Author: Andy

Woke at 4:00, 4:15, 4:40… and finally 6:10 – tent life is not for us.

I walked down to the lake – it was still dark, just a little light from the moon. The wind had picked up so there were some small waves on the lake.

After breakfast, we drove down the far side of the lake towards Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in Australasia. Edmund Hilary and his team climbed Mount Cook in 1948 as part of their preparation for their attempt on Everest. Mount Cook village is the starting point for a number of mountain walks – a two-day trek goes over a pass and down to the west coast. We were doing a shorter walk up the Hooker Valley to a glacial lake. The path has a gentle incline up the valley but we were walking into a strong gusty wind, which slowed us down. There are three suspension bridges on the route, these bounce as people walk across them and swing in the wind too so it’s quite a struggle to get over them. On the left hand side of the valley, snowy peaks tower over us, precarious glaciers cling onto the sides. At the end of the walk, there’s a large glacial lake, which is a milky grey colour. We were on a tight time-table as usual so we only had 10 minutes to admire the view then we had to return. The sky was clearing so the peaks above us were now in the sun.

We had a quick coffee and toilet stop in XXX, a one-street town with a couple of shops then drove on to Oamara. We had 55 minutes to explore the town – not enough. The main street isn’t very interesting but there’s a Victorian area around the waterfront where the old buildings have been renovated and are now shops, cafés and museums. There’s a radio station broadcasting from the middle of a shop that sells old radios, a nightclub called The Penguin Club and a Steampunk museum. Another few hours to explore properly would have been good. There was a café recommended by Lonely Planet but they were closed by 15:30 despite the sign on the door saying 16:00.

We arrived at our camp in the small fishing village of Moeraki about 16:30. We dropped our bags, grabbed some bikes and headed for the wildlife sanctuary on the end of a nearby headland. The sanctuary is home to fur seals, rabbits, numerous seabirds and best of all – yellow-eyed penguins. These penguins are one of the rarest, there are thought to be only about 4000 of them currently. They are also number eight in my quest to see all seventeen penguin species.

The 4km ride was down a bumpy, hilly, unmade road – it wouldn’t have been quicker to walk but there wasn’t much in it. Once we arrived at the sanctuary, the first wildlife was a number of rabbits munching in the late sunshine. On top of grassy point, there was one penguin preening its feathers, another waddling out of the sea soon joined it. These are quite large penguins – nowhere near king or emperor size but bigger than most. Further round the headland, two more sat in the sun almost motionless. The penguins spend the day at sea feeding and return to land at night when they’re full.

On the other side of the point a number of young fur seals played in a rock pool. The view of the beaches down the coast as the sun got lower was lovely – could we cycle that far? No.

Our chalet had a large window looking out across the Moeraki harbour and right round the bay. We ate our dinner quickly and sat with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc – it was a warm day – watching the sky darken.

Another later start today so time for coffee in bed and a leisurely wake up. The sky was a leaden grey, a couple of early risers swore it was clear at 6:00. We left Hanmer Springs at 10:00 and almost immediately hit the rain. The hills were a washed out ochre colour, very few trees, but the river was still deep blue.

More crazy kiwi humour by the roadside – a sign advertising Unicorn poo for sale.

We were headed to Christchurch; the city was hit by a terrible earthquake in February 2011 and is still recovering. Many buildings are unsafe and awaiting demolition. Large areas of the city centre are open ground. But there is a lot of regeneration going on. The Gap Project has created a number of art, retail and event installations across the city – filling in gaps where buildings used to be. Many buildings have been or are still due to be demolished. The Re:START mall is a buzzing shopping and eating complex created from shipping containers.

For a Saturday morning, the city is quiet; we were told this is because a lot of businesses relocated to the outskirts after the earthquake when the city centre was closed off and people have got out of the habit of coming into the centre.

We started our exploration at the Christchurch Art Gallery. The helpful staff pointed us to some highlights we could see in thirty minutes. The collection has works from the 1860s through to the middle of the last century. There were paintings featuring the surrounding area where we’d driven in the morning and some more modern abstract landscape works. One room had an exhibition themed around hair – Bad Hair Day – a diverse collection of paintings, sketches and sculptures. The last work I saw was a large room painted varying shades of ochre; the shades were very precisely calculated so that each panel had half the intensity of the previous one.

After the gallery, we walked to Cathedral Square, stopping to look at a large mural of penguins and to buy flat whites on the way. The Cathedral is a stone building constructed between 1864 and 1904. It is currently fenced off awaiting repairs, rebuild, demolition or replacement.

The new Transitional Cathedral – known as the Cardboard Cathedral because of the 98 cardboard tubes used in its construction is a few blocks away. It was designed by a Japanese ‘disaster architect’ who did the work for free. The spacious interior has a false perspective effect created by tapering the building to make it look longer. Behind the cathedral is the ‘185 Empty Chairs’ memorial to those who lost their lives in the earthquake – it consists of 185 white chairs, all different to represent the diversity of people who died, the 185 were of 20 different nationalities. 115 of those who died were foreign language students, most of them had only arrived a few days before for the beginning of the new term. The memorial is simple but represents 185 people very clearly. We knew of the earthquake from the news at the time but neither of us had realised how much of the city had been damaged and how much still remains to be repaired. New Zealand lies on the fault lines between two tectonic plates so earthquakes are a fact of life – we didn’t even notice but there was a small tremor last night while we were in a bar in Hanmer Springs.

We left Christchurch at 14:30 having said goodbye to Matt, the last person who was on the bus when we joined, and said hello to four new people.

On the journey to our campsite we went along Hinds Arundel road, the longest section of straight road in New Zealand, 21km without a bend.

We were on cooking duty tonight, a lot of chopping of vegetables and grating of cheese to go into our roasted vegetables and frittata. We had a pinot noir to help it all along.

We missed breakfast again for some extra sleep. We were heading to Wellington where we’d have plenty of choices for breakfast.

Our campsite was only 30km north of the city but we joined the morning rush hour – rush hour by Wellington not UK standards – so it took us about an hour. We stored our bags for the day and started our third rapid look round Wellington.

Unusually ‘Windy Welly’ was warm, sunny and windless. First stop was 86 for a delectable flat white.

We then got a taxi to a mystery destination that Florence had found on the internet. Five minutes away from the central business area, we’re already in leafy suburbs with old wooden houses and lots of trees. The taxi dropped us next to a cemetery. Florence went into the office to find out where our target was – she came out with an A4 map with a long wiggling pink line across it – it’s a very large cemetery.

While she was in the office, I found an information board abut the wreck of the SS Penguin – New Zealand’s worst sea disaster. Most of the victims are buried here – could this be the surprise? No. We followed the path through many different sections: Chinese, Greek, Jewish, Military. Finally we were there. An unremarkable grave with a bronze cat on it, was this it? Yes but there is more. The plaque next to the grave explains that Harry McNish was the carpenter on Shackleton’s failed expedition to the South Pole. He was one of the five men who rowed with Shackleton from Elephant Island to South Georgia to get help for the remaining men. We’d seen the place where they finally reached help at the whaling station in Stromness, South Georgia last time we visited. He was known as Mr Chippy because of his wood-working skills. He also adopted the Endeavour’s cat who got the name Mrs Chippy – the name remained even after it turned out ‘she’ was a ‘he’. Sadly the decision was made that everything non-essential had to be left with the wrecked Endeavour to maximise the men’s chances of survival. Mrs Chippy was included in this and was reluctantly shot.

It’s a beautiful cemetery spreading up and down the sides of a wooded valley.

We walked back through the cemetery to the main entrance via the War Veterans section, mainly graves of former WW1 servicemen and a number of memorials to those who died but whose remains were never found.

A taxi took us to Fidel’s Cafe in Cuba Street for brunch. Very good food, smoothie and more flat white. We hadn’t seen this end of Cuba Street before. It seems a bit more bohemian than the more commercial northern end. We stocked up on warm clothes at the Icebreaker store, the weather is turning cooler and we’re heading south. The pedestrian crossings on Cuba Street have the outline of a drag queen from the 1970s for their green light figure.

Te Papa, the national museum is one of the best anywhere. We’d already spent a couple of hours there on a previous visit but there’s still a lot more to see. They currently have an exhibition detailing the Gallipoli campaign from WW1 where so many ANZAC soldiers lost their lives in an ultimately failed attempt to gain control of the Dardennelles from the Ottoman Republic. The exhibition features larger than life figures created by the studio who did a lot of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings special effects. These figures are based on real people and the story is told from their perspective. A few facts stood out – in the first part of the campaign they lost a man for every foot of ground gained, eventually it was all lost. There was a ceasefire in the middle of the campaign so that both sides could bury their dead; some of the bodies had been lying in the sun for weeks. During the ceasefire both sides swapped cigarettes and chatted – then a whistle was blown and the slaughter recommenced. The exhibition was harrowing at times. We both came out feeling emotionally drained, but it also explains very well the horror and futility of this episode which still looms large in the memory of both New Zealand and Australia.

There was still a lot of the museum to see so we picked out a few more things we could fit in: the history of the original settlers from the Pacific Islands; an earthquake simulator, the story of immigration to New Zealand and a recreation of the ‘Golden Age’ of New Zealand with many old toys and artefacts.

A combination of better weather and seeing some more interesting and unusual aspects of the city has made us like Wellington a lot more after this visit.

We had an hour to spare so we walked back along the waterfront and had a quick beer in the sun. We collected our bags and took the shuttle bus to the ferry terminal for the 17:00 sailing back to the South Island. Unlike our previous trip the sun was blazing and the sea was flat calm. As we sailed into the Marlborough Sound, the sun dropped below the hilltops, leaving just the highest points in the light.

 

Usual stuff this morning. Two pieces of toast with peanut butter for breakfast. Nice late start, we had a date with a Geyser at 10:15 so no point in rushing.

As we left the camp and joined the main road, there was a sign saying ‘Geothermal Highway’. On the way to the Geyser we stopped at some boiling mud pools. The stench of sulphur was once again everywhere but the mud is amazing to watch. The pool is about 20m round. There are patches of steam and little eruptions of mud all over it. Unfortunately timings were tight today so we only had 20 minutes.

Next stop was the Lady Knox Geyser, named after the daughter of the governor when it was discovered. The geyser has seating for about 200 in a semi-circle around it. A cheesy Kiwi gives us a brief introduction and then drops in a bag of chemicals which breaks the surface tension and starts the eruption. Left to its own devices it would blow every 12-72 hours anyway but they like to make it regular for the tourists. It’s an impressive sight – it starts with steam, then some water and then a jet of steam 10m into the air. Most of the crowd disappear after a few minutes but it carries on for at least 20 minutes.

Almost everybody at the Geyser hits the highway to the Geothermal Wonderland a few miles down the road. It might sound a bit corny and touristy but it more than lives up to its name. A guided path takes you past a number of bubbling pools and steaming craters – the devil’s ink pots, thunder crater – each more impressive than the last until we reached the centrepiece – the Champagne Pool. This is a huge pool of boiling blue water with patches of rich green and orange round the edges. The steam rose against the sun into a bright blue sky. Despite the warning signs two tourists climbed over the fence for a selfie closer to the water, the guides quickly told them it was very stupid and to get back immediately.

To enable three of the group to meet their white-water rafting guides on time, we only had an hour to see the site, we could easily have passed a whole day there – definitely one for the ’next time’ list. On the way out, I just had time for a photo of the ‘Devil’s Bath’ – a large pool of unbelievably bright yellow-green steaming water.

Leaving the geothermal wonders behind, we headed for Taupo. We were dropped at the Huka Falls a few miles out of of town to see the cascades and walk the last few miles along the Waikato River. The falls are a section of rapids where the river is forced through a narrow canyon creating a fast and furious torrent of deep blue water. The path roughly follows the east bank of the river, in some places down at water level and in some climbing to viewpoints looking out over the valley. Away from the rapids, the river is wide and flows at a sedate pace, the water is still a rich shade of blue. The last part of the walk is on the road into the town centre; we spotted a cafe recommended by Lonely Planet, strangely located in the middle of a small industrial estate. They serve some very nice local beers, cold from the fridge.

We walked the last mile into town and visited the Taupo museum. The museum is a mixed bag, the first room is Maori-themed, the centre-piece is an old wooded canoe which was discovered half rotted away but has been well preserved, it’s about 12m long. The central section is about the timber industry in the area, featuring a model of a forest railway, each miniature figure has a label giving his name and explaining his job. The last section is an art gallery, the current exhibition is by a local artists calling himself Michael Angelo. The work is a combination of wood-carving and painting.

Lake Taupo is a huge volcanic crater lake. The last eruption was in about 3500BC. Records from Rome and China record months of dark skies and strange weather allowing the date to be pin-pointed. The lake is the same size as Singapore, where (incidentally) we’ll be in a month.

The campsite is about 45 minutes drive around the lake, on the edge of a small town called Turangi – ‘the trout capital of the world’.

We’d been warned to expect a ‘rustic’ camping experience but our cabin is palatial – lounge, four bedrooms and bathroom. It also comes with a cat who thinks he lives here; as soon as unlocked the door he walked in like he owned it. After a chat and a cuddle we tried to get rid of him but he wanted to stay – he had to be man-handled out of the door.

We arrived at dinner with our pinot noir and wine glasses – this is how to camp.

I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again.

Today we said goodbye to 10 of our group, over half of us – all of them had been with us since the day we joined so it’s going to make things feel very different.

We left our campsite at 8:30, traffic into Auckland was light at this time on a Sunday so we arrived in the town centre by 9:00. As we crossed the harbour bridge, the tall buildings in the centre were just shadows in the mist and rain. While bags were unloaded and goodbyes started we went back to The Shaky Isles to grab some flat whites, it’s quieter on a Sunday morning but still a steady flow of customers. We said our goodbyes and had a look in the shops along the waterfront, they were all open early because there were too very large liners docked opposite. I bought a couple of t-shirts. At the next till, a Russian couple seemed to be buying the whole shop.

We left at 10:00 with 10 new passengers. Our first stop was a petrol station on the edge of the city for fuel and toilets. We then headed towards the Coromandel Peninsula.

The peninsula has some of New Zealand’s best beaches, big hills and deep valleys. We stopped for lunch in Tairua. We headed for Flock and had a roasted vegetable and haloumi plate with a local beer for Florence and another flat white for me, all very nice. It was a short drive over a mountain pass from Tairua to our campsite at Hot Water Beach.

Hot Water Beach is pretty self-explanatory; there are two hot-springs in the cliffs behind the beach. When the tide is low, you can dig a hole in the sand and sit in a pool of warm to hot water, or bury yourself in the sand. Close by some quite wild waves crash onto the beach. This is NZ’s fourth most dangerous beach measured by drownings. Even going in up to waist height, the currents are enough to pull me over. The water isn’t nearly as cold as it looks and it’s a refreshing way to clean off the sand after the hot pool experience.

Everything was a bit rushed today so we had 15 minutes to clean up and change then head out again for a walk to Cathedral Cove. The walk takes you over some fairly high cliffs with views up and down the coast and over the many islands offshore. The cove itself is named after the huge cave that goes through the headland dividing the beach in half. The tide was coming in so we couldn’t explore the far side of the beach but the cave itself was very impressive. Because of the recent rain there’s a waterfall down the cliff at one end of the beach too. We started the walk in a shower but by the time we reached the beach, the sun was starting to come out – it had been promised by 4pm so this wasn’t too bad.

Back at the campsite we bought a couple of Coromandel Brewery beers to have with dinner – both very tasty. One person in the group had beer from the Hot Water Beach brewery so this was even more local.

As we had dinner a full moon rose through the trees – we’ve seen more blue sky in the last hour than we had since we last left Auckland on Thursday, it doesn’t sound long but its felt like a lot longer!

And so the weather continues.

Today we should have been exploring the beautiful Bay of Isles with over 100 islands surrounded by clear blue sea. But all boat trips are cancelled because of the wind and the visibility is about 10 feet so not much point anyway.

Holly our leader is not one to let a bit of rain stop her so she devised an alternative itinerary for the day for us – the Holly and Simon Tiki Tour. Most of the group were on the bus for 10:00 for a trip to the nearby hot springs. These are fairly basic, run by Maori who own the land. For your $4 entrance fee you get a choice of about 15 pools, each about 2m square, ranging from warm to very hot; the smell of bad eggs is thrown in for nothing and hangs over everything. The water is dark grey; you can’t see your hand when it’s just below the surface. The rain continued while we sat in the pools making interesting splashes on the surface.

We returned to the camp for a quick shower before our next adventure – a visit to the town of Kerikeri. The main site is the oldest building in New Zealand, built in 1836, but it’s out of town and the rain had now become torrential so we gave it a miss and went to the Village Cafe instead. Florence had poached eggs on toast; I had a pumpkin salad – with a flat white. Lonely Planet recommends sitting in the pleasant courtyard but we stayed inside.

After lunch we took a walk along the high street, the rain had now gone up a level – tropical? Biblical? Water was overflowing the sides of the road onto the pavements; fortunately the shops have large canopies along the front so we kept out of some of it. We went into one shop to browse, a very loud alarm went off down the street, the shop owner didn’t seem worried, she explained it’s probably a traffic accident so they’re rousing the volunteer fire brigade.

We found a nice looking cafe for afternoon tea then set-up camp in the local library for an hour – free wifi and local books to peruse. The wifi took ages to get going so we never made it back to the café.

The rain stopped at about 4pm so we had a quick look up and down the high street, a sculpture in the window of a gallery appeared to be beseeching the rain gods to stop. Another gallery had some colourful abstract works by an artist from Sicily. The skate park was flooded, it was being used for cycling and swimming.

Back at the camp the river was now about a metre higher than yesterday evening, logs, bushes and what looked like a whole tree rushed past in the torrents.

This morning, we were particularly glad not to be sleeping in tents. The night started wet and finished very windy; a few tents lost their peg bags, broke some poles, etc. A lot of very tired looking people on the bus today. We decided extra sleep was worth more than breakfast – it seemed the right decision when the alarm went off.

First stop after about 90 minutes was Mokau. The butcher’s shop opposite the coffee shop had a sign in the window claiming to be Mokau’s ‘Home Kill Specialists’. I had a cashew nut cake for breakfast and we had flat whites of course.

The wind had threatened to blow the clouds away earlier but the rain was back again. We stopped in Te Kuiti to pick up supplies for lunch and a few other necessities – yes Pinot Noir.

First activities of the day were at Waitomo, options were black-water rafting – underground floating – glowworm cave walks and a nature walk. We chose the underground walk. Van our driver – really – took us a short way into the country to the cave entrance, then it was about 150 steps down into the depths. The caves have solar powered remote-controlled LED lighting so Van can switch the lights on and off to show more or less of the caves and glowworms. The worms look like tiny points of blue light on the ceilings. They use enzymes to generate light, the same way that glo-sticks work. The worms are gnat lavae, they hang themselves from cave roofs in a web of sticky thread. Their glow attracts insects who get caught in the web and eaten. At one point in the cave, the lights were turned off completely and we walked with one hand on the handrail with only the glowworms to guide us – it was a very strange experience. Van demonstrated the lighting used by the earliest visitors in the 1890s, first candles and then burning magnesium.

Once we emerged blinking back into the light we were given a cup of herbal tea to refresh us.

Our picnic lunch was enjoyed sheltering under cover of the local rugby club bar.

Back on the road we passed a hotel complex that has a boat, an old plane and hobbit burrows for its rooms.

Uneventful drive to Auckland this afternoon. Google suggested we’d be at the hotel by 17:30 but we hit some traffic on the way in and didn’t arrive until 18:30. Auckland feels like the roads haven’t expanded to manage demand.

We had about 15 minutes in our room to shower, change and hit the town to meet some friends for a very tasty local beer and a very good curry. Nice evening all round topped off by a final Pinot Noir. The barmaid that served us recommended a few wineries to try when we’re in Queenstown. The Black Caps are on TV in a one-day against South Africa, not sure where they were playing but it looks more like Bexley Cricket club than an international venue.

Usual timetable this morning. We had to reluctantly leave our luxury studio for an 8:30 departure. On the way, we picked up four brave souls who’d been up at 6:00 to jump out of aeroplanes. They were all in one piece and buzzing with excitement about their jumps.

The road follows the coast of Tasman Bay. The sky had very light cloud with lots of interesting patterns. After a couple of hours we arrived at Nelson, the sunniest city in New Zealand. We had two hours to explore and eat. First stop was DeVille cafe, we had a very tasty plate of eggs and haloumi cheese – and of course two flat whites.

Next stop was the Suter Art Gallery. It has two large rooms. The first was a general overview of work by local artists from the last 150 years or so, a couple of traditional straight landscapes and a number of more modern works. One had recreations of TV remote controls made out of local stone alongside traditional tools made from the same materials, the point being that the remote controls were obsolete so fast but the stone tools lasted much much longer.

The second was loosely themed around rivers, some semi-abstract photography, a video depicting the recreation of The Haywain and what looked like big slabs of local granite but were made of sponge.

We would have liked to stay longer at the gallery but didn’t have much time to check out the wool shop, the pharmacy, the book shop and buy some food for later.

Nelson is the home of Flying Kiwi – our tour company – so today we changed buses, guides and drivers. We only have the bus for this afternoon – fortunately – it’s the oldest they have and a bit basic. As we left Nelson, we said goodbye to our guide Magan, she has been replaced by Holly – a bundle of enthusiasm.

Next stop was Pelorus Bridge, the road crosses over a river gorge. The river is a rich green colour. We looked at it from the road bridge then walked down the side of the valley to the water.

Back on the road after half an hour, we headed for the Saint Clair Winery in Marlborough for a Flying Kiwi complementary tasting. We tasted five wines: a rose, two whites, a red and an option of a dessert or another red. I managed to sweet talk the host into letting me try both. For once the Pinot Noir wasn’t the winner and we left with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a Malbec. The winery had 35 wines on their list, this made us a bit suspicious – definitely not sticking to one thing and doing it well. To be fair however they do grow their grapes all over the country and ship them back to Marlborough to make the wine. The food shop next door had some peanut butter laced with chilli and smoked paprika – this tasted amazing, I’ll definitely be trying to recreate it when we get home.

After the winery it was a short drive to Picton, the ferry port for our crossing to the North Island. On the way we passed through Havelock, this looks like an interesting town – lots of boats, cafes and museums. In Picton, we said goodbye to our bus driver, a few of our group and the old bus.

Picton has two main attractions, it’s location amongst the islands and inlets of Marlborough Sound and the museum built around the old wooden ship, the Edwin Fox. This ship, launched in 1854, has been round the world 34 times, carried convicts to Australia, immigrants to New Zealand and dairy products and fruit back to Europe. It is claimed it’s the 9th oldest ship in the world. We also came across some more of the Kiwi humour. We’ve been following Captain Cook across the Pacific, the place where he landed in New Zealand, Ship’s Bay, is in Marlborough Sound.

Our ferry sailed at 18:30 to make the three hour crossing to Wellington. There are up to eight sailings each way in the peak season. There are lots of cars and lorries on board as well as a container train.

The first part of the journey took us out through Marlborough sound, the route twists and turns around headlands and islands. After about an hour, we were into the Cook Straits that separate the two islands, these waters have been swum many times, the current record is 4h37. As night fell the water looked dark and menacing, a little reminiscent of some of our trips further south, to reinforce this impression a couple of albatross kept us company for a while.

We arrived in Wellington at 9:30. A shuttle took us to our hotel which must have been a grand place when it opened in the 1930s but now it’s a bit down at heel. It still has some interesting period features remaining though.

It was still dark when the alarm went off at 6:15 this morning. We had to be packed, showered, breakfasted and on the bus by 8pm. Today was a day of driving with a few refreshment breaks along the way. The West Coast of New Zealand faces the Tasman sea, approximately 1000 miles of water separating them from Australia. It’s rough sea, lots of currents and big tides, not a place for swimming.

The coast line north is rugged and remote, we’re on the coast side of the bus and in a couple of places there are long sheer drops to the waves crashing onto rocks far below.

After about an hour we turned inland, driving up the valley of the Buller River which flows off of the mountains. The scenery in these big rivers is very reminiscent of what we saw in British Columbia, but without there are no bears.

We stopped at a cafe in a small settlement called Berlin, this was the site of the first gold discovery on the West Coast in 1859. A couple of the locals looked like they might have been there to witness it. We both had a flat white – not the best.

We drove further up the Buller valley then turned north onto flatter more arable land. We stopped briefly for a snack in Murchison – date muffin for me, egg sandwich for Florence. Final stop before lunch was a brief ‘comfort break’ in the small town of Tapawera, the coach stopped outside a small museum which included the remains of Kiwi Station, a small station on a line built in 1905 to connect the small towns in the region to Nelson.

Lunch was in Motueka. We were dropped off on the high street with 90 minutes to feed ourselves and explore the town. We looked in a number of places but nothing really grabbed us, we eventually settled on the town museum cafe – it was okay. We bought some haloumi cheese and pinot noir to go with the barbecue planned for dinner. It was only a half hour drive to our accommodation for tonight, at the entrance to the Abel Tasman National Park. We have our own cottage, big rooms, a jacuzzi, terrace and garden – hopefully we’ll have enough time to enjoy it.

Abel Tasman National Park covers 70km of coast on the North West corner of the South Island. It faces across Tasman Bay to the North Island. Abel Tasman was a Dutch sailor, he was the first European to visit Tasmania and New Zealand, he came here in 1642. It wasn’t the best start, he sent boat’s ashore to collect water and four of the men were killed by Maoris.

Once we settled in, we went for a walk along the coast. The path starts across a series of low bridges crossing a shallow estuary then joins a number of bays and beaches up the coast. We went as far as the first beach, Porter Beach, and stared at the sea in the distance across the sand, oyster catchers, herons and gulls waded in the water looking for food.

Unfortunately by the time we got back the ice cream stall had shut for the day – we need to be back earlier tomorrow. The barbecue was good, lots of tasty things – there are two other vegetarians in our group and – crucially – the guide so we’re well looked after.

7:00 alarm this morning. Time for a shower before joining the group for breakfast. There’s toast today and something calling itself Marmite – but it doesn’t taste the same.

For the next few days we’re in the West Coast region, this is one of the most sparsely populated areas of the country and one of the most recently developed. The weather is the most unpredictable, the seas the wildest and the mountains the biggest. The people here are known for being laid back, friendly and resilient.

On the road at 8:45. Our first stop was Ross; this small town doesn’t look much to start with but it’s sitting on top of an estimated NZ$700m worth of gold deposits. Gold has been dug out of the ground here since the 1870s and recently a large mining company tried to buy the whole town with the idea of flattening and creating a huge open cast mine. The government said they couldn’t do it because people had called the town home for so long and couldn’t be thrown out. The town has a cafe and a store and a few hundred houses, we stopped in the cafe for a coffee – it used to be a bar and apparently a motorcycle repair shop but now limits itself to coffee, cakes and light lunches.

Next to where our coach was parked, there was an open area of grass overlooking an old gold-working which is now flooded. In the middle is a small inflatable, if you can hit the inflatable with a golf ball you win a gold nugget, none of our group managed.

After another hour’s drive we arrived at Hokitika, our lunch stop. It has the feel of a wild west town – lots of single storey shops with porches opening onto the street. The Catholic cathedral has been condemned as unsafe following earthquake damage. We walked along the beach for a bit; all the beaches on this coast have grey sand and are covered in driftwood, some pieces are as large as small trees. On this beach, they have been arranged into sculptures, patterns and in a couple of places the name of the town.

We came across a caravan selling Langos, a fried savoury donut from Hungary, similar to the fry jacks we’d in Belize. Florence had one with herb harissa, I had feta and tomato – they were very tasty, we ate them on a neat little table on the beach. We walked into the town, checked out some shops – books, arts and crafts. I bought a card with a hand-painted street sign on it. One of the town’s main attractions is the Kiwi centre – this has an actual Kiwi, as well as some eels and some frogs. They charge NZ$24 per person to see the kiwi and you can’t take photos so we decided that money was better spent on Pinot Noir and headed for the bottle shop.

After a couple of hours we headed further north up the coast to the start of our afternoon walk. The Point Elizabeth Walkway route starts on the beach and heads upward onto the cliff tops. The sea was sometimes visible through the trees but most of the time we’re in a forest of very mixed vegetation. New Zealand has a fairly limited wildlife but it makes up for it with the variety of plants. After an hour the path reaches a lookout point on a headland with views both ways along the coast, two seals were playing in the water far below us. It was another 20 minutes walk down to the pub where the coach was meeting us. In a few places on the way down, we’re surrounded by the sound of cicadas, when you look at one they occasionally bang their wings against their bodies, it takes thousands to create the noise we can hear all around us.

I order a pint and a half – this turns out to be a pint and half a litre – but its cold anyway and very welcome.

It’s a 35km drive along the very undulating coast road to our campsite for the evening; four brave souls have chosen to cycle this section. The campsite is right on the beach, the sun is shining when we arrive and there’s a laundry – what more could we ask for?

After a rather tasty meal of curried cheese, corn cob, couscous and garlic bread I watched the last of the sun from the beach while Florence drank wine and socialised!