Tour Day 9 - Kaiteriteri and Abel Tasman Nat Park

Abel Tasman

Our activity for today was to take a 45 min water taxi from our beach 100m from our 'moho' to Anchorage in the Abel Tasman National Park. From there, we enjoyed a leisurely 9km along the coastal path back to Apple Tree Bay to be picked up and returned to our base at Kaiteriteri.

Kaiteriteri waiting for boat

Taxi at the door

sky clearing as we head out

A diversion to see Split Apple Rock

We're at our Start point

Anchorage beach

Leaving Anchorage we headed out along the well made Abel Tasman Coastal Path South.

We could have strode along in 2.5 hours but we took 4 hours to walk it as we soaked in everything of walking though the bush with the amazing fern trees, palms and bushes. The air was full of bird song and insect buzzing and crackling. We stopped to take in views and follow side tracks and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on a perfect blue skied but not too hot day.

bush

Lynne striding out

high view out to sea and islands 

more bush 

very well constructed coastal path

bush

bush

We left the track a couple of times to visit look outs for views and in one case clamber down to a beach. Short diversions but losing height meaning we had to climb back up to the track.

Sailboat anchored below Yellow Point Lookout

Akersten Bay beach

adventurers

Akersten Bay

bush

bush

Our destination, Apple Tree Bay

Taxi for 2 please

The return taxi boat was very full but, rather than cram into the seats, we stood at the rear by the jets which was great fun. 

heading home

Good night Kaiteriteri 

It was only 20 minutes back to Kaiteriteri where we had the luxury of stepping off, crossing the beach and  being in our motorhome in two minutes.

A couple of glasses of rose in the sun before evening.

Really had been a wonderful day.

Campground: Kaiteriteri Recreational Reserve 

Boats: Wilson's Abel Tasman National Park

National Park Coast Track: Abel Tasman Coast Track

Statistics: Miles today: zero ; Miles so far: 885 ; Fuel added so far: 155.5 litres ; South Island; Time Zone: UTC +13 New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT )

Tour Day 8 - Wellington to Kaiteriteri via interislander ferry

 To South Island

Alarm set for 06:20 so inevitably got up at 06:15. Quick orange juice, coffee & cereal and left site at 06:50  for 20 min drive to port. On the quay in good time for 07:45 check in closure then another hour before departure. Sort of early at 8:45 but feels halfway through the morning.

Quite cool and overcast so feels much like a ferry to France out of Dover in May. Great open observation deck 10 with wide views as we left Auckland. VERY windy once out of harbour protection.. Sadly the crew came and spoiled our fun evicting us from deck 10 due to wind levels; In fairness, it was pretty windy.   Headed down to deck 7 with outside space where they were locking off windward side doors as unusable. We spent a while enjoying the outside before heading inside for coffee.

As with everywhere, short staffing left us with a rubbish machine coffee; ironic considering the Kiwi's enthusiasm for great coffee. 

Happily, the re-opened the observation decks as halfway through the crossing we left open water to negotiate the islands and inlets of the North end of South Island and approach to Picton.

 I don't know why but arrival on South Island feels like a reset and start again and I'm looking forward to it. I think a lot of it was the exhaustion of the first few days following travel, time change and disappointment in the weather on the first full day of our motorhome journey.

ready to board at Wellngton

cloudy start in Wellington bay

very calm sea and maybe brighter ?

passing out of Wellington bay 

windy

our motorhome getting salty (outside row, dark rear window fully visible)

South Island approach

South Island looking distinctly Scottish

observation deck view forward

sister ship heading back to Wellington

almost at Picton

Picton approach

The ferry crossing took 3hr 30min so the day is already moving on as we headed West along the North of the island on Queen Charlotte Drive. This was a beautiful winding road mixing coastal touches and inland climbs and bends.  We stopped at a stunning spot adjacent to a beach for our lunch watching Sunday afternoon Kiwi's and their families enjoying water activities.

picnic stop

picnic stop

Queen Charlotte Drive was mainly a good road but had an alarming number of wash outs where parts of the road had simply collapsed towards the sea and cones took us to single file. Some looked as if they had been like that for years but many showed signs of road works to recover them.

We had to stop for a shop at Nelson and I was getting worried that site reception may close at 6. We arrived about 6:15and it wasn't closing till 8!

A great pitch 1 row back from the road with the beach visible between two vans on row 1. The beach at Kaiteriteri is absolutely stunning.

Kaiteriteri  beach

self explanatory

A brief walkaround before settling in found a burger joint which had gluten free buns and fried chips separately from battered items which meant I was in :) *

The burgers were slow cooked beef with cheese and relish and really lush. The portion of chips was massive even for the two of us but I stupidly carried on stuffing myself long after I should have stopped.

Neither of us got a good night's sleep. I think our stomachs have shrunk since leaving home and eating bits and were not used to rich food and so much.

* read day Tour Day1 post re celiac disease

Statistics: Miles today: 121 ; Miles so far: 885 ; Fuel added so far: 155.5 litres ; North Island & South Island; Time Zone: UTC +13 New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT )

Tour Day 7 - Wellington

Welly and last night on North Island

Today was our day in 'Welly', or Wellington.

We took a very convenient frequent bus 10 mins from our campsite and were in the centre of Wellington in about 1hour.

The day started dull and cool  and we headed into the big modern museum at the waterside. This turned out to be disappointing. It is one of those ridiculous over designed spaces with no easy navigation around and no logical progression in displays. There was a lot of good stuff in the New Zealand and Mauri history but it was lost in the cavernous empty spaces. If you are travelling through Auckland I would visit the museum there and save your time in Welly for something else. However, I should mention the powerful Gallipoli exhibition which was very well put together and well worth a visit if you are interested. For me it was not what I was here for and the power of it left me feeling disturbed.

We took the remarkable Funicular /cable car up to the higher level of the town; certainly the highest and most impressive I have ridden.

The cable car took us to the summit of the botanical gardens and we took the downhill route through the gardens surrounded by mixtures of greens and textures in the plants and trees with the remarkable din of the insects chattering in the canopy. 

a dull start across the bay

Massive floating steam crane made in Scotland

A sunnier bay after our museum visit

Cable car leaving downhill to the city

Insect making some of the noise

Botanical garden

Botanical Garden

The museum was disappointment but we enjoyed seeing some of Wellington. The day was marred by difficulty eating gluten free (me) and trying to find somewhere suitable. In the end we returned to the museum café late afternoon where we managed to eat s snack.

The excellent journey planner at metlink.org.uk found us an express bus back to our site and an ice cream before 'servicing' the RV ready for an early start tomorrow heading for the ferry to the South Island.

Statistics: Miles today: zero; Miles so far: 764 ; Fuel added so far: 103.5 litres ; North Island; Time Zone: UTC +13 New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT )

Tour Day 6 - Taupo to Wellington

 Driving South on State Highway 1

Heading South to Wellington as our North Island sojourn draws to a close.

At home when planning it seemed a purely driving day especially as we had chosen to take the most direct route. However, State Highway 1 was to give us an enjoyable drive through varied terrain.

Initially following the shoreline of the beautiful Lake Taupo before leaving it behind and heading South,  The land varied from heavily forested through high bleak heather moorland and semi volcanic desert looking across to the cloud covered Mount Ngauruhoe, Mount Doom in the Lord of The Rings films.

Highway 1 continued winding though undulating hills before dropping to open wide pasture and later arable farmland. It was full day of massive vistas across varied lands to distant hill ranges.

Our pitch last night

Lake Taupo

Maybe I do?  Excellent coffee served nearby :)

Van life

Mount Doomin cloud

Autumn coming in the Southern Hemisphere

random rope bridge by our late lunch pull in

Limited to 90kph, journeys take time even on straight roads and the driving can feel laborious. There aren't many pull offs so we were mid-afternoon before stopping for lunch in a picnic site. 

We arrived on the outskirts of Wellington around 5 and the traffic was awful. We hadn't stopped for shopping but in the traffic we just wanted to get to the site. We had hoped for an early relaxing stop but instead waiting 45 minutes for traffic to die down before driving out again. With problems parking the RV at the first store, it was 8:30 by the time  we stopped the engine on our pitch for the night.

A meal was cooked and eaten - with wine of course and laundry successfully processed before finally hitting the pillows.

Statistics: Miles today: 230 ; Miles so far: 764 ; Fuel added so far: 103.5 litres ; North Island; Time Zone: UTC +13 New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT )