Hitting the road … South

We had a very pleasant ferry trip across the Cook Strait on 1 November (if you haven’t caught the ferry recently you may enjoy the short clip of our crossing below)

On arrival we headed straight over to the Whites Bay DOC site ….

….. We stayed here six years ago and enjoyed sunshine, seals and blue penguins, so were very keen to return. A little different this time weather wise, but we still headed out for a kayak and paddleboard and walked a couple of the trails, which have fabulous views 🙂

We then had an appointment in Nelson so started to make our way west. Thought we’d found a good fuel-deal in Blenheim (the Gaspy app is very useful down here too, for finding cheap diesel).

Unfortunately our GPS tried to take us through a carpark building in the middle of Blenheim – not recommended when you have a rather large caravan in tow! I think that’s what’s called character and relationship building ????

We also unfortunately scraped the side of the awning and caravan on a road sign on the same day, as we pulled over to consider whether a rest stop was worth looking at (short answer – “NO!”). Nothing too dire on the damage front thankfully.

The slightly frazzling day ended well, with a stunning scenic stop at a park over property (POP) in Saint Arnaud. We also visited Lake Rotoiti which is nearby – we were keen to camp here, but the DOC sites at the lake for our sized rig aren’t open yet.

We’ve spent most of November in the Tasman area, initially around Upper and Lower Moutere (including Rabbit Island and Mapua, a regenerated dock area) …..

… before heading over Tākaka Hill to Golden Bay for a couple of weeks. Our “camp spots” in Takaka included a local hotel (handy for an afternoon drink and pub meals!) and a NZMCA site near a commercial fishing port (always plenty of interesting activity!)

These spots were a great base to explore a few local free attractions – amazing what you can find when you’re looking to enjoy nature and not necessarily paying to be entertained.

1. Te Waikoropupū Springs – we enjoyed the meandering walk and the lovely clear freshwater springs – apparently some of the clearest water ever measured!

2. Pupu Hydro Walkway – as we noted on Instagram, we thought this might be a very quick look at some old hydro setup …. Wrong! What an engineering feat, started way back in 1901, initially to support gold extraction. It was restored in 1988 and the 1hr 50 min walk up to and along the water race was a real eye opener to what those folk achieved!

3. Labyrinth Rocks at Takaka – great spot for the kids! (even the big ones 😉 A maze-like collection of cool rocks (Kaz’s description!)

4. The Grove, Takaka (near Pohara) – short but impressive wander through limestone rock and old rata trees. Incredible how the tree roots have worked their way down to the ground from their perches on top (the third photo below has BeeGee next to the base of one of those roots).

We were keen to take the caravan over to Totaranui DOC camp for a week. Some advise against it in case you meet caravanners coming in the opposite direction. However we were still in the quiet season, and of course our rig is bigger than most – size matters 🙂 Short vid clip below ….

There were probably only 15 sites at Totaranui being used during our visit (it has 269 sites, so bags-not being there in the height of summer!). We’d come over with a ute and kayak on our last South Island visit and had a blast kayaking for the day .

Again the weather didn’t quite play ball, but we enjoyed a couple of short 12km walks (only one in the pouring rain!) and still got out on the kayak.

It was interesting to read that Weka had disappeared from Abel Tasman National Park in the 1980s and 90s for unknown reasons, but were reintroduced in 2006. The numbers seem to be pretty healthy now, and boy are these omnivores bolshi!

One nicked bacon off Brent’s plate! (true, the bacon should have been in his mouth not sitting on some plate!). We bought our mini soaker from home which had plenty of use after that occasion … but are thinking about an upgrade …

From Totaranui we headed to the Pakawau Beach Camp, located very close to Farewell Spit. Some campground neighbours are looking to buy in the area and suggested heading west out to Anatori River for a more remote wander.

We didn’t take the caravan but there are a couple of camping spots if we come this way again. The road has numerous causeways which make it a fascinating drive, but it can be rather narrow so best to be courteous to the trucks and tractors you’re likely to meet!

We did the Farewell Spit Eco Tours on our last visit south so we passed on that option this time (not cheap but very interesting as it gives access to the spit which is around 35km long – public access is restricted to the first 4km)

We did a short wander to Wharariki Beach (perhaps most often referenced as a Windows10 desktop wallpaper!), Cape Farewell (northern most part of the South Island) and part of the Puponga hilltop walk for a quick view of Farewell Spit before the weather packed in.

We’re now heading across to the West coast to see how far we can get with the caravan up this side of the island 🙂

Look forward to hearing about what’s been happening in your world ????