Nelson continued

Another lovely day in this very sunny area. In fact all of NZ is basking in sunshine at the moment and it is difficult to imagine the extreme coldness on the other side of the world.

Today Gordon and Margaret took us on a beautiful drive through valleys, past wineries and orchards and to the most beautiful beaches.

We went up to the beginning of the Abel Tasman track, a 51km three to five day track which is meant to be one of the most scenic in the country, passing through ntive bush overlooking golden beaches lapped by beautiful blue water. Of course you can cheat and take a boat up the coast and just walk sections of the track.

We went to Motueka (pronounced Mott-oo-ecka) and Kaiteriteri Beach, all bathed in brilliant sunshine and we finally managed to see a Pohutakawa tree that was beginning to flower.

Lunch (sausages, chips and salad) was in a hotel at Tapawera, and very good value at $8 a head.

Yesterday we went to the Nelson market and spent time buying Christmas presents to take back to the UK. We were impressed with the range of art and craft stalls. Plants were very cheap, especially grasses which were selling at $2 each.

After eating delicious hamburgers from Neville and Chris' hamburger shop, we decided we needed to go on a long walk!

I am thankful that this bull was wooden!

Nelson

We are now in Nelson, staying with Margaret and Gordon having a lovely time. The sun is shining and the temperature is about 23 degrees. Summer has definitely arrived. I am wearing a short sleeved blouse and skirt, Walter is wearing his shorts. What a shock it will be when we arrive back in the UK in two weeks time.

Tonight Walter is going to partner Gordon in a game of bowls in a competition. Walter has never played bowls so it will be interesting. He had a practice this afternoon and found it hard to keep the bowls on track! I have made the NZ speciality of bacon and egg pie, which we are going to take to the Clubrooms as our contribution to the pot luck tea. I hope the pie is edible – it smells okay but you never know and I would hate to embarrass Margaret and Gordon. Before I leave this country I intend to be proficient in bacon and egg pie, mousetraps and cheese rolls.

We are also feeling fit as we walked around the Airport this morning but then ruined it by going to a cafe for a latte afterwards.

The trip from Hanmer Springs, on Tuesday, was through the usual beautiful NZ bush. The broom on the hills as we left Hanmer was a blaze of yellow. Although not a native shrub it has taken over many hills and is beautiful when out in flower.

Yesterday Gordon drove us up to Farewell Spit, which is right at the top of the Tasman area and part of Nelson. We had coffee in a cafe which had beautiful views over the bay and spit. The area is a wetland of international importance, and a renowned bird sanctuary. When we were there the sea was full of black swans.

On the way we had to go up over Takaka Hill, which the Lonely Planet describes as ‘a stomach-churning meander’. It is extremely twisty and the hill is very high. Luckily we had a very good driver. The views from the top were spectacular.

We called into see Te Waikoropupu (Pu Pu) Springs which are the largest freshwater springs in NZ and probably the clearest in the world. About 14,000L of water per second surges from the underground vents at the beginning, and you can see the swirls and shimmers in the water where it comes out of the ground. There is no swimming and you cannot even fill your water bottles from the water in case you contaminate the water. There is a rather nasty introduced slime called Didymo (reputedly introduced from America) which they are trying to get rid of in NZ.We also had look at all the holiday homes along the coast, and the beautiful beaches with golden sands. We had a delicious picnic whilst overlooking one of the beaches. There are lots of artists and people living alternative lifestyles in the area, which is also the starting of points for the Heaphy and Abel Tasman Coastal Tracks.

Well, Walter played very well. He played on the right bias and a good draw out to get near kitty. He had three touches on three ends while we were watching. Walter and Gordon won by a good score but no money unfortunately. The two cheerleaders, Margaret and Nola, gave a gentle applause at appropriate times. The bacon and egg pie was a success, thank goodness. A few handles of beer deadened the pain of not winning money. Watch out England when Walter returns!

Collinson's Cottage

I have included a few photos of Brian and Suzanne's garden which is quite the most delightful garden as there is a new scene at every turn. If you are interested in looking at more photos of their garden or would like to book into their B & B or appartments they have a website: http://www.collinsonscottage.co.nz/
Wanaka is a great place to relax in, or to use as a base to go skiing or to tackle any other adventurous sport.
This is their largest appartment. And the view of the mountains from the top is fantastic.

The front steps with Ping looking up.

Art in the garden.

Hanmer Springs

We are now in Hanmer Springs which is just below Nelson. The area is beautiful, weather is sunny, and we surrounded by mountains. Of course we are here because of the thermal pools, which we have spent two hours in this morning and a further two hours this afternoon, doing nothing. In between we went for a long walk through a forest and beside a stream. Bliss!

But back to Wanaka, where we spent a lovely two days with Brian and Suzanne, which followed a lovely two days with David and Catherine in Clyde. David and Brian are twins although they are very different people.

David and Catherine have a large metal factory in Invercargill and produce all sorts of roofing and other metal requirements for builders. They have a holiday house in Clyde, Central Otago which is very peaceful and a wonderful retreat from a busy life. David is a very keen runner and mountain biker and likes to get out into the mountains as much as possible.

In Wanaka Brian and Suzanne run a bed and breakfast business in their house and have a large holiday apartment (house) in their grounds. Brian is an artist and his garden is a work of visual art. He is also a plumber, when he finds time. Brian and Suzanne are very enthusiastic and committed golfers.

Travelling to Hanmer Springs

It was a long day of travelling yesterday, although the scenery was spectacular as always. We stopped first at The Merina Shop in Tarras for coffee. The Merino Shop complex includes a small restaurant and a store which has upmarket food, and picnic gear. This is a popular tourist stop.

We travelled initially through the centre of the South Island, via the Lindis Pass (see photo) that looked unusually green and the McKenzie country that is famous for its merino wool. McKenzie stole some sheep and grazed them in this part of the country. When he was caught other people noticed it was great for grazing sheep so started to settle there and named the area McKenzie country
We stopped and admired Mt Cook, which reluctantly poked its top through the clouds for us, and then onto Lake Tekapo for a picnic lunch with all the other tourists milling around us. We stopped in Geraldine for a very necessary cup of coffee. The cafe was set in the most beautiful garden which was quite a find. Then it was onto Highway 1, around the outskirts of Christchurch and up to Waipara where we turned off towards Hanmer Springs.

Altogether we travelled through Otago, Canterbury and finished in Malborough. It was a journey that took 9 hours, although we did stop for 2 hours along the journey.

We were very glad to see our bed at the end of the journey!

Wanaka

Wanaka is a relatively small town, which has an amazing number of large expensive holiday homes scattered around it. Brian took us for a drive around them and one is speechless at the size of the houses and their beautifully landscaped gardens. We also stopped at the Hawea Hotel, on the edge of Lake Hawea, in order for Brian and Walter to try the local beer. We also stopped at the Working Man’s Club to see if their beer was better. I compared the local soft drink concoction which consists of half orange juce and half dry ginger ale and I confess I am becoming quite addicted to this drink and have given up my previous addiction of ginger beer. I am still drinking red wine in moderation!

On the Friday night we joined Brian and Suzanne, and a large number of other golfers, at the Golf Club. We ate homemade pies, which were delicious and it was here that I was introduced to the new drink. Brian runs the 9 hole competition and gave a good speech and lots of raffles were drawn and prizes given out. The golf course looks out over the lake and even I felt inspired for a few minutes.

On Saturday we went back up the Cardrona Valley and had lunch at the Cardrona Hotel. This is a skiing and outdoor sports area now but it once was a gold mining town. The hotel did not have any ghosts but it did have two huge fires (in the fireplaces) which we appreciated as it was raining heavily outside. Brian and I ate huge bowls of French onion soup which gurgled inside our stomachs for some time after. It was also very difficult eating so much liquid with a spoon.

We visited the Motor and Toy Museum which has the largest collection of toys and cars that I have ever seen. The exhibits were everywhere – rows and rows of toys of every description and rows and rows of cars, trucks, fire engines with aeroplanes jammed in between the cars. We were able to relive the experiences of all the cars we owned or our parents owned. It is a private collection, started by the father and now run by the son.

I would like to inform Mavis that it only rained in Cardrona!

Queenstown and surrounds

After leaving Clyde we travelled to Queenstown, which was a culture shock after Clyde. I could easily have been in a mountain town in Europe. I was not impressed but then it brings in the tourist dollar and there were certainly hordes of them in the town.

We then travelled 45 km to Glenorchy, a small settlement at the end of Lake Wakatipu. This was a lovely trip except we were following a car with four Japanese girls in it, who thought that there was no oncoming traffic so meandered all over the road. Very nerve wracking! Glenorchy looked just the same as it was 25 years ago. Once (40 years ago) there was no road to Glenorchy. The only way to get there was by a steamer that called into every sheep station on the way. A fascinating trip watching all the stock being loaded or unloaded and sitting against the funnel in order to stay warm.

We travelled out to the beginning of the Routeburn track, which Darren and Emma will know well as this was the beginning of our five day walk in the mountains. The area was used when filming ‘Lord of the Rings’.

Luckily the four Japanese girls had returned to Queenstown so we had an uneventful trip back via Queenstown and Arrowtown (see picture) and up through the Crown Range. Spectacular mountains!

Clyde - Central Otago

Cromwell - the home of the big fruit and big houses!

On Monday we drove up to Clyde to stay with David and Catherine. The road was slow going as far as Gore, due to the amount of traffic and the single lane road. After a restorative cup of coffee in Gore I told Walter to take Highway 94 which turned out to be the road to Lumsden instead of the road to Alexandra. After a little discussion, we turned around and went back to Gore. How can you take the wrong road when there are only three to choose from – Dunedin, Lumsden and Alexandra/Clyde! What a relief to finally arrive in Clyde. After lunch we went for a 12 km walk along the river Clutha, passing old gold mining sites along the way. This walk is the 150^th anniversary walking/cycling trail between Alexander and Clyde. The walk was good for our waistline!

The area here, Otago Central, is inland and barren, extremely cold in winter and extremely hot in summer. Since settlement and much irrigation there are lots of beautiful green pastures. The area is also covered in wild thyme which is currently flowering and looks absolutely beautiful. The thyme was harvested here and was quite an important industry here years ago.

Clyde is also the beginning of the Rail Trail which is a 150 km track designed for walkers, mountain bikers and horse riders. It used to be a railway line. It travels through valleys, tunnels and over old bridges. It is extremely popular with both NZ’s and tourists and is in constant use. There are many interesting places to visit along the way and plenty of hotels and accommodation which were there initially to service the railway. It has certainly brought life into the area. We drove on the road which crosses over the track at various points and certainly looks very impressive. Mountain biking is very popular in throughout NZ and David is a very keen mountain cyclist who has biked on many of the tracks around here.

We visited the museum which was full of old machinery; farm, hospital (an iron lung), rabbiting, thyme plus old cars and horse drawn wagons. Fascinating! The old railway station was still there with a short piece of railway line in front, which looked very weird and you expected a steam train to pull in at any time.

There is a huge dam in Clyde, so the gorge behind it is now a lake which spreads out to Cromwell. There was a lot of controversy about this dam, way back in the 1970’s but it went ahead anyway. Still the water is well used recreationally and does look very beautiful.

We travelled out to a few small settlements. Naseby has lots of old buildings but is mainly now known for its curling rinks. They even held a world event here. There is also an outside luge which is used during winter time. We learnt all about how to curl but I don’t think I will take it up. The Royal Hotel was a great place to stop and no resident ghosts.

Ophir claims it has the largest range of temperatures (35 degrees above and 22 degrees below).

We had lunch (pies) in a pub in St Bathans that claims to have resident ghosts, which we did not meet, thank goodness. St Bathans was an old gold mining town of 2000 people and 13 pubs. There are now 4 residents and a dog.

We looked at the strange hills where the gold was sluiced out and the blue lake which is all that is left.

We also travelled to Bannockburn, the home of wine production but once another gold mining area.

As to wine making, we visited ‘The Big Picture’ which has a visual presentation showing six wineries and you get to taste the wine from each of them. There is also a ‘smelling’ room in order to learn about the different aromas in the wine. All very interesting but you do wonder if they cheat a bit on what they add to the wine.

Around Southland

We visited a truly beautiful house (neo Georgian) and gardens called Anderson Park which were built in 1925. The Anderson family owned it and when the parents died it was given to the people of Invercargill. The house has an art gallery. The rhododendrons and azaleas were in full bloom and were magnificent. The garden was beautiful and contained formal gardens as well as walks in native woods. The art gallery was free and there was also free tea and coffee in one of the back rooms. There was a wide range of paintings on display, mostly NZ artists. We were very impressed.

We made another trip to Bluff, the port from where we left to go to Stewart Island. Bluff is the oldest European town in NZ, having been settled continuously since 1824. Bluff is also the home of the signpost at Stirling Point which is known as the ‘lands end’ to Cape Reinga, but of course we now know that the most southern point is Slope Point, i.e. if you exclude Stewart Island and the many island below that.

There is also a huge chain link sculpture which symbolises the Maori legend, where the SI is the canoe (waka) of Maui and Stewart Island is the anchor. Another chain link sculpture, which represents the end of the chain is on Stewart Island.

When the frozen meat industry in NZ was in full swing, the Bluff wharves contained sophisticated machinery to load the meat onto ships which then took the meat to the UK, that is, before the UK became part of the European Market during the early 1970’s. Now Bluff is a very forlorn looking port with many empty commercial buildings and shops and lots of houses for sales.

It does have two very good cafes at the Stirling Point and we enjoyed another meal of blue cod (three in 24 hours) and looked out over a very peaceful sea. Blue cod is the main fish that is caught here and it is certainly superior to most other fish I have tasted. It is also very fresh.

We then walked off our meal by going for a long walk, some of it straight uphill, through the bush. This is a podocarp forest, which I have learnt is a prehistoric forest and there is not much of it left due to the industrious efforts of settlers from the UK. Southland has most of the remaining podocarp forest.

Finally we drove up to the top of Bluff Hill (we could have walked up but felt lazy). There was a gale blowing but we managed to get a very good view in all directions – Stewart Island, all the other islands, the beaches, estuaries, and the mountains in the background. I am amazed at the flatness of the Southland plains – one small tidal wave and the lot will be gone! Bluff Hill is called Matupohue and is a sacred place because a chief is buried there.

We travelled with Mavis to Colac Bay (Oraka) to look at the beach where we spent many holidays. The camping ground has been sub divided but the shop and tea rooms (now an upmarket restaurant) are still there. A picturesque toilet blocks stand where the camping ground used to be. The overgrown Maori cemetery has now been cleared and the old school is a Marae. I used to be very scared of the cemetery as I was told there were ghosts there. We had lunch in one of the few remaining pubs in Riverton. We also went to Tuatapere, the last outpost before the mountains, and Ohai and Nightcaps which are ghost towns now. They used to be thriving coal mines before the government decided that a clean air policy was needed in NZ.

The views of the coast were spectacular and the rolling green hills very beautiful. The mountains were covered in cloud which was a pity.

Stewart Island

I have uploaded the photos for my last blog and for the first blog when in the Catlins.

Yesterday we went to Stewart Island, which is a large island at the bottom of NZ. There are also lots of small islands around there plus islands further south towards the Antartic which I would not like to travel to, due to very rough seas. The Maori name for Stewart Island is Rakiura and the story goes that Maui was on a boat (the SI) and fished up the NI. Rakiura was the anchor.

We went across on the Catamaran which is extremely small compared to any other ferry I have travelled on. The trip across took one hour and covered a distance of 26 km. However the strait between the island has one of the roughest seas around. Luckily it was very calm and we had a lovely trip. Once there we went on a short bus tour (32 km of road, and then walked for 2 1/2 hours out to a point. It is a most beautiful island. Most of it is covered in a national park.

We have been for a few other walks around Sandy Point, to make sure we keep up our levels of fitness.

We have visited museums and learnt much about the history of the area. One of the museums have prehistoric lizards called Tuatara, and managed to glimpse a few heads and tails.

We have spent a large amount of time with the family, which has been fantastic and have been lucky to be here for two birthdays. We have also eaten lots of food so will need to go on a diet when we return.