The Bach heads south

Considering The Bach is an ex-rental, we are certain it has ventured onto the "Mainland", aka the South Island, before. However, this was its first trip with us. Well, with Annalie anyway. She had to leave Ian and Maddy at home due to work reasons.

Annalie was heading to Blenheim in Marlborough to participate in her third half marathon in as many months. This one, however, was called the Vineyard Half, and if you're aware of what Marlborough is famous for, you'll understand why!

Annalie travelled over on the ferry on the Friday morning to get settled ahead of the saturday morning race. She managed to wander from her campsite to the start line as a loosener on the Friday afternoon, but mostly to check she didn't need to take The Bach with her and avoid the traffig/parking queues that were bound to happen. A pretty splendid afternoon in general.

 

 

Here's all the "medals" waiting for everybody who completes the HM

 

Big trees and big wins

Heading North from Dargaville, we encountered the "Kauri Coast". The kauri tree is a significant indigineous tree for northern NZ, with many being thousands of years old and thought to be amongst the most ancient in the world. It is a hard wood that has been used by Maori in carving and boat building.

One of the protected kauri forests, Waipoua Forest, houses the largest living tree in NZ, Tane Mahuta, or "Lord of the Forest". Standing 51.2m high and with a trunk girth of 13.77m, he is an impressive tree, and even our attempts to get perspective with Annalie in shot doesn't do it justice.

Our route then took us into the Hokianga Harbour region. Here we had a choice. Cross the harbour on the little car ferry, or save some cash (which would be spent on petrol) and drive around. We opted for the shorter, and more novel, floating route!

A quick stop off in Oponini to buy Lotto tickets resulted in a $680 win (woo hoo!), our biggest ever. It was 5 numbers, so it seems like a small amount, but still, much better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick! On the other side of the picturesque harbour, you can see some giant sand dunes that are used for sand boarding.

South Island Road Trip

As our friends Annie and Dave were visiting, Annalie decided to take a well-deserved break between jobs to go on a tiki tour with them. After spending a day showing them around Wellington wearing its best glad rags, we set off on the Interislander ferry for some South Island magic.

First stop on the way down was our favourite stopping point, The Store. This little restaurant was recommended to us on our first ever visit 2.5 years ago, and it still is a great stopping point. But Annie and Dave demanded wildlife, and as the East Coast of the South Island is well known for it, we duly found some at Ohau Springs.

This is a spot famous for baby seals as they shelter from the Pacific swell upstream, while mum fishes out in the ocean, regularly visiting the stream to nurse her young. There were probably around 50 young seal cubs hidden around the 10 minute walk, which finished in a majestic waterfall.

We then trooped on to Kaikoura stopping to view yet more seals, of the fully grown variety! This dude was hanging out solo on a rock and happily posing for photos.

The next day, Annie and Dave did what all respecting visitors to Kaikoura do, and went on a whale watch cruise. They weren't disappointed, with six sightings plus a pod of hundreds of dolphins to accompany the journey.

We managed to grab some lunch and, seeing as Kaikoura literally means "eat crayfish" it would have been rude not to sample some. We found a great value place that was recommended by Lonely Planet. It was literally a shack by the roadside but it meant for a lovely view and great value seafood.

The afternoon was then spent cruising around the Kaikoura hills on quad bikes. Seeing the East Coast from a very different perspective!

From there we headed to Nelson as an overnight stop on our way to Golden Bay. On the way through, we decided to stop for some dinner in Havelock, the mussel capital of NZ, where we had to sample some of the local fare. This trip was quickly developing into a seafood tour of the country!

As Annie and Dave are from Stoke, we thought it would be a great idea for a lunchtime visit to the Stoke brewery for some beer sampling! Thankfully (for Annie and Annalie!), Dave wasn't feeling great, so Annalie duly handed over the car keys and took one for the team in the tasting department!

Onwards we went, over the windy Takaka Hill, with a planned stop at Anatoki Salmon. Here you can fish for Salmon for free, under the proviso that you eat what you catch - no releasing here. So you have to be carefully co-ordinated or you could end up with a haul but an empty wallet!

Dave and I managed to catch three between us and we got Anatoki to fillet them and smoke them for us. We chose plain, asian spiced and lemon pepper, which were delicious. What was that about a seafood tour again?!

The following day we went out to Farewell Spit, which is the largest sand dune in the world! It's at the very Northern tip of the South Island. It made for some stunning photos of lots of sand!

Our wonderful - if eccentric - B&B owners had advised us to travel a little further around the peninsula to reach Wharariki Beach. They showed us the best route to take and also advised us of low tide, as this is the only time the beach is accessible.

We took a little longer than planned to get there, thanks to a missing sign, but we finally reached the beach to be welcomed by the magnificent sight of Catherdral Rocks. We'd been warned it was a landmark, but weren't quite prepared for just how stunning!

The next day we headed back to the Abel Tasman National Park. Ian and Annalie had visited in not such great weather in October. However this time was a treat. We grabbed a voucher from Grab One to get a half-price cruise along the coastline and the weather played ball!

Then it was back to Nelson to meet up with friends of Annalie's sister again (who we met in November) for dinner, drinks and a catch up. Then it was a day of brunching at Lambrettas - our favourite cafe from our last visit to Nelson - and cruising back to Blenheim for some wine tasting. Well. It would be rude not to ;-)

So if none of this makes you want to come to NZ, I'm not sure what would! Apart from the earthquake in Welly that we missed by about 10 minutes as we were still on the ferry!

Hello Sydney! Nice to meet you

Well it's taken us nearly 18 months, but we've finally "hopped the ditch" to visit our pals on the other side of the Tasman Sea.

We've come to Sydney as we know a number of people here so free accommodation is easy to find!

And just getting to our accommodation involved a 30 minute ferry ride which have us a preview of some of the sights we can look forward to.