Our journey to the South Island started on a very wet and
blustery day in Wellington
while we waited for the ferry. It was delayed by nearly 2 hours due to bad
weather and we were all set for a very bad crossing, especially when we finally
got on the boat, I overheard the crew telling the kitchen staff to “stop
cooking and batten down the hatches as we were in for a rough ride once we
clear the harbour” Oh goody! As it turned out, the sea was a bit choppy but to
be honest, we’ve had worse crossings from Dover
to Calais . The
120kph winds kicked in later that evening when it felt like our van was going
to blow away. The storm finally blew itself out during the night and the next
day was glorious sunshine, so we took the coast road from Picton to Nelson and
saw some fantastic sites along the way:
Picton from Queen Charlotte lookout
Ferry coming into Picton across Queen Charlotte
Sound
The town of Havelock ,
Green lipped mussel capital of the world. It was a bit early in the day to try
them out, so we’ll have them another day.
Nelson is one of New Zealand ’s oldest cities and
became the second town to be granted city status (even though it only had a
population of 5,000 at the time) due to a royal decree allowing the town to
establish a cathedral. It also has the country’s highest number of sunshine
hours which we were lucky enough to experience during our stay. We spent most
days walking around, including a walk up Botanical Hill to the Centre of New
Zealand and the stunning views of Nelson below
From Nelson, we headed for the west coast along highway 6,
and the town of Westport .
A short drive out of town is Cape Foulwind (named by Captain Cook after
battling with bad weather in March 1770) which is home to the country’s most
northern breeding colony of fur seals. A walk along the exposed headland to Tauranga Bay
We continued along down the coast towards Greymouth,
stopping at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks – amazing natural sculptures looking like
stacks of giant pancakes.
We were also in luck as the blowholes were performing well
as there was a strong sea swell. And yes, we got caught in the storm and got
soaked!
We stopped off at Runanga and had a lovely walk through the
podocarp forests of the Coal
Creek Valley
Our next stop was Hokitika, one of the few places where
Greenstone/Jade (or Pounamu) is found. The stone has a treasured and spiritual
significance and has been used (and still is) to denote status and authority,
for adornment and for making peace. Pounamu isn’t mined but can be found near
rivers and on beaches between Greymouth and Hokitika. I did a bit of
beachcombing and found some nice pebbles, but sadly, no pounamu. We visited one
of the workshops and watched how the stone is carved into the beautiful pieces
On our way south we stopped briefly in Pukekura (population
2) to try the ‘world famous ‘Possum Pies’. Not bad - they tasted a bit like
lamb. The shop isn't allowed to sell you the pies as the meat needs to be
sourced from a government approved source, and as there isn't one, they ask for
a donation of $4 instead.
We continued to Franz Josef as no visit to this coast is
complete without a walk to the glacier. We decided not to do a guided tour as
that’s the only way you are allowed to walk on the ice, given its constant
moving nature. We had a nice walk from the town and saw a few waterfalls as
well as the glacier itself:
Franz Josef is the wettest town in the country and in 1982
lost both its airstrip and bridge when 1.83m of rain was recorded in 72 hours –
more rain fell but the gauge overflowed so it was never recorded! The current
forecast was for bad weather, so the next day we had a long drive straight to
Queenstown. It poured all day and the thunder and lightening was non-stop. We
heard later that there had been 40,000 lightening strikes in the area that day
(keeping the fire brigade busy) and many of the waterfalls we saw cascading
down onto the road had eventually closed the Haast Pass, so it was a good call
to get down here as quickly as possible. The caravan park turned into a lake,
but the sun is out today and its drying out the grass. The good thing is that
all this rain fell as snow on the higher ground and Mark has gone up the
mountain today to play on the pistes J
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