We’ve now rebounded to North Island with a splash of sun and summer but with autumn leaves falling!! We finished our stay on South Island, travelling across H70 “The Inland Route” with spectacular mountains and wide valleys to reach Kaikoura. There we organised a “Whale Watching” trip for Helen and a Pennisular walk for me taking advantage of the fine weather. Helen saw Sperm Whales and Dusky Dolphins on her trip whilst I had to settle for Fur Seals and limestone cliffs (picture shows one of the coves). Moving on to Blenheim, we stayed at Whites Bay, a remote spot with a view to Port Underwood. It was a popular DOC site; the ranger told us they had 118 people there on the Saturday night whereas on the Sunday we shared with 20 others, so plenty of room. I took the opportunity to climb up to “Black Jack Whites” lookout (taking its name from a stranded sailor who lived with the local Maori) to see Port Underwood in the distance (photo). The following night we stayed on the north side of Port Underwood on another DOC site sharing with Kiwi “bus campers” but the connecting road was gravel so we went on the sealed road to Picton (from where the ferry departs) and drove around to the south.
Since arriving in Wellington we’ve had good weather in the high 20s, stopping on route along the west coast and then at a pub/campground which afterwards we found had been in the national news. We’ve been back to our old haunt near Cape Kidnappers, “Freedom camping” with the Kiwi buses, and then on to Lake Tutira amongst the crumpled hills north of Napier. This is a reserve (administered by DOC) set on the lakeshore with lots of walks into the hills and local farmland. We seem to have lost the “little black beasties” and so can enjoy the evenings outside!
Next we headed to Gisborne to see if it really exists as the local Radio “Gisborne” has a phone-in on national issues and some of the opinions we hear are very interesting!!. e.g. (censored by Helen!!). Interestingly the beasties reappeared but we have their measure now. Since then we’ve been meandering northwards returning to Lake Rotorua from Opotiki on the coast and currently camping beside Lake Rotoiti (with good internet access!!). We’ve lost the sun but it’s warm and humid so can’t complain.
You’ve got about two weeks to sort the Global Cooling issues in UK (we hear there is more snow predicted in England this weekend). From here we head north to the Coromandel Peninsular and then plan to spend a couple of days in Auckland before flying on the 3 rd March..ta ta for now.