Postcard Adventures
Apr 3, 2008
It's been a whirlwind past couple of weeks... Just kicking my sightseeing into high gear before the autumn succumbs to winter. Hope my money lasts long enough!
After my two weeks back at Rakaunui, I headed back south towards Wellington
to say goodbye to my mates there and start my journey to the South Island.
Dannevirke is a town along the way. I mentioned before that all small towns seem
to have something quirky about it. This one has a strange Norse theme going on.
TWO kitchens! What a find!
Further south past Woodville is the country's largest wind farm.
Massive pillar arise from the hills creating a strange alien landscape.
The windy (back and forth) and windy (wooosh) roads from Woodville to Palmerston
North goes right through them. (it's annoying how they're spelled the same)
Palmerston North... overlooked by travellers because there's not
much going on there. But on gorgeous days like that, it was worth
taking a stroll around any town.
Seeing a midget hand out flyers for a circus... priceless.
For one stretch of the road from Levin to Otaki, the roads practically came to a standstill.
After passing a roadside accident, I thought the traffic would clear up, but it didn't. God, it
better not be like this all the way to Wellington... it would take days! 2 hours later, I got to
Otaki and passed the roundabout in that town. Suddenly it was smooth sailing. Why have
a major state highway pass through tiny towns where moms with their baby strollers are
crossing the road? It was so bad it was mentioned in the paper the next day. Why the picture
of the soda can shaped toilet? Because as it passed by, at one mile an hour, I thought...
"hey, that's funny".
After a day of sad farewells to my Wellington mates, it was time to cross the pond.
Booked the Interislander ferry a night before and it only cost $128... Easter special!
Goodbye Wellington. Goodbye North Island.
A mosquito bite from a few nights before. I'd gotton used to
sandfly bites and their momentary annoyance, but those usually
clear up in a day. Mosquito bites... ugh... a week of agony.
The South Island in view.
Cruising into the Marlborough Sounds. Though the two islands are only 30km apart (pulled
that figure out of my ass. Not really sure how far apart they are), the voyage takes 3 hours
because the ship needs to navigate these waterways.
Everyone on the deck enjoying the gorgeous weather.
Picton, gateway to the South Island, yet amazingly small.
Kiwis call corndogs "hotdogs" and hotdogs "American hotdogs" and Americans "Yanks"...
so don't ask for a hotdog if you want a hotdog in New Zealand, and don't call me a YANK!
Me on some bridge.
The view from the bridge. This town's got to have more marinas than parking lots.
Old people crossing the bridge.
A subway that books flights to Wellington... nice.
A view of Picton.
On the Queen Charlotte Drive (a "shortcut" between Picton and Nelson) there are many
scenic lookouts into the Marlborough Sounds. I took one of the off-ramps to a "scenic
lookout" and this is what I saw. What? That's not scenic at all! It's tragic!
Arriving in Nelson, my first thought was food. Second thought was
"I thought this place was supposed to be sunny" (it has the most hours
of sunshine in all of NZ, but was cloudy and rainy the whole weekend).
Third thought was "trundler"??? I just got used to calling them trolleys!
On the New Zealand edition of Monopoly, I only recognized a few of the properties
(named after major roads in major NZ towns and cities). This was one of the red ones.
Hopefully my travels in the South Island will shed light on more of them.
Cloudy Nelson.
Umm...
John was friend from my early days in Auckland. I was a guest at his home in Picton
the night before, but it was only by coincidence that we ran into each other at a McD's
in Nelson. It's a small small world.
Having had enough of Nelson's notorious cloud and rain, I headed further west
toward the Golden Bay. Passing through Richmond, a discovery. There ARE
pack'n'saves in the South Island. Well, at least one.
Thought about it, but not enough space in the boot.
In Motueka, I stayed at the Laughing Kiwi... there were Germans...way too many
Germans... all here for the fruit picking work.
Ran into Mathias and Camille in town... again! Smaaaaall world.
...Oh yeah, and Nick. My Rakaunui poker arch enemy. How excited was I to hear
that he was playing pub poker in town. How disappointed I was when he was
eliminated just after the first break. Was hoping to face him at the final table. I ended
up finishing 4th, so no bar tab for me :(
Cloudy dusk in Motueka.
With no real plan in mind, I headed further west toward Takaka
traversing the exhilarating Takaka hill along the way.
A foresty walkway to a scenic lookout. Unfortunately, the clouds were getting thicker
and the lookout wasn't that great.
Mandatory sheep picture.
My drive brought me to Takaka, a small town known for its local artisans.
Browsing the craft shops and galleries was a nice rainy day activity.
A small museum in town.
A typical inn/pub in New Zealand.
Just outside Takaka are Te Waikoropupu Springs, aka Pupu Springs. The water that
comes out of the ground here is the clearest on Earth. The only thing poopoo about it
was that it's forbidden to touch. There's a big effort to keep the invasive algae, didymo,
from spreading through New Zealand's waterways.
A set-up of mirrors lets you see through to the other side of the pond underwater.
A science book photo of lichen.
Without much to do in Takaka, I continued driving on to Collingwood. An even smaller
town at the end of State Highway 60.
Utterly bleak (I'm sure it's not so depressing on a sunny day)
That is the main road through town.
And that is their museum.
That night I stayed in a small hostel outside of town. Played scrabble with possibly
the dullest couple ever ("ab, is that a word?" "umm... abdominals" "like the muscles"
"hmm" "ab" "I guess you can call it that" "ab... ab muscle" "ab"), and had corn on
the cob (which I only recently learned could easily be cooked in the microwave).
Next morning, had a crap in the environmentally conscious outhouse.
My plan was to visit the Farewell Spit (no it's not what a mobster does to
someone he just offed). It's a 35km long sand feature that extends off the
NW tip of the South Island. Got lost at first driving for half an hour onto
someone's farm.
It's not a great view, but you can see how the land hooks to the right in the horizon.
Visitors can walk about 4km out onto the spit on a looping track. It's flat and watery.
The only way to go the end is by going on an expensive tour and being stuck on
a bus for 6 hours. No.
The geography got more interesting as I crossed over to the northern shore.
I just have to say... to have the opportunity to see ants in the wild... Wow.
Wind swept sand dunes.
Not many people bother venturing all the way out here. It was a 3 hour walk
of solitude, contemplation, and lots of singing out loud to myself.
Back in Motueka to take care of a s mall order of business, getting an extension
on filing my taxes. Hope I still qualify for that $300 rebate I heard about.
A southern man doesn't wear a sports jacket or tie to a bar.
That evening, I drove to Marahau, the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park.
Arriving in the dead of night, my plan was to sleep in the car. The village itself
was bereft of any street lights there must've been a new moon because the
stars... oh, how the stars blanketted the night sky. Woke up to the sunrise for a
kayaking and hiking trip I had booked.
Tractors pulls the water-taxis to their destinations.
After checking in at one of the many kayaking operations in town and getting
a quick lesson, we were off on the open seas. The guy I'm sharing the kayak
with is Giovanni, a theatre arts professor from Italy.
A snack break on appletree bay.
An enemy tribe approaches our shores.
Our kayaking guide, Isaac sharing tidbits of knowledge about the park.
I'm grounded!!!
The weather was absolutely stunning... every time I looked back, the colors
were so vivid, it seemed like watching technicolor movie. Hearing the Italian
accent made it even more so.
Seals frollicking. They were swimming right up to the kayaks! Great fun bopping
them over the head with our paddles (jk).
Lunchtime sandwich. The seagull has shifty eyes.
It's like a postcard everywhere you look.
After a few hours of Kayaking, we boarded a water taxi to a point further up
the coast to Bark Bay for a walk along a segment of the trails.
Fern trees.
One of the symbols of New Zealand is the silverfern. I've always wondered which
fern that actually was. Must've seen at least a dozen different types at this park alone.
The swingbridge over Falls River. Indy, cover your heart!
Print it, laminate it, ready to go. Ready for more postcard adventures.