BLOG NUMBER FIVE - FEBRUARY 4 – SOUTH ISLAND

A smelly experience in Rotarua (sulphur geysers, hot pots, thermal springs, etc.); the city smells like a pulp mill town in Alberta and if the wind is blowing the wrong way it is quite nauseous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did an 8 km hike thru the Redwoods (which smelled very nice after Rotarua).

Silver fern is the national symbol.

Hot pools and thermal spas abound. One night we went to a Hangi (Maori version of a Luau) and had a wonderful meal of lamb, chicken and veggies cooked underground.

 Mitai tribe explained their culture, traditions, dances and war like moves.

 

Tattooed faces plus bulging eyeballs and sticking out their tongue to intimidate enemies in their traditional war-like dance called the “haka” championed by the All Blacks rugby team who seem to be the odds on betting favorites every four years in the world championships.

 

 

Spent 2 days Taupo on the shores of Lake Taupo; one day golfing with Ralph Jones (NAIT retiree) and the second day on a walkabout. Course is VERY dry due to drought, local rules allow moving the ball 6 inches (on the fairway); this allows you to get a slightly better lie. From a very, very, very tight lie to a very, very tight lie… great day tho! Lake Taupo is approximately circular and about 70 km in diameter; lots of fishing and hiking in the mountains surrounding the lake.

 

Thermal springs and spas abound along the river.

 

Seismologists estimate the former volcanic Mount Taupo underwent many eruptions, the last being about 1300AD, 300 years before the Maoris arrived. One eruption about 25,000 years ago was estimated to be the largest volcanic eruption in history. Debris (not ashes) rained down in Chile and the beaches on the east coast of the north Island are black sand. The beaches are not coral as the coral has been covered up with black lava rocks all the size of small pebbles (not easy for beach walking).

Drove east thru the mountains and the wind just about blew us off the road to Napier which is a quaint city with beautiful old buildings and a large container port.

 

Had a takeaway supper… blue cod fish and chips and calamari. Best ever! The takeaway shops allow you to bring in your own wine to a limit of 3 bottles per person. BYO and no corkage fee… quite civilised!

Our kiwi vocabulary is increasing; any body know what the following are?

a Punnet? A Trundler? Metal? Put the belly on? Unisex bathroom? I’ll donate a bottle of Kiwi Pinot Noir to the first person with all five correct answers!

Drove thru lots of vinyards down the east side of north island to Masterton then a wicked drive thru the mountains to Wellington; the highway had so many steep sections and curves that must have been designed and constructed by Italians or Italian expertise. Sheer panic is when a fully loaded logging truck with a loaded pup is right behind you on the downhill slope driving top heavy, Old Nell which was geared down in order for us to navigate corners.

Spent the afternoon walking the malecon in Wellington before catching our ferry to Picton on south island.

Leaving Wellington harbour with its great malecon.

 

Ferry ride is about 3.5 hours and the last 1.5 hour is down a beautiful long fiord (Queen Charlotte Sound) first sailed by Cook. Picton is where he landed and first met the Maoris.

 

 

Picton harbour below.

It is Waitangi weekend so resort areas are very busy and Waikara harbour is chocker block full of boaters in the sound. Camped for 2 nites in Waikara Bay just north of Picton and met a John McCully who is a dual citizen Canada and Kiwi who gave a bunch of really neat travel tips. John spent most of his career as a research agronomist with Dow Chemical across Canada and was their liaison with provincial and federal governments in Canada… quite a neat guy. So we’ll try to accommodate as many of his hints as possible in the short time we have. Northbound ferry is booked for the 20^th of Feb. John lives in a motor home in the campground plus he has a 29 foot sailboat in the marina. 

 We are revising our itinerary based upon his recommendations. Waikara Bay area is very reminiscent of the gulf islands off the coast of Vancouver Island. Hiked to a high point and found the remnants of some Maori settlements.

A tall ship frigate whose remnants of the hull are in the museum; the Edward Fox, was built in 1853 and sailed round the world 34 times, took troops to the Crimea, delivered POME’s to Australia, Chinese laborers to the West Indies,  immigrants to New Zealand, beer (India Pale Ale – lots of hops for preservation) and soldiers to India, tea and wool to England before capsizing in a storm in the early 20^th century.

Sunday Feb 5, drove from Picton to Westmore on the west coast, weather is sunny and hot and reminiscent of driving thru BC valleys and vineyards. Many deep gorges and fast running rivers. Most campgrounds are on the east side are booked for the long weekend (Waitangi Day). Decided to do the west coast from north to south because the weather is forecast to be good for a few days, the east side of the Southern Alps tends to have good weather most of the time but the west coast is dodgy so we hope the weather holds for a few days.

Had dinner with friends from Maidstone, Sask. in Westport last nite and drove to Greymouth further south on the west coast today. Spectacular scenery along the coast; hiked along the coast to Cape Foulwind (aptly named by Captain Cook) and to a seal colony (noise and antics from the seal colony reminded me of the House of Commons… )

Started to rain late in the day so we are hunkered down in a great kiwi campsite at Greymouth... the name Cape Foulwind takes on new meaning! Just caught the overtime period of the superbowl in the nice warm TV lounge. Kiwis think American footballers are a bunch of wusses; the all Black rugby dudes would hang a lickin on them I think!

Scenes along the west coast... 

 

 

 

Headed for Milford Sound!