and then back to trees and rolling farmland. From there to Waganui was a beautiful but harrowing drive..there is not a single straight road in this country and this was the worst of the bunch! Very narrow, very twisty, quite a few trucks and the occasional sheep or cow in the road. We did reach town safely after about 3hrs but upon seeing it decided we didn’t really want to stay there..it’s was ok but just a working class town with nothing much to see or do. After lunch we decided to push on to Wellington and I took over driving for the first time. We had both been nervous about shifting with our left hand , driving on the left, etc. but it really isn’t too big of a deal once you’re doing it.
At Wellington we stayed at a completely non-atmospheric campground which was basically some electrical hookups outside a hotel but it was only 10minutes to downtown so a great locale.
We took the bus downtown the next day and took the cable car to the top of the hill and then walked down through their botanical gardens. It was really very pretty but we were having rain and occasional gale force winds so our day in Wellington wasn’t fantastic. Lunch at an Irish pub and about 4hrs of walking around and we headed back to do some laundry, have dinner and get ourselves ready to head south. Even the residents of the north island all told us how much prettier it was in the south so we were primed!
Sat. we took the ferry crossing which took about 3hrs and was absolutely gorgeous, especially coming into the Marlborough straits before we disembarked in Picton. We only had about a 25minute drive to Blenheim where we wanted to stay for 2 nights and get in some wine tasting which the area is known for. The campground was, luckily, walking distance to everything in town and to 3 really great restaurants all of which we tried. The first night dinner at Rocco’s italian restaurant for some really great pasta and wine. Lunch before wine tasting was at Whitehaven restaurant around the corner and was a hearty pumpkin soup and garlic bread with yes, more wine! We took our wine tour with a lovely 70-something year old man named Ray. He and his wife Tonia run Highlight Tours and he was a great host…all the winery people were familiar with him! He not only shared the history of the area and how the wines were made but dished out marital advise too!
About 5 hrs of wine tasting passed quickly and loaded down with bottles we headed back to camp to take a nap before heading out to the Black Creek pizza restaurant which is attached to Whitehaven restaurant. The brewery end of things is run by 2 guys from San Diego and we had some fantastic beer (their label is Renaissance) and pizza to end another great day.
Today, Monday here, we headed down the coast to the little town of Kaikoura. It’s about 68 and sunny and we stopped a few times along the way for pictures and once to pick up some crayfish, one of the local specialties…..a very good lunch! One again the top 10 camp park is walking distance to town which makes it awfully nice.
This town is just fantastic in that it’s on the Pacific Ocean but is backed by the beginning of the southern alps…about as scenic as you can imagine. We took a 2 1/2 hr hike around the bluff to see some fur seal colony’s and get in some fresh air. Tomorrow we’re heading inland to Hanmer Springs and hopefully for Jim to do some snowboarding. Cheers and more later!
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