We travelled up to the north west to Abel Tasman National Park. It was not a long drive from Kaikoura, but it took a full day as we traversed a few mountains and then went through the cities of Nelson and Richmond and the town of Stoke. Although there is a bypass road that misses all of them, we missed it on the way to the park but found it on the way back! Oh well, I got to practice my driving skills around a half dozen more traffic circles and practice is good.
We camped at the beach town of Kaiteriteri, a nice place with a 400 plus camp ground. It is very popular with the Kiwis, in fact it is full of folks that come there every year for their summer vacation. They set up almost permanent camps sites. Caravans (trailers) complete with canopies, that make into a tent thus giving them another full room, plus add on sunscreen and/or cooking areas. Loreen talked to one lady who has been coming there every year since she was a little girl and has just carried on through married life for some forty years.
We were off the next day on a sea kayak adventure. Now I have kayaked once before and this was Loreen's first time, so did we pick the half hour excursion around Kaiteriteri bay? No, instead we drove over the mountain, well I guess just the headlands on the ocean to Marahau (5 km that took 30 minutes) and set out on a 3.5 hour kayak trip along the bays and headlands of Abel Tasman park. We had a great guide that kept us informed of how all the little beaches got their names and how the lady that owned the land, that the park is now on, manipulated the government into making the area a park. It seems the NZ government, even though she was donating the land, had no desire to establish a park there. So, because Tasman the explorer from Holland was the first European to find NZ, she simply asked the Royal Dutch family to come over and open the park, which they accepted. When the NZ government was informed that the royal family was coming to open a park they found it a priority to make the area into a park
There was a couple from Oz, a couple from Minnesota and a young fellow from Germany on the trip with us. The area is beautiful with high ocean cliffs interspersed with numerous open sand beaches. The sea was calm, the company good and scenery stunning. We did not see any marine life other than a multitude of birds. The guide showed us one sea bird that nests in the trees. Now landing in a tree nest with large webbed feet is not that easy, consequently these birds do a lot of rebuilding through out the nesting periods. They also have a unique way of moving the young out, the Mom just decides one day that it is time for the young to leave and simply pushes them out of the nest. They either fly or fall into the ocean and swim.
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| Onshore training |
After about two hours of paddling around the headlands, I found I had developed a blister on my hand not that I admitted it to Loreen as she was not complaining, at the end of the trip the blister was gone, broke and drained, but sore. After a nice lunch on the beach, I found out Loreen's hands were not any tougher than mine were.
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| Loreen and Abel Tasman scenery |
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| On the Abel Tasman Tramping Trail |
Then off to the Marlbourgh Valley, which is the big NZ Sauvignon Blanc wine producing area. NZ is the largest producer of Sauvignon Blanc in the world, but the total NZ wine production is only 1% of the world production. I am guessing based on the comparative sizes of areas, the Okanagan would be less than half of one percent. The NZ motto is to produce quality not quantity as they can not compete with the large world wine producing areas, i.e. France, Italy, Chile, Argentina, Australia, South Africa and California.
We thought we would have to stay in Blenheim, about 15kms away from the majority of the wine tasting facilities we wanted to go to. This was bothersome as we really wanted to just park the van and bicycle from winery to winery, but the little town of Renwick, where the wineries are, did not have a campground. However, eagle eye Dan spied a little sign on a backpacker's hostel that said they had two spots for camper vans. In we went and sure enough they had a vacant spot. By the end of the evening they actually had four camper vans scattered around the property, two of us on power the other two not. When in campgrounds we always wash the dishes and shower in the campground facilities, which in most cases are separate sex. Not here, two shower rooms and both where unisex, they did have locking shower stalls! Even though I knew it could happen, I was still a bit shocked while shaving, to have a thirty something gal step out of the shower partially clothed and start to put her makeup on at the sink directly beside me. Why I had no choice but to grin and bear it!
The hostel also rented bikes, at half the price of elsewhere and they were good bikes, so off we go on a bicycle day trip to some wineries and for lunch. It was a tremendous day, we visited lots of nice places and learned a lot. The Kiwis are an exceptionally nice group of people, friendly and informative and most like Canadians. They all have been, have a friend that has been or want to visit Canada. Toronto, Vancouver, Whistler and the Rocky Mtn parks are the preferred locations.
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| Marlborough Valley |
The valley itself is quite large and nestled between two ranges of mountains, forested on one side with lots of logging and grasses on the other with lots of cattle and sheep. In all very picturesque. So again we probably took on more day than we should have as we have not been riding that much on this trip, but we managed to do 25kms with stops. The last few kilometers was uphill and then into a brisk head wind. I had forgotten how a wind can effect you on a bike as I was down in the same gears as climbing hills. Anyway with my knees played out and the hostel in site, I looked back over my shoulder to see if the road was clear to cross, nope there was a car right behind me so I steered back out of his way and hit the six inch curb, first the front wheel, then the pedal on that side, then my knee on that side, then full length down the side walk. All in all, very graceful and entertaining for any that cared to enjoy the show. The young fellow walking down the sidewalk was quite concerned, especially when it seemed like it took five minutes for me to get up, I was fine and did not admit that my knees where so stiff I had to just take my time getting up! No serious damage, I left a patch of skin about 2 inches by 3 inches ground into the side walk, but the bike and the wine in the panniers that we had purchased were fine, and that was what counted. We had stopped at an orchard and picked a few kilo's of nectarines and they were a bit worse for wear. So those are the blisters and scrapes to date.
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| Before the wreck! |
We are next off to Picton, to take a boat cruise and hike for a day on the Queen Charlotte trail and then the ferry to the north island.
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