camping in Kaikoura

In Kaikoura there are 2 basic DOC sites, both in beautiful areas, one across the road from the beach and next to the railway line, the other by the stream towards the mountains. We were enjoying the beach one at Okiwi Bay, it was quiet on a night except for the odd freight train passing through. After a third night there we started the van in the morning to find four lights shining at us from the dash board, at the same time I (Ruth) opened the glove compartment to find the camera case and binocular case had been chewed to bits (thankfully these appeared more comfy materials to make a bed than passports and wallets, few!) It appeared that a mouse, possom or rat had been enjoying the warmth for the night. We worried that he might have also been chewing the wires to bits but thankfully after lots of checking and finding no damaged wires it was just a coincidence that the alternator had gone on the same night as our visitor came, with 462, 500 km on the clock it's no surprise!

Kaikoura

We arrived in Kiakoura, a place known for it's snowboarding, surfing, whale, dolphin and seal watching and many other things sea and mountain related. 1km out to sea there in a 1km deep trench where there is a lot of nutrients bringing in these larger sea creatures. We took an instant liking to the place. After our extreme ice cream head ache experience in Dunedin we were relieved to find the sea temperature slightly warmer here, more on the bearable side. After deciding it was a place that we wanted to hang around for a while we decided some wetsuit hoods and boots were going to be essential to make the most of the many wave options in the area.
We hadn't realised quite how popular the place was for fur seals (we always tend to read the guide after we've been to a new place rather than before like most people). We were standing on the beach watching the sea when from behind us, out of the bushes a huge fur seal appeared, he stood upright (must have been at least 6ft) and gave a bark to let us know he was there, it seemed we were standing between him and the sea, we got the hint and got out of his way. He then negotiated his way between the boulders into the sea and swam away. Later whilst in the sea the seal continued to sit with us and watch us with curiosity, he took a particular fancy to John, with his ever growing whiskers he possibly mistook him for one of his own.
Driving around the headland you see hundreds of adult seals laid out on the rocks relaxing and soaking up the sun after a hard night fishing. There is a water fall close by where all the pups live. It's a short 10 minute walk up to the waterfall, where we saw the most amazing sight, at least 100 seal pups playing in a small pool under the water fall. They were far different from their sleepy parents, they were swimming, doing forward and backwards rolls, climbing onto the side to jump back in, wrestling with each other, in fact the pups behaviour was no different to the children's on a Saturday afternoon 'splash session' at Scarborough indoor pool.

Christchurch

Unfortunately, whilst we were surfing Christchurch suffered another big after shock. There was further damage to the city and at least one fatality. The town we were in had shaken quite aggressively. We think we may have been driving at the time, our van veered a bit from side to side, as if it was very windy. Police asked people not to drive in or near the city unless absolutely necessary so we took a detour around it on our way north.

Dunedin

After a very cold night in a rest area, we made a frosty start the next morning and headed for Dunedin. Dunedin is a big university city on the south east coast of the South Island. It was settled by the Scots and definitely has a Scottish feel. You feel like you could be in Edinburgh(it was cold enough). We headed to a nearby beach for a surf, it was COLD!!!!!! The sea temperature was unbearable. Maybe we have gotten soft during our trip or our wetsuit gear was simply not good enough but we both had to head in to shore very quickly. When our heads submerged in the water it felt like they were being compressed by a big vice. We have not missed 'ice cream' headaches! We made the quick decision to head further up the east coast to try and find some warmer waves.

Queenstown

Queenstown is the premier winter resort town in the South Island. It's close to a lot of ski slopes and adrenaline sport activities. The town was pretty lively,especially in the evening. Everybody seemed to be English. There was a local rugby game on when we arrived. It was a rugby union game of a very high standard. We watched a good chunk of the game before exploring the town. The town was getting geared up for its big winter festival in a couple of weeks time. We decided it was a fun place but we had been missing the coast and surfing too much, so we left to make our way to the east coast.

Wanaka

We headed further south to a small lake and mountainside resort town called Wanaka. It was our first visit to a ski resort in New Zealand. Unfortunately for the skiers and snowboarders, despite being over a week into the winter season there was no snow. Neither was there any likely in the near future. This led to a lot of people walking around the place looking 'glum'. We had a night in a camp site, our pitch was right beside a beautiful river. We did a long hike along the river which soon turned into some pretty fast moving rapids. It's adrenaline sports country out here. There's plenty of thrill seeking activities to take part in, if you have the spare cash; Skiing, snowboarding (when they have snow), white water rafting, bungee jumping, canyon swinging, power boat racing, downhill mountain biking, caving, sky diving and more. We were happy to just take in the surroundings. We did treat ourselves to puzzling world on the way out of town though. It was a mini theme park including a big maze and illusion rooms. We particularly enjoyed the hobbit illusion, where you go into a room, at one side you look very tiny and at the other you appear to be huge. (sorry no pics at the moment, will add them later when internet speed is better).

Gillespies Beach and Fox Glacier

After being impressed by Franz Joseph we decided to get some good views of the mountains and another glacier called Fox Glacier. We headed to a lovely free camp ground at a place called Gillespies beach. It was a great spot right on the beach and offered some good walking. Despite having done a long slog the day before we decided to do the longest of the 3 walks possible there the next day. We walked past an old gold mine and the remaining machinery as well as walked through an old miners tunnel. The last part of the walk took us out to a seal colony. It was very wet and our feet did not appreciate it. We also got attacked by hundreds of sand flies. We were bitten and blistered when we returned to the van. Good walk though.

Franz Joseph Glacier

We arrived in a town called Franz Joseph which is named after the nearby Glacier. We lucked out and caught it on a beautiful clear day. It's a very touristy town offering lots of adventurous activities and various ways of seeing the glacier. We decided to do a long hike up a nearby cliff known as Alex's Knob (no jokes please!). The hike was supposed to be 8 hours long and as we only had 7 hours of daylight left when we set off we decided to do it at a strong pace. It was a steep climb right from the start and we were sweating and hurting within no time at all. We thought we were doing really well when stopping for water and a Canadian guy from Toronto came breezing past us, barely out of breath. He was a nice guy and we chatted with him frequently during the climb. We were rewarded with some amazing views of the glacier at various times but low and behold when we eventually reached the top the clouds rolled over. We waited it out a bit and eventually got some great views. We got great views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman as well as the glacier. Down hill was much easier going although you really had to concentrate on your footing. We were happy to find that it had only taken us just over 5 hours in total to complete. We were shattered and had huge blisters for our efforts.

Greymouth

On heading towards the west coast we had to cut through the mountains. Winding roads with great vistas. We stopped at a water fall and look out point which was very nice. On route Ruth decided to read aloud the surfing guide we had in more depth. The west coast is known for heaps of great waves,too many to name in the guide. Huge swell, in fact so big most of the time surfers are waiting for the swell to drop a bit in order to get in. Cold murky water with an abundance of marine life. This includes whales, dolphins, many seals, penguins and oh yes great white sharks. We both exchanged a look as Ruth read this. There are a great number of 'sharky' spots in the South Island, something we were not expecting as much as say Australia. We decided to adopt the Aussie attitude of 'she'll be right mate', that we had learned in the land of plenty.
We arrived in Westport and then made our way down the amazing surf highway, giving views similar to the great ocean road in Victoria. We arrived in Greymouth, a place famous for coal mining and green stone. It's a tough old dreary mining town. Many local people seem to want to get out of the place and it does have a bit of an edgy feel. We past a couple of lets say unstable individuals who were uttering profanities under their breath to no one in particular. We spent the first night in a camping area at the back of a petrol station (nice!). It was actually fine and the caretaker was an ex computer scientist who looked a bit like Einstein, he was very funny and we warmed to him instantly. The next day we found the surf and it was good. We surfed at the north end of a big break wall next to a huge river. When big the locals paddle out the river mouth to get to the waves often avoiding driftwood, sewage and the occasional floating cow. The waves were good and the water not half as cold as we had feared, well we are north sea surfers you know. We were unnerved at one point when a local shouted “look at that a shark eating an eel”. Luckily he was further out to see and we decided not to investigate. On leaving the water we got chatting to a local maori surfer who told us we would be fine camping there that night. He was part of the Kahuna surf club that had it's club house located right on the break wall. He quickly invited us to look around the club, which was very impressive and have a beer with him. This as all these things tend to do turned into 5 beers. His name was Simon and we shared beers with him and another local named Dex or Dax, I couldn't quite work out his pronunciation. They had just had a memorial for two of their club members who had died tragically in a mining explosion the previous year. They had made a bench over looking the waves with their names in it and a green stone remembrance plaque. There were flowers left there for the surfers. One was from one of the families, he was only early thirties and had left a wife and two young children. It was very sad and hard not to get a lump in your throat. We had a good and memorable stay in Greymouth.

Nelson

On arrival in the South Island we were faced with two choices. We could head down the east coast or the west. We checked the internet surf forecast and the choice was obvious; west coast. On route we decided to take advantage of a free night at the man who owns the campervan companies property. He has a farm stay that is free to van rental customers. He was a big talker and we chatted for a long time, a very long time. He fixed a couple of problems with the van and supplied us with a new chair ( I John broke the other one), new bedding and an electric kettle (or jug as they call them), as we did not have one. It was well worth the stop.

Wellington to Picton

We set off early Saturday morning on the Bluebridge ferry to cross the Cook Strait. As ferry crossings go its a cracker. You get a great view of Wellington as you curve your way out of the bay before crossing a choppy bit and finally a very scenic meander through the Marlborough sounds before arriving at Picton. It's about 3 hours long and we aimed to do the whole trip stood on the top observatory deck on the outside of the ship. This is no mean feet as it's blooming freezing, especially in the middle. We were rewarded with some stunning scenery. The boat had loads of live stock being transported, mainly cows and sheep. This led to an unusually rural smell that you wouldn't have expected to sense half way across a passage of water. We had parked our van next to a lorry packed with sheep. I had to hold my breath and hope my look was in on getting back in the van as a sheep's bottom was delicately positioned right above my head. Phew! Made it. We could still smell those sheep a few days later due to the vents on the van.

Wellington

Our quest for surf down the remainder of the west coast was not very fruitful so we headed for Wellington in order to catch the boat to the south Island. We booked our ferry and allowed ourselves a couple of nights in the city before crossing the Cook Strait. Wellington is a very attractive city, very green and liveable. The city is right on the water and has attractive trees running along it's streets and is surrounded by hills with luxury homes built on them. Everybody seems to be keeping fit, running, biking, or roller blading along the promenades by the water. We had a good explore around the city,the highlight being our trip to a huge museum 'Te Papa',which is Maori for house of treasures. There was some great exhibits but as often with museums, it was too much to try and take in it all in one day. But we tried! There was a great exhibit about earthquakes. It showed quite unnervingly how much of New Zealand exists along a fault line. A little boy around 4 years old decided to educate Ruth on what to do if a earthquake happens, “ You need to do the turtle”, he said.
“What's the turtle?”, said Ruth.
“You have to lie on floor and curl up like a turtle”, said the boy who promptly dropped onto the floor curled up into ball, face down.
After this we all entered a replica house where a force 4.5 shake was recreated for people to experience the feeling. The moment the house started shaking the boy looked very uneasy and grabbed the rail, giving a little moan.
“Well what should you do?”, said his mum.
“ARGHH HOLD ON!”, shouted the little boy.
“No, remember what should you do?”, asked mum.
“errrrrr, the turrrrrtle!”, replied the boy unconvincingly and refusing to release the banister.
Bless him.

Taranaki shows off

We had spent the 5 or 6 days 'toing' and 'froing' around New Plymouth driving around one of the most spectacular volcanoes in the world. However if the sun hadn't have come out on our final day here we would have never believed it. It had been obscured by pesky clouds the whole time with only its base being visible.
We woke up on our final morning without a cloud in the sky. We set off to check the surf and suddenly there it is, this huge magnificent volcano (Mount Egmont, 'the mountain' or the 'EGGY' as the locals know it). WOW! It was breath taking. It is known as one of the most attractive volcanoes due to its rare conical shape making it resemble a cartoon volcano (apparently they don't usually look like that). It was used in the film the Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise as it was better looking than the one they were going to use in Japan. It was hard to take your eyes off it which is dangerous when driving. The surf was a great one and it was all the better for having a volcano staring at you every time you looked back to shore. Although for the Scarborough surfers reading this, never use a volcano as your line up!! It's just far too big.