The bug who came to tea!

Very possibly a Weta?

Life on the ocean wave.

Monday 13th February

Our two day hike has successfully been completed and we are sitting like........ two old farts really, complete with cup of tea.

Back to yesterday it started with us outside waiting for a minibus to pick us up at 7.30 am like two elderly school children.  A short drive to the boat company HQ, check in, meet up with Steve and Helen and we were ready to board. We were summoned to embark and we climbed into the 20 seater boat which was on a trailer linked to a tractor.  We then drove for about one kilometre along the beach front road and then the tractor reversed down the beach until we were in the sea!  There is no jetty and with a tidal range approaching 4m the tractors can sometimes go nearly a kilometre out to sea to drop off and pick up.

The water taxi took us for a mini tour of Split Apple Rock, Bark Bay and Tonga Island, the latter to see fur seals (cute).  We then landed at Onetahuti Bay but had to take off our boots and socks to wade ashore onto a sandy beach - the longest in the Abel Tasman National Park.  We planned a 20 km walk on the Able Tasman Coast Path which sounded like a flat stroll along the beach but oh no sir, it was a rollercoaster of a walk.  We started with very steep ascent which, as it turned out, was a portent of things to come.  The Warnes had booked a water taxi back and according to the boards were going to miss the last one by over an hour!  Thus Helen set off like a scalded cat (never seen one but I like the phrase) and then continued to set a fast pace for nearly the remainder of the walk.  The undulating (that's an understatement as it was  truly uppy and downy - it seemed that there was far more upppy!!) path was lovely as it wound around the coast from sea level to 200m (and back again many, many times) through lush bush with viewpoints over the sandy bays, granite cliffs and clear turquoise waters.  The sky was blue, the sun was shining - perfect day to spend with friends.

Lunch was spent at a viewpoint with an OF couple from Illinois who were great fun, although worried that Trump would not let them back in again as they hadn't voted for him!!!  The afternoon was as superb as the morning but with one real downer.  We reached Torrent Bay and there was a sign that read, "Anchorage Bay.  Low tide route 40 mins; high tide route 1 hour 40 mins".  It was not yet low tide.....
This last 90 minutes saw Helen get the bonk (a cyclist term or marathon runners 'hit the wall') but was rejuvenated by chocolate.  Needless to say they made the ferry in good time (Steve had time for a quick dip in the lovely but 19°C sea) and we said a fond farewell.  Steve, Helen and Slyvie have been very kind and generous, particularly with their time.  Their knowledge of NZ flora and fauna enriched the walks.

Well, we were left on a long sweeping beach and our floating hostel was in the bay.  We waved at the catermaran as instructed and a small boat with outboard chugged to pick us up.  It is difficult to describe the Aquapackers boat - it is the big blue and white one in the picture below.  It is run by a very friendly NZ couple who make you feel very much at home.  It only sleeps 22, two double rooms and the remainder in the twin front hulls - described as dormitory but more like submariners triple bunks with a vertiginous ladder for access to the bowels of the ship.  We had an above sea double thank goodness On this floating hostel our fellow ship mates were a mix of nationalities (NZ, German, Spanish, Danish, USA and English) and ages from the chatty 19 year old German, we had supper with, to. .....  us!  A few took the challenge to dive off the roof into the sea and I took the challenge of 'help yourself to tea and coffee'.  There was a small hot shower to scrub away the days grime and a fantastic BBQ supper on the upper deck, oh and a view to die for of a sweeping, sandy beach against a backdrop of verdant forest.  After a tiring day we were lulled to sleep by the gentle swell and faint sound of the small breaking waves. Ah....

We awoke to much more movement, high winds and heavy squalls - help!  After tea in bed (I know my role in life) and a good buffet breakfast, including pancakes fresh off the stove we decided that we had to start the second day of the walk.  We had anoraks and a stiff upper lip so we headed off to fly the flag.

We were ferried to the beach and for the second day in a row had to tackle a job I detest - putting on socks over damp, sandy feet (no matter what you do there is always sand).  The first section was uphiil and 20 minutes later we were on top of the ridge taking off our oilskins and sou'westers and taking photos of a rainbow.  The day very quickly changed from wet English to hot, sunny kiwi.  The 12km walk was very gently undulating and past many little  sandy coves - a super walk which ended with a cafe - heaven.  We started with two large coffees then decided to stay for beers and home-made nachos with beef, salsa and soured cream.

Staggered back to our lovely apartment for an afternoon of writing (blog and postcards), reading, showering and washing our clothes.  We were joined at tea by a giant bug which was comotose/dying but frightened the living daylights out of us.  Tonight we are treating ourselves at a beach side restaurant.

Tomorrow we have a long drive to Hokitika which may not be blog worthy so TTFN.

OF1 on the beach at Kaiteriteri

Queen Charlotte would have been amused.

Saturday 11th February

Back on wi-fi and sitting here in Marahau on the Abel Tasman National Park.  Our lodge apartment, called 'Tango' has the sea one side (see picture) and the back veranda is in forest.  The cacophony of crickets is like tinnitus turned up to 11. You will have needed to watch Spinal Tap for that last bit - it also ages me!

Back to Friday.  At 07:40 we were on a jetty waiting to embark - the weather was dry, windless, but cold.  The Queen Charlotte Sound is quite stunning and it was a picture in the eary morn.  It was a little disconcerting that we were the only folk (out of about 20) that got off at Torea Bay.  The skipper told us to go up the road and turn left. OF1 set off up a one in three road like Ussain Bolt leaving me asthmatically wheezing for England.  At the saddle we met the track.  We were a tad disconcerted to read that our destination was eight hours walk away and we only had six and a half before the boat back to Picton.  The first hour was steeply uphill on the ridge.  However, I was warmed up now and set a steady pace up a track that was very much like an English footpath underfoot with lovely forest of giant ferns and trees.  Every so often there was a view point where one could gaze at the dark blue-green water with forested hills behind with the occasional cove and beach with sometimes a 'batch' (small beach hut /house/shed used at weekends and holidays).  The track continued to offer us superb views all day.  The first hour was uphill until we reached the high point of 407m - time for a water break.  On this first 8km stretch we saw a handful of other walkers.  We had started with four Dutch walkers and we leapfrogged each other throughout the day.  The track is best described as undulating as it wound it's way along the ridge, down to a saddle and then back up again.  At the half way point (in time) we found that we had taken three hours to complete the four hour section - there is life in old dogs yet!  With a feeling of superiority we set forth to tackle the next section of 12.5 km.  Lunch was taken overlooking the Queen Charlotte Sound and a brief talk to our Dutch fellow walkers.  The afternoon's walk was an old bridle track that clung to the steep hillside through lovely beech and fern forest.  It was not far in a straight line but the narrow track followed every inlet and promontory. Towards the end I heard a loud commotion down by the shore.  This turned out to be several nests of Spotted Shag.  I think we would call them Cormorants - we managed a couple of good photos.  On the last section there were a few more walkers and the occasional mountain bike (it is an advanced/intermediate track) but for a lovely summer's day there were few folk around. As we completed our 21km I thought I saw a cafe caravan glistening between gaps in the beech trees - probably a mirage sent to torture the weary, hot, walker? But no....It WAS a little cafe!  We sat by the jetty with coffees and cold drinks and were joined by our dutch friends.  One of them, it turned out, was a football coach and used to take the Dutch U13 side.  He has coached many famous names such as Argen Robben.  His great mate is Andries Jonker the academy coach at Arsenal and he comes over to London to watch football with him.  He told us the the atmosphere in the English grounds is always the best in the world.  He also added that he cannot believe how old fashioned our stadiums are and some are even in the middle of terraced housing!  What a lovely bloke.

Our water taxi arrived and in Picton we hacked off the sweat, grime and factor 50+ under a shower before setting off to see Steve and family near Nelson.  I was pleased that OF1 managed to distinguish between the open doorway and the window this time...

Steve, Helen and Sylvie live in the hills about 15 minutes away from Nelson.  It is an enormous house with 5 acres of land.  They bought it complete with four sheep, four chooks (hens in the Queen's English), one rooster (cockerel, your majesty) and two parrots!  Despite only moving in three weeks ago they have made it very homely but have major plans to change it.

Dinner was delicious fish and chips but with a twist.  We went to a pub that sold lots of local beers and ciders (including berry cider!) We then went to the chippie next door and they came in and served it to us in the pub!  This despite the pub having it's own menu. Strange.

Today we went with Steve et al to Nelson where we strolled round the highly recommended market.  It was brilliant - better than Devizes market or any of the large French or Spanish ones I love so much.  All the stalls were local folk selling their craft, food or other goods.  It was not cheap clothes but individually crafted clothes alongside painters,  toy makers, jewelers, artisan breads, etc.

We then travelled the short distance to the Abel Tasman Park and stopped at a beach (see other picture) of which there are many.  Our accommodation is, yet again, excellent with the added bonus that the manager built it himself.  We are currently waiting for darkness to fall as there are glowworms in a mini-gorge and stream outside our apartment which you cross by bridge.

Tomorrow is an exciting day as we start our two day hike and staying on a floating hostel - the aquapacker.  All will be revealed in the next blog on our return......

OF1 has an HIA

Thursday 9th February

Musing here overlooking Picton Harbour - the view (below) is probably in joint first place with the Bay of Islands.

We were up with the sparrows this morning to drive to Wellington.  Again, great countryside and very little traffic.  At first we were in vineyard country then as we left Hawkes Bay it was mainly cattle ranching.  A coffee stop in Shannon (I must admit to succumbing to the item 'bacon buttie' on the cafe blackboard - delicious), a change of driver and on the road again, singing along to our favourite 1970s and 1980s songs.  Thanks to L2 for adding us to his Spotify family - my tablet has over 500 OF hits to be Bluetoothed over the car's speakers. Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Rod Stewart, Sheena Easton, Kate Bush, Hawkwind, and many, many more.

We arrived at the ferry terminal early to find it was in the city centre!  We strolled up to the Government Building (the oldest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere) and had a coffee surrounded by young office types and hipsters.

The boat was small by cross channel standards with 400 passengers.  Our little Toyota was parked by two massive lorries towing even larger trailers; one filled with pigs and the other with sheep.  This made the car deck quite odouriferous (I have been itching to use that word since it was on a notice in the Taupo motel asking residents not to cook odouriferous food).

It was a lovely 3.5 hour crossing, especially coming into South Island, picking our way through the narrow inlet.  Everyone was very chatty.  First a young French lady, Aurore,  was great fun talking about an eclectic mix of subjects including New Zealand food & cheese  (compared to French), wine, Brexit, her job as a notary and itineraries.  At the end she gave us her name and address and invited us to stay FOC in her B &B in Avignon (of pont fame).  We also chatted to a NZ couple from Wellington who were fonts of information - he worked at GEC in Coventry.

We docked in the small town of Picton and found our accommodation: the Harbour View.  The view is stunning through the full length and width glass sliding doors overlooking the bay.  We decided to have a cup of tea on the deck as the sun sunk in the west.  OF1 had put the cups out and was just returning with the biccies when there was a sickening crash and she reeled backwards and collapsed into a chair. She had missed the open section of the large sliding door and walked straight into the fixed window section!!!  She was taken from the field of play for an HIA.  Currently, she is recovering with her usual medicine (medoc taken orally) and talking nineteen to the dozen, so she is fine.

Tomorrow we are catching a water taxi at eight for a walk along the Queen Charlotte track - the weather forecast is good.  We then go to Steve's for the night so there will be no blog for a couple of days which will be a relief to you all.

OF1 tackles a little wine tasting...

Jitterbug anyone?

We are in Nelson - the Art Deco city.  There are many, many buildings still in the Art Deco style; the architecture and colours make this a visually striking place.

However, I am getting ahead of myself. The drive from National Park to Napier was superb.  It started with the mountains in cloud and we felt sorry for those attempting the Tongariro Crossing.  As we drove towards Taupo the lower slopes were clearing, leaving Mount Doom looking very menacing.  The journey retraced our steps along the shores of Lake Taupo before striking East past the Kaingaroa Forest (largest plantation in the Southern Hemisphere).  Here we encountered  many more of the massive logging trucks with huge trailers - machines I thought were only found in USA or Australia. The road (only completely surfaced recently) then winds it's way up through the spectacular hill country to the Titiokura saddle.  The swooping road sped (actually not true as the maximum speed limit is 60 mph) down through the hills until we reached the plains of Hawkes Bay with fruit and vines becoming prominent.  There were a couple of photographic stops, one at Tarawara at a tremendous cafe whose walls had masses of information about the area and Highway 5 over the past century.

We lunched in 30°C on the beach looking across the bay at Napier before exploring the city.  This is the most delightful large place we have been so far.  The whole city was flattened by an earthquake in 1931and rebuilt in the Art Deco style of the time and much has not changed.  There are some great buildings and although the main street looks like any other high street if you look up the buildings are anything but. We enjoyed our stroll around and OF1 managed to repel a pushy lady trying to sell her a 1930's style hat. It was lovely but only if you added the full costume which apparently most do for the annual Art Deco week - I would love to come back for it.

Onto a place to rest our weary heads.  The bike hire place offered accommodation and this was motel style.  The 'unit' is modern, ultra clean with a boutique bathroom.  The worrying thing was the lady of the manor was keen to point out that torches were provided, IN CASE OF AN EARTHQUAKE!!!

We watched a bit of New Zealand television just to confirm how awful it is but were rewarded with something for our Speak Kiwi book.  The fire chief explaining about the forest fires near Canterbury talked about, "the puppy got out of the paddock".  I am left wondering if pony was the subject but then this is New Zealand.

The one thing that is correct here is the weather forecast.  The nice young man said the drought would lift and it did.  This morning we woke to the sound of rain - that very fine stuff that drenches you in seconds.  We cancelled the bike ride but were we upset that the puppy was out of the paddock?  No, we tackled the features on the route by car!  This morning we went to a chocolatier and sampled the goods in solid and liquid form. We also visited the nearby artist co-operative and treated ourselves to a little souvenir.

In the early afternoon we were off on the winery tour, well we went to two!  The most impressive was Mission Estate Winery which is  the oldest, founded by French monks in 1951.  There is a historical information room and we had the wine tasting.  This was just $5 and included a glass which you could buy for $5!!  Still, I was driving so OF1 slurped her way through eight wines and I had a sip (or two).  They were lovely wines and a shame we could not bring a case home.

To finish off the day we went to a little art deco boutique cinema.  There were large leather seats or sofas to sit 45 only in total.  There were upmarket nibbles or you could order a pot of coffee to be delivered to your seat as the film started to roll or a pizza could also be delivered to your seat, freshly cooked at the Italian next door!  As the New Zealanders say (every few seconds), "awesome".  Oh, we watched 'Jackie' which I really enjoyed but OF1 was less enamoured with it.

Tomorrow is a long drive to Wellington for the 1.30 ferry to South Island.  The day after is a walk on the Queen Charlotte track.