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

Sheep & thermal pools

Thursday

Rotorua Area

It really does help to have contacts, especially in a place like New Zealand.  Some friends had given our details to one of their retired farming friends who now lived in Rotorua.  We had arranged to meet up with Jim at his bungalow on a rather nice housing estate prior to him taking us on a whistle-stop tour of the area.  I should say that he has had quite a bit of past experience showing friends of friends the essential elements of Kiwi life.

Being farmers where else to go but  the Agrodome .  Jim had booked 3 tickets for the morning's all things sheep show, yes it is a booking visit, the place was heaving with coach loads of visitors all streaming in to take their seats.  Seated directly in front of us were 3 coach loads of retired farmers from the mid-west [USA] to our right coach loads of Koreans.  The site & building look pretty much as you would expect county agricultural show grounds back home to look & smell with a strong sheep aroma circulating through the building.

Now don't get me wrong, the show is very interesting.   All breeds found in NZ parade onto the stage then take their place on a podium at the rear.  Our host, dressed in suitable attire, proceeded to compere the show.  He explained the variety of breeds, he sheared a sheep in minutes & perhaps the most interesting bit was the use of the dogs, the normal collie type then the star, the NZ huntaway, a barking sheep dog that not only barks continuously but also jumps onto the backs & runs across the herd of sheep.  Truly amazing. Other interesting bits included a dairy demonstration with active audience participation, although one of the US farmers didn't play ball & when it was his  turn to hand milk, proceeded to squirt milk directly at the compere who wasn't exactly chuffed!  

Our afternoon was taken up by a visit to Waimangu Volcanic Park, a site recommended by Jim as a 'not to over the top' tourist attraction.  If you travel to Rotorua, come here it is amazing.  The scenery is stunning, the volcanic pools amazing, the boat trip awesome.  Yes, there is some walking [downhill] & yes it is hot, these are thermal springs, but if you aren't keen on walking there is a bus that will take you down to Lake Rotomahana & its boat trip.

The walk down to lake takes you through lush undergrowth & past Echo Crater, Frying Pan Lake all steam & bubbling mud.

Steps lead you up to the amazingly blue waters of Inferno Crater, perhaps one of the most outstanding views, that blue colour was just something else!

Interestingly, there were very few people wandering about, the cafe & shop at the way in was pretty full so by the time we reached the bottom lake & boat cruise there were probably no more that about 10 of us?

Now, you must do the boat trip.  The lake is vast & the constant commentary fascinating whilst the geysers are well worth working out how to turn your camera into video mode.

The lake is stocked with rainbow trout whilst graceful  black swans glide gracefully across the deep, dark waters.

We were the last trip of the day, so had the opportunity to speak with the owners who recommended, for our overnight stop, the campsite at The Waikite Valley Thermal Pools.  Admittedly it was flagged in our tourist map but we had thought to head on down towards Taupo.  We decided to give it a try.  Amazing, the campsite is small but, there are those thermal pools which were pure decadence.  The campground facilities include a cafe cum restaurant whilst the showers use the thermal hot waters & the bonus bit is - unlimited use of the thermal pools.   If in the area you really should stop here. 

Off the Beaten Track?

Wednesday

Omana Regional Park to Rotorua

Before upping sticks & moving on, we enjoyed walking around the headland on which is the Regional Park. The site is old grassland kept short by the grazing of sheep.  Part of the site houses a Maori Pa, in this instant a selection of earth mounds & banks set on the edge of the Park overlooking the  Tamaki Straights.

Before leaving the Uk we had a list of contacts, friends together with friends of friends, so before hitting the road southwards it was a case of ringing Jim, who lives in Rotorua & a farming friend of another farming friend, to arrange a meet up the following morning.  With this sorted, we left the park & headed along the North Road, southwards.

The route took us through the rural & somewhat equestrian orientated town of  Clevedon then along the coast road of the Firth Of Thames.  This was the first time that we had the roads to ourselves, we hardly saw another person let alone another vehicle.  The countryside was hilly dotted here and there with clapperboard farmsteads, small fields of maize, some dairy and quite a few, what looked like, wild flocks of turkeys.   

Our route to Rotorua took us onto Route 27, a long, straight, flat road bordered by drainage channels, the Waikato Plains.  Fields of grass, maize & cereals flanked the highway, which after perhaps 20 minutes or so drove us to leave main road & head across towards Te Aroha by the aptly names Swamp Road.  

Well, what a difference, the road wound its way along the base of the Kaimai Ranges, whose forest covered slopes reared up from the plains.  Seeing a sign post to the Wairere Falls reminded us that it was about lunch time, so turning off the Old Te Aroha road we headed for the car park at the start of the walk or Tramp [as the locals call hiking].  Today, we hadn't seen any other hire vans or tourists & our lunch spot was just the same.  We were the only ones there apart from the bus conversion [see below].  I should at this point say that many of the NZ motorhome club members [the red badge indicate membership] spend a lot of money, not on the latest German motorhome but in converting  something large into their own, personalised camper. Most use the services of a specialist yacht fitter.  Unfortunately, the owner of this one was away in the mountains so we didn't get the opportunity to have a nose.

As lunch time turned into early afternoon & with plates & tea cups packed away, we headed onwards on our journey.  We did notice that there did seem to be rather a large number of dairy herds as opposed to sheep - more on this later.

The scenery passed through forests, along roads flanked by tree ferns, twisting streams & rivers, then back onto the main road system & the aptly named Thermal Explorer Highway which took us past the Agrodome Leisure Park to the shores of Lake Rotorua.   We took the northern route around the aiming to stay at the Lake Rotoiti campsite situated right in the water's edge.  Unfortunately the site when we arrived was packed to the gunnels & with only a couple of pitches left decided to try closer to Rotorua itself.  We eventually pulled into the almost deserted All Seasons Top 10 holiday park which was on the final approach to Rotorua Airport.   The site was clean, well maintained,  the staff hilarious & the airport was not exactly Heathrow more like the Marie Celeste. 

Today's mileage = 166 miles

king fish for supper

Tuesday

Russell Top Ten Holiday Park to Omana Regional Park

Top Ten Holiday Parks can be found all over New Zealand & just to make sure that you don't miss them, they advertise on the Holiday Radio just as you approach the locality.  Anyway, the formula is pretty much the same, motorhome service point, electrics, washing facilities, possibly a swimming pool, washrooms, outside kitchen / BBQ & here on the coast parking for your game fishing boat together with a fish preparation area so that you can gut & chop up that fresh catch of the day.

When we arrived on the Monday afternoon, the fish prep area was a hive of activity, blood, guts & scales with the aroma of so 'fresh they were almost swimming' fish!  Later that evening whilst exploring the site, which incidentally was fairly busy, Husband returned clutching a large sheet of greaseproof paper out of which was loling half a side of kingfish.   My first thoughts, were WOW-why then who followed by a eek. The fish had been presented by a holidaymaker who had been unable to light the outdoor kitchen BBQ, in order to cook his catch.  Not a bad swop infact.

Now here l had to improvise, one of the downsides of our fairly well equipped motorhome rental was a lack of outdoor cooking utensils; ok so no BBQ wasn't a problem as all the sites had on-site ones, ranging from top of the range to basic, but this early into our trip l didn't have things that you take for granted in your own Motorhome, usually found somewhere behind the silver windscreen shield & ramps.  Anyway, l did have foil so after a quick carving into slap-sized steaks then adding freshly chopped red chilli, ginger, garlic & coriander which l then wrapped loosely in the foil & allowed to steam on the BBQ.   The evening's supper was delicious, if l say so myself, we sat outside tucking into the catch of the day all washed down by a fabulously fresh NZ sauvignon blanc.

As with UK sites, you are welcome to stop until 12 noon before moving on & with the park being within walking distance of the small town of Russell we took advantage of this & made our way down to the harbour front.  Russell is a tourist honey pot, as they say up in Yorkshire, plenty of boat trips to see dolphins, plenty of boat trips to catch fish, sailing boats, sailing dinghies plus the odd cruise ship moored in the bay.  

You do need to keep an eye out for these cruise ships, especially as by mid-morning the jolly-boats are being lowered ready to bring holidaymakers ashore, these towns are not large & you really don't want to be stuck amongst hordes of photo-snapping tourists engulfing the immediate area.   We enjoyed exploring Russell, but left as the first of the boats put into the jetty.  

Our route took us back across by ferry to Route 11 then rejoining Route 1 at Kawakawa.  The visibility & weather was much clearer on our journey southwards, passing through bustling main streets & farming country.   

At around lunch time we turned off the main route south, heading for Waipu, our tourist radio had filled us in with the local history & all things Scottish, [Waipu was a Scottish settlement], again it was a fairly busy town, but we continued on through heading towards the sea & parking at the end of a track overlooking Waipu Cove.

As is the case with motorhoming, you stop for lunch, wash up then hit the road.  Wherever we travel we try to finish the day's journey around 3'ish.  This means that you can normally find a pitch easily & can chill out for the rest of the afternoon or do some exploring.

Using the very informative tourist map, we plotted the GPS location into the sat-nav, [which was situated in the rear view mirror].  The end destination was to be Omana Regional Park which had a designated area for self contained campers.  Unlike here in the UK, all campervans have to be certified that they are self-contained & carry the relevant sticker announcing the fact.  The map info also carried contact details & this one was one that you had to pre-book as a code was required to actually enter the motorhome park.  It was rather strange really, l rang the number which puts you through to Auckland Council then you call is placed with the regional park department who then take your details & card payment.  Wierd.  

We had a good view of Auckland City as we travelled to our destination, the view from the Nippon-Clipon was pretty amazing though the southside of Auckland was busy, very busy in fact.   It seemed to take for ages as we crawled across the city towards our night's stop.  Even the last few miles of bending rural roads that headed out to the coast seemed endless, but sure as eggs are eggs, the GPS duly delivered us at Omara Park though the code that Auckland council gave us did not let us open the entry gate.  Patience at this time was sorely tried.  The Telephone help number was on answerphone, no-one was about & we had paid for a night's parking.  Eventually, a car drove past us heading up to the campervan park, we sneakily tucked in behind them as he unlocked then drove through the entrance.

The track continued along through the grassy parkland to a rather hilly & slopey fenced area which was the campervan park.  No facilities here bar a long drop loo.  Wild Camping with recycling bins and we were expected.  A rather boho looking elderly Kiwi introduce himself with the words, 'aha the oppressors' to which l replied well, my ancestors were persecuted by the Romans & the Plantagenets [that's the Welsh ancestry bit] whilst the huguenot ones might have been Cathars.  He did laugh, he hadn't thought of that one. Mind you, he was joking as was l & on a serious note, he was extremely helpful on all things motorhoming New Zealand style.  'Look out for the Motorhomes with a round red badge'!

Today's mileage: = 168 miles