So many Bumblebees

Monday - South Island

Takaka to Murchison

After a good nights sleep & a final hike along the beach, it was time to head back through dairy farming country, re-tracing the previous day's route.

We made a quick pitstop at the supermarket & garage in Takaka, then began the ascent of the steep Takaka Hill.

The morning's route had a little more traffic than the previous, milk tankers on their collection route,

and a traffic queue as we passed route works.

The climb back over the top to Motueka didn't seem quite as bad as the previous day's.  Coming back down to the coastal plains, we stopped at the road side at Riwaka for fresh cherries, deliciously juicy pische pears & fresh fruit ice cream.

The frozen fruit was added to a vanilla ice cream mix then served, whippy style in a large waffle cone.  Yummy!

Our journey to Murchison  involved a right hander in the centre of Motueka, past the airfield, a drive past vineyards & orchards, along river banks, through shady forests.  The Motueka Valley Highway, twisted & turned as it ran south, rejoining highway 6 at Kawatiri. Around every corner a new vista, roaring rivers, lush forest & waving grasslands.

As the day progressed, so did the temperatures.  By the time we pulled into the Murchison Motorhome Camp, it was melting.  Now this site, l guess, was about the best on the tour so far.  To the wafting scent of wood smoke, we were given a guided tour of the site by the proud owner.   The facilities, all eco-friendly & hence the wood smoke, were really something else, gold star by my reckoning. 

The pitches, all hard standings, were softened with plantings of native plants & shrubs, there was even a bathing pool in on of the eddies on the Buller River, a god send on such a seriously hot day.

The site had only 6 or so other motorhomes that evening, everyone despite the heat, sat indoors listening to the constant thump, thump, thump as huge pollen-drunk bumble bees hurtled into the sides of their vans.  I have never, ever seen so many bumblebees in one place, l guess they were taking advantage of all the pollen & nectar coming from the landscaped gardens surround the motorhome park. An island of pollen in a sea of grassland.

Today's mileage = 127 miles 

Across the Takaka Hills & Far, Far Away

Sunday

Nelson to Golden Bay

Contrary to most recommended tourist routes, we continued westward from Nelson driving along, what is classed as, one of the Top Ten NZ Roads to Collingwood, the route taking us through rich fertile valleys & climbing over the rugged beauty of the Takaka Hills.

The first stage of the drive hugs the coast, passing vast orchards, hop gardens & vineyards, farm shops, micro breweries & ice cream shops. However once we'd passed through Motueka the climb in earnest began.

The Takaka Valley highways climbs & the road twists & turns to the summit, the views across the countryside never failed to impress, hardly surprising that this area had featured in the film, Lord of the Rings.

The summit car park offered views across & down to Nelson & the Cook Strait, whilst strewn about in surrounding fields were an odd collection of weirdly shaped stones, a bit like the limestone pavements in the Yorkshire Dales but without the 'pavement' bit.

The descent from the heights into the fertile Takaka Valley was equally impressive, sweeping hair-pin bends, dramatic vistas, plus the added bonus of hardly any traffic.  

The valley is home to yet more dairy farms, & once again these are on an industrial level.  Outside milking barns, or sheds as they are known, long snaking lines of cows walking slowly along to the daily milking, fields of maize & round irrigation pods keeping the pastures lush & green.  

The road hugged the banks of Takaka River eventually bringing us to the only town on the drive, Takaka.  The small town has an air of the pixie dust come Glastonbury, seeming to be populated by brightly dressed 'hippies', backpackers & then, farmers.

We drove on through the town, relieved to have seen at least one petrol station, passing the famous microbrewery come pub Mussel Inn. 

The evening's night stop was Golden bay Holiday Park, accessed via a long, narrow lane, but boy what an overnighter!

The site was by no means at full capacity & so we were able to park as close to the sandy beach as was possible, with only a few hardy shrubs & bushes between us and the bay.  

So there we sat, on a balmy evening, sipping a rather delicious local Pinot Noir, tucking into a Greek Salad made with NZ olives, watching the sun slowly sink into  the Cook Strait.

Today's mileage = 60 miles

New Zealand Part II - South Island

Week Two - South Island

Wellington to Nelson via Picton

The start of our second week in the Kea motorhome started bright & early with a short drive to the dockside through a maze of roads twizzled around like spaghetti.  Sat at harbour side waiting to embark gave us the  chance to view our fellow passengers; a mix of lorries & rental vehicles really & all nationalities, though it has to be said that there were a lot of what we supposed to be Japanese, busy taking photos of themselves in a variety of posses.

The ferry set sail at 9.25am, leaving the sheltered harbour of Wellington & headed out into the notorious Cook Strait, which l guess could be a bit like the North Sea on a bad day, but in our case more like a Mill Pond with a strong tide race.

The weather improved as the journey progressed.  Brilliantly blue sky, cool blue waters and the temperature rising substantially.  The scenery was pretty dramatic too.  Once the ship had headed into Queen Charlotte's Sound, everybody on board rushed on deck, cameras poised, VCRs at the ready.  Forest covered slopes reaching down to the shoreline, small coves & bays & all the while the amazingly coloured sea taking us onward towards Picton.  

As we neared our destination, a sail boat would pass us or a homestead reached only by sea would appear on the shoreline, but civilisation finally caught up with us in the form of reggatta of small dinghies, a sea plane racing down the bay slowly reaching take off speed & finally a rather large cruise ship that completed dwarfed everything in the vicinity.

Disembarkation went smoothly & turned right out of the port heading along the narrow, twisty, fantastically scenic Queen Charlotte's Drive.   Do not miss this drive, the roads are exceptionally quiet, every corner provides another photo opportunity - rugged green hills, unspoilt coves, an abundance of wildflowers, & ok there are bends, a lot of bends if you've driven in the Alps this is nothing.

Whenever we drove more open farm land, we noted that this was given over to industrial scale dairy farming & we began to see the first of the large, [& by large l mean over 400 cows], herds of cattle.

Driving through the fishing town of Havelock, look out for the Mussel Pot, a fish restaurant dripping with large, green, plastic mussels from, well, everywhere.

The countryside here on South Island was already noticeably different from North Island, the roads almost deserted & towns & settlements few & far between, the exception being that of Nelson where we put down camp for the night at the Matai Valley Motorcamp.  A real character of a place set amongst the tall pine trees close to the Matai River, home to some really weird & unique motorhome conversions l have as yet to come across.  The facilities included washing, kitchens, showers etc & a very unusual 'dump' station that was not really user friendly.  The site offered wifi which you had to pay for, the cheapest way we quickly discovered was to pay for 24 hours which gave you ample time to surf / skype / facetime.

Total mileage = 70 miles 

Don't forget your ear plugs!

Friday

Waikite Valley to Wellington

As l think l have mentioned previously, we did not pre-book anything, the only pre-booking done was the Interislander Ferry , connecting North to South Island & the date booked was Saturday 26th January 2013. So, we had to be in Wellington for the Friday night.

This was to be our longest drive so far, with perhaps the most diverse of scenery.   Driving past the vast inland Lake Taupo with the volcanos clearly visible on the southern shore was pretty awesome, as they say.

But driving along the almost straight Highway 1, with the peaks of Mount Doom or in real life, Mount Ruapehu towering above the plains of the Tonganiro National park was truly breathtaking.  

As the road slowly wound its way down, the dessert was replaced by farming country dotted with small rural townships, complete with their own cafe culture, remember that New Zealand is the home to the 'flat white', ice cream parlours & sushi bars.

We stopped for lunch just outside Mangaweka, then having done some earlier reading, drove through the town with cameras poised in readiness to snap the DC3 at it's International Airport: - well actually, the old Dak is about to land but it never does suspended for ever in an airborne state.  It is now home to the Mangaweka Adventure Company & its cafe.

River gorges & hills gave way to the plains on the approach to Wellington.  Fields of  Maize, large herds of dairy cattle, unforgetabull  named townships like Bulls brought hysterics to the cab, with shops & businesses all enjoying the pun,  How many bulls can you find?

Eventually after a fairly long drive, through some amazing countryside we pulled into the waterfront motorhome park**, [ think French Aire] in Wellington.  We had heard rumours that there was parking on the waterfront from several NZ motorhomers, they had been unable to give us a GPS fix, but there were signposts [small] & we managed to find the park pretty easily, almost the first parking spot in as you enter the city.  The park is run by the council, there are electrics, showers etc & providing you remember your ear plugs this place is the business.   Ear plugs you ask?  Yes, this is a park is in the heart of the 'place to go' waterfront area, the hobbits, dwarves & wizards marching around the top of the Post Office will not help you sleep!

It was a hot evening here in Wellington.  The world & his wife were all making for the waterfront, it was just so very, very hot.  Families, office workers, tourists, everyone was out & about, the atmosphere was truly fab! We wandered along the harbour watching boats, buskers & youngsters diving.  The pubs & restaurants were all bursting at the seams with happy punters.  We joined them, tucking into chicken liver pate with a cognac & fig chutney followed by fish & chips - posh fish & chips l should say.

As the sun slowly sank behind Wellington, we sat sipping our glasses of Pinot Noir hoping that tomorrow's crossing to Picton would be kind.

**Wellington Waterfront Motorhome Park
    12 Waterloo Quay
    Wellington

Total mileage = 266 miles