Arriving into Picton, must be one of the most majestic ferry crossings in the southern hemisphere, dramatic green mountains leading down onto clear waters on both sides of the approach.
Picton is a place with many colourful washboard buildings, and seems more a large village than a town, if it was not for the ferry terminal and marina.
Rather strangely, a bus was required to take us the 200m from the terminal to the car hire office, strange as you could see the office in front of us, however we were ushered into the bus with a chatty driver, and had to go around the whole terminal with commentary of what each building was, then make a u turn and arrive at a bus stop around 50m away from the office, we must have travelled at least triple the walking distance..... maybe people get lost in the South Island??
Car...sorted, sat nav...not sorted (again) this time Apple car play came to the rescue, and we were off.
Up over and round the evergreen mountains we drove towards Mapua, in the north west Nelson region.
Around 2 hours later we arrived at our accommodation (Terra Nostra), a lovely wooden cabin in the large back garden of a local family, their garden teeming with fruit trees, and a thriving market garden of many types of vegetables, it was a little oasis of vibrant smell and colour.
Hotels and motels are in very short supply in this area, there were lots of creative options for accommodation, the cabin in the garden was really nice, well appointed and very much worth the great review we gave them.
That evening a novel wine tasting experience accompanied our meal at Rimu, a local wine establishment, a tree each of 5 sample wines ordered, Jo opted for a Malborough "sav" a Nelson Pinot Noir my favoured choice, the live music from an ex pat from Yorkshire!
Our plan was to stay south of the Able Tasman, to minimise our driving times for the next couple of days as we would be continuing south after the park visit. (NB: Able Tasman was a Dutch chap who lead on the discovery of New Zealand, there are a few things named after him including the park, the Tasman Sea and of course Tasmania!)
Able Tasman National Park (30,000 hectacres in size) is a paradise with golden beaches and tranquil lagoons, it's also home to lots of wildlife including native birds like the bellbird and weka, plus many seals and penguins.
Our day exploring the park commenced with a 30 minute drive up to St Stephen's Bay, a quiet little cove off the beaten tourist track, where we were met by Tim, our boat captain.
A safety briefing followed once the others in our party assembled, then we were off in the tender towards the catamaran which we would be cruising on for the day.
St Stephen's Bay is also home to many Little Blue Penguins, thousands of little footprints in the sand gave it away, it was 9.30am when we arrived they had already left around before sunrise as they were now out at sea feeding.
Our little group for the day consisted of 2 couples from Denver, an Irish girl from Limerick, and a couple of miles up the coast, another friendly duo from San Francisco joined the boat.
So we were off, the first stop within the park was at Split Apple Rock (Tokangawha) a big bit of granite in the shape of an apple cut in half, traditional Māori myth describes two gods breaking apart the rock.
From there we headed off to Adele Island, a craggy island and home to many lounging seals in the sunshine, and high nesting penguins peeking out of their little homes.
The next stop further up the coast was to Torrent Bay, where we could snorkel, swim, kayak or go for a potter on the protected beach, we were also told we could not take anything off the beach, this included any sea shells, such was the level of protection given to this part of the national park.
Whilst Jo took the tender to the beach for a sightseeing trip to shore, I opted to kayak around the bay and little rocky coves. We finished the day with a fabulous lunch onboard and a trip further up and along the stunning coastline, anchored in Bark Bay.
Around 5pm we waved goodbye to our new friends for the day, after spending a lovely on the boat, beach walks, kayaking, and wildlife watching all amongst the fabulous scenery, we then departed the very lovely St Stephen's Bay, to go south.
Blenheim, the 2 hour drive, was made a little longer as we detoured back to the very lovely Mapua Wharf for ice cream (and a quick look in the estate agent window!!) before hitting the road.
We chose Blenheim as it was a convenient stopover en route to Kaikoura, the town further down the coast where we were booked the following morning for some whale watching.
The drive to Blenheim took us through the vast Nelson and Marlborough wine regions, countless winerys sitting side by side, we whiled the time noting the brands we were familiar with, one large winery being the very nice Cloudy Bay, many were local smaller family type winerys.
Kaikoura is a lovely little seaside town on the east coast of the island, and we arrived in good time for our 10am trip out into the bay of the South Pacific in search of the sperm whale.
A high speed boat whisked around 60 of us, out to sea for about 25 minutes, before Captain Lauren cut the engines, the "sonar" came out and was placed in the water just where we were standing - the job of that crew member was to "listen" for the sound of whales to aid the vessel's direction towards them.
Shortly after we had left the dock, the tv screens displayed our position, speed and depth, in some places we were over a huge sea canyon with depths of over 1200m, ideal space for the elusive whales to potter around in.
Back to the "sonar" lets just say it was not too hi-tech, about a 8ft length of what looked like plumbers white poly tubing, a thing that looked like a colander stuck on the end that went under water, and a pair of orange foam head phones that were probably part of an 80's Walkman wired to the other end, the ensemble all held together by copious amounts of silver duct tape ..... the sonar operator keeping a very studied look whilst whispering into a walkie talkie, the boat bobbed about for a bit moved here and there and then we found a whale!!
Our Sperm Whale stayed on the surface for about 5-8 mins before they decide to go below again, usually for around 45 minutes at a time, his behaviours are well known and the watchful crew gave us a 30 second warning that he was about to dive, the shot of his tail lift will undoubtably be in many peoples video coverage, staying at the back of the boat fortuitously gave us a great view.
Leaving Kaikoura we stopped at the seal colony just out of town, not many seals were around at the time, so we drove on, hoping there would be others along the road.
We were not disappointed as just a couple more miles along the rocky coastline we came across some big car bays to pull into, so we stopped off at one, and just about 30ft below the road, were hundreds of seals, the adults lounging on the rocks having a sun bathe, their seal pups playing in the rock pools and generally all having a great time in the sunshine.
Next we were heading to Oamaru, a 3 hour drive south, as that evening we were booked into Oamaru's Little Blue Penguin Colony, a conservation project looking after around 250 Little Blue Penguins (named Kokora in Māori), who are on average about 30cm tall and weigh around 1kg.
We arrived at our motel (The Mews) shortly after 4pm, and took a little potter round the harbour, a pretty town - one of those self proclaimed capitals, this one boasting its high ranking SteamPunk credentials. (NB: Steampunk is a quirky genre of science fiction that features steam-powered technology, examples are machines like those in the writing of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, and in television shows such as Dr. Who).
Despite the futuristic, the penguins live in a natural environment, just around the bay in a disused small quarry, now housing a visitor centre and fenced protection for the penguin housing.
The penguins leave before sunrise to go fishing and return home at sunset, we were booked in to watch them arrive back home that evening, so turned up around 7.45pm and got a seat in the designated seating in the viewing area.
Given instructions to keep quiet, no cameras - we awaited their return, one little guy arrived about 20 minutes before the dark waves of penguins cruising into shore. Watching them was magical, knowing their route home and making a bee line for their nest to feed chicks, breed, clean out their home or to have a rest was their evening agenda.
We sat little mesmerised at their behaviours, some choosing a well worn pathway to their homes, others took detours - right across to the seating area. We sat for over 2 hours just watching them come ashore, it was facinating.
On our walk back into town, we followed the coast path around the bay, to find a few wayward penguins in the shadows, awaiting people to go away and then they could continue to their homes.
The town is about a quarter of a mile away, and to our surprise we came across a little chap on his own trying to get into a hole in the wall of a disused building.. it was a little alarming as we were unsure if he was lost or not... however he seemed to know where he was headed - so we left him to it! It was a little surreal - we were the only people on the street and there's a little penguin in the shadows making faint cheeping sounds... one time I wish I had filmed it.
In part 2 of the South Island, we head further south... Te Anau and Milford Sound.... then start the journey north to Queenstown and Lake Tekapo.
Comentários