Before I start I wanted to remember to write that we’ve discovered that Rebecca knows her own name and has done for a while now; we just didn’t realise. Putt Putt is how she says it so we can be forgiven I think for not realising this, but it is 100% how she says Rebecca!

Anyway, getting up at the crack of dawn this more made it all too clear that we made a good decision last night in getting to Picton. Away for the 8am sailing and after an un-eventful sailing, except Rebecca redecorating the table, we arrived 3.5 hours later at Wellington. It’s not really that far but by Christ the boat minces along like you’d not believe.

Quick stop at the Natural History Museum in Wellington to see the only Colossus Squid in the world (which I suppose was quite large, but expected bigger) and we left heading north for Napier. 200 miles, and the only thing of interest was the biggest, seriously huge Chinese takeaway you’ve ever seen. One rice, one chow mien and with two platefuls we’ve only eaten about 25%. Best value in NZ we’ve seen so far. Good campsite in Napier, now going to have a beer and chill for a bit; lots of wine tasting to do tomorrow!
Tony

Up and out around 10:30 today, leaving behind us the madness from the SeaFest and driving north for a couple of hours to Renwick. The drive is really nice along the cost road and on the way we found a seal by the shore to photograph and then picked up a lobster size crayfish to have for lunch. Li then spent the next 40 miles getting it out of the shell and although nice is a lot of effort

Renwick is in the middle of the Marlborough wine region, so as expected this is a good time to do some more tasting! Four vineyards this time and we picked up a few more bottles, all good although we do think that there is a lot of similar wines here, nothing really stands out as different from the others

Leaving the wine region we travel north again to the coast and the town of Havelock which, they claim, is the Green lipped mussel capital of the world. With this in mind we stop off at the port and grab some mussels. They are seriously big and so much better than you can get in the UK

Leaving Havelock we travel to Picton and bed down for the night as we’ve got an early start for the ferry

Tony got up early and headed down to the ticket office and managed to get another ticket for the SeaFest which was great as he didn’t have to wait long. We tucked in to a bacon and sausage sandwich for breakfast; the sausage looked like its been cut by a drunk, it was a thick lump one end and a thin slice at the other.

The SeaFest turned out to be basically an enormous wine/beer fuelled fancy dress party with lots of seafood and all day live bands. Costumes ranged from guys in blow up Emus, the Flintstones, superheroes to girls in condom foil wraps.

We started off with scallop skewer, seafood chowder, scallop pie, potato rosti, whitebait pattie (which tasted like some omelette thing). Obviously lots of beer was drunk as well. Rebecca loved all the live music and spent a good couple of hours “dancing” to it. Everything started to get a bit mad though later on when the rain and hail came down as everyone dived for cover in the main marque where the band were playing

Enough of that, fish and chips on the way home around 4pm and then the evening watching some films and drinking some wine. Glad we’re not outside camping, sounds nasty out there!
Tony & Li

Decided to stop off in the thermal springs this morning in Hamner Springs before setting off to Kaikoura. It was lovely to relax in the the thermal outdoor pools and Rebecca had a smashing time. However, it was a little nippy getting from one pool to another. Tony was a big kid and checked out the big water slide….not sure who is the child here!

Finally made a move on to Kaikoura (east coast) and it was touch and go on the camp site as it was booked up for the Local Seafest. We managed to get the last spot in one site near the town.

We decided not to do the Whale watching, they wanted £150 for both of us and Rebecca wasn’t allowed to come with us. Decision was easy as she wasn’t allowed and the cost too.

We also only managed to get one ticket for the Seafest tomorrow. We didn’t anticipate how big of an event it was. it was sold out and by luck a guy in the queue had a spare ticket. So Tony is going to have to hunt for a spare ticket early tomorrow morning. Fingers cross we get another ticket.

We have a whole day of wine tasting to do in line with our itinerary, and who am I to argue. Dad has a saying “plan the dive, dive the plan”. In this case I have a new saying “plan to drink, drink”

As we made up driving time yesterday we only had an hour this morning so that was good news. Heading straight to Waipara which turns out to be more of an area rather than a town. A short lunch of “battered steak!” and a couple of tips on the best place to stay and we’re off to the vineyards with Li in her element

Disappointing start with the first two shut but then things get better with 3 open tasting sessions. Around 25 tastings later, 6 bottles off wine on board and we’re back on the road to Hanmer Springs. A diversion from our plan but we’ve got the time and its meant to be good

Arriving at Hanmer Springs it turns out its a thermal spa town. So that’s now on the plan for tomorrow I’m told! 😉

Evening meal out tonight in Saints bar. Pizza and a hot stone meal with lamb. Good food but rubbish service so ended up getting billed reduced. It’s our anniversary today, Li got a heart pendant and earrings, I got a nice email from the currency exchange company agreeing they had ripped me off and would refund £125 to my bank! Happy days!

Tony

Up late today as we sat up watching downloaded tv last night and drinking whisky. Main aim for today is to get from one side on New Zealand to (or at least some of the way) the other. The road of choice in this case is Arthurs Pass which goes over the mountains in the centre of NZ.

The drive is not far but with all the bends and steep gradients it takes a while to get to the top but we had some worthwhile views on the way. In the village of Arthurs Pass itself are a number of walks but the key one is to a waterfall called Devils Punchbowl. 30 minutes climb up a few hundred steps and you’re at the base of the waterfall. Really worth seeing despite the rain that was starting to get a bit heavy

Originally the plan was to stay the night in Arthurs Pass, but given our new electric hookup requirement we decided to press on to stay in a town called springfield. No Homer, but a one legged bloke who lives in a caravan on the site that quite obviously hasn’t moved or cleaned it in 25 years….and he’s the caretaker! Still, our nightly costs have dropped each night, from around $50 to a bargain $15 tonight, so who cares

Tomorrow, wine tasting… Tony

Bit of a relaxing start to the day with a nice bacon sandwich and then on our way. With the additional mileage clocked up yesterday we managed to still make good time and arrived at Fox Glacier. The view of the valley was spectacular and there was a strange looking bird called a Kea when we pulled up, which looks basically like an oversize parrot on steroids. Certainly wouldn’t like it’s beak coming anywhere near us.

Back in 1935, which doesn’t seem that long ago in the big scheme of things, the glacier was a way down the road, at least a few hundred yards, but now has retreated. Lunch in the van and then an hours walk down to the glacier front. You aren’t able to get that close as its too dangerous but still amazing and the size of the overall place with the cliffs on either side just can’t be put into words. It’s just bloody big and a river flows out of the base of the glacier front.

Ideally we were looking to do a flight over the glacier as well but the weather turned on us and it just wasn’t going to happen so we took the opportunity to get ahead of the game for tomorrows big drive. Ended up in a little old gold mining town on a very basic site at the side of a pub. Electric hookup available and we’ve now decided this is pretty essential due to the cold weather so that’s good enough for us. Writing this now in the pub about to have a big old steak and chips with a beer in hand. Hopefully after the additional drive today, tomorrow will be a lot better than originally planned

Tony

How good was that steak! The steak over here is amazing, obviously the reason we don’t get any in the UK. There’s more cattle over here than sheep as far as we’ve seen so far so it can only be they eat it all.

A world record was achieved this morning in getting out before 10am! The aim today is driving, wine tasting and seeing some waterfalls. First stop around 10:45 is our first wine tasting place; 6 tastings, one bottle purchased and we’re off again. A few more stops for photos and we arrived in Wanaka around lunch time just in time for some more wine tasting! Had a great lunch, Seafood Chouder and then off to see some waterfalls.

First stop was the blue pools; which were’t blue as its rained quite a bit recently, and more river, than pool; still a nice half hour walk over a couple of suspension bridges and I got to try out the new rucksack sling thing for Rebecca which worked really well. More driving and some very good waterfalls including Gate of Haast and Thunder Creek Falls, lots of photos and eventually we’re in Haast for the night

Not a very interesting day today, spent a while returning to Queenstown as we stopped quite a bit on the way for petrol, honey, coffee…etc. once back in Queenstown though we headed straight to the same campsite as before and then once settled in headed into the town itself. A bit of shopping in all the outdoor shops was swiftly followed by some beer and a good meal with one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. Rebecca proved that evening that still is only 18 months and can be a real pain! Up early in the morning for a packed day
Tony

Up early this morning for the 2 hour drive from our camp to Milford Sounds. Strange situation where you have a road 120km long that ends up in a Fiord and that’s about it! Anyway needed to be away at a good time to beat the coaches, which we did nicely .

Milford Sounds itself is basically a big lake that ends up in the sea created by a glacier. The sides of the cliff either side are stupidly high and you really get no senses of how big until a little waterfall is over 500ft high. Some of the cliffs are over a mile high! You see all this from a boat that wanders along the sound to the sea and back; along the way seals can be seen as well which is nice

Returned after a cuppa back the same 2 hours and grabbed some good and beer in the supermarket. Li cooked dinner; huge mussels! And finally spent an hour playing with toilet waste as it decided to pour all over the shower; lovely
Tony