Gorgeous day today – crisp and clear, but very cold. We drove out to the village of Arthur’s Pass with stunning views of snow-capped peaks along the way. It’s a beautiful drive regardless of the weather and one can’t help but be awed by the mountains and the scenery. Our destination was the mountains on the central valley of the photo below (see red arrow – photo links to source website):

 

Sarah and Mom dropped off Eloise and I at the start of the Devil’s Punchbowl walk and then retired to the Wobbly Kea cafe for hot chocolate. Eloise and I set off up to the falls, puffs of white steam from every breath in the low temperatures (1 degree Celcius in the shade, 3 in the sun). Eloise even wore an adult sleeveless anorak on top of her own gear. There was a light dusting of snow on the low ground (hmm, ideal for snowballs…). One steep incline and many, many steps later through lots of mountain beech, Eloise and I arrived at the viewing platform for the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls. Breathtaking views in every direction. The waterfall itself is 131m in height.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eloise bravely removed her gloves to test the water temperature: most decidedly cold!

 

We hiked back down the mountainside and walk into the village to meet Sarah and Mom at the warm Wobbly Kea for lunch. Along the way, Eloise made a couple of snowballs which were cold enough to survive lunch in the warm cafe and eventually ended up in a river pool further down in the village. By a happy coincidence we bumped into friends Robin & Wendy at the cafe.

On the way back to the coast after lunch, we stopped halfway down Otira Gorge to admire the views of the area around the viaduct and, further along, the view of Deception Point. The pass was very icy but had fortunately been gritted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The snow has been a long time coming, with light falls over the last month or so, but this week the ski fields are rejoicing with fresh dumps of good skiing snow. I think the above pictures would be very white had they been taken 7-10 days later.

Many thanks to Mom for the wonderful day out!

Driving to/from the bach in Riwaka Valley, we passed some interesting creek and river names. In addition to Dead Dog Creek, Dead Man’s Culvert and Johnny Walker Creek, we also crossed the Nile River.

We recently returned from a lovely week away in the Golden Bay region at the top end of South Island. We rented a bach (self-contained cottage) on a farm in Riwaka Valley, halfway between Motueka and Kaiteriteri (see map below). The farm was delightful: it’s primarily a kiwi fruit farm but Len and Kate also have a bunch of animals wandering around which made it pretty special for Eloise. Horses and cattle were confined to their paddocks, but a pair of cheeky llamas roamed around during the day, along with three labradors, lots of peacocks, chooks, turkeys and a paradise duck that thought it was a chicken. Apparently one day the farmer’s labrador brought back the duckling, held carefully in its mouth. The duckling grew up with chickens and to this day believes it is a chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We alternated between spending days just chilling on the farm and taking day trips for sightseeing. Fortunately there was sunshine every day until our departure, when it poured solidly all the way home. During the days when we relaxed on the farm, we spent the time reading, walking or, in Sarah’s case, painting and beadwork. Eloise and I tried a spot of fishing in the Riwaka river but didn’t catch anything fishy (Eloise did manage to catch her father).

For sightseeing, we spent days out in Mapua, Nelson, Marahau, Kaiteriteri, Motueka and Takaka. It was all good, we met loads of great folk and saw a lot of interesting things/places. It was also nice for Sarah and I to reacquaint ourselves with Marahau, having spent some memorable time there 5 years ago and having kayaked around the Abel Tasman reserve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights were:

Mapua: the aquarium in the converted wharfside buildings – probably Eloise’s favourite attraction. The aquarium was small but well-stocked with a variety of giant eels, red-eared turtles, large sea horses, octopuses (or is it “octopi”?), a variety of rays, small sharks, crayfish. One octopus seemed to be asleep in its own sleeping bag, not sure quite how that worked but it looked like it was changing colours as it dreamed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nelson: lots of cafés and some quirky shops in the town centre and along the wharf. After we’d eaten lunch at a nice pub, Sarah and Eloise visited a cool bead shop, a chocolate shop called Cocoa (purveyor of very delicious vodka & chilli truffles) and the Nelson Museum whilst I went to an appointment. We saw this golf bag and thought of Leigh:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Takaka: a twisty drive over Takaka Hill to the town of Takaka in Tasman Bay. Our first stop was on the far side of Takaka at Te Waikoropupu Springs, commonly abbreviated as “Pupu Springs”, amongst the clearest springs in the world (visibility is 60-plus metres). There is a lovely forest walk around the springs and various crystal-clear pools to look at. We could see 7 metres to the bottom of the spring as if it were on the other side of the room – very clear water indeed. There was also a viewing platform with an arrangement of two mirrors from which to view the bottom of the main pool. The springs are tapu (sacred) to the Maori and are also environmentally guarded from immersion of foreign objects to preserve the clarity and protect against introduction of things like algae, fungi, etc. The village of Takaka itself is very arty with more than a whiff of the psychedelic. We visited some interesting art galleries and other shops, including the friendly Philly Hall’s MONZA gallery. Philly pointed us in the direction of the original and authentic 30-year old Wholefood Café where we had an awesome lunch including a vegetarian Green Jungle Curry to die for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riwaka Resurgence: a few minutes down the road from the farm is the entrance of the Riwaka Resurgence walk. This forms part of the Kahurangi National Park, the second-largest national park in NZ. The Riwaka Resurgence is the point at which water exits from beneath Takaka Hill. The water is an accumulation of rainwater and springwater that travels through sinkholes and caves within Takaka Hill. Like the Te Waikoropupu Springs, the Riwaka Resurgence is tapu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eloise, who has been missing her cat Jasper like mad, was delighted by the arrival of Sox the cat who embedded herself with us at the bach most of our stay and faithfully followed Eloise all over the farm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our visit on the farm was very relaxing, just what the doctor ordered. The drive home was as usual visually stunning despite the rain. The weather cleared up nicely once we arrived home and we’ve had a fairly clear week.

On Wednesday I accompanied my Dad on a trip up to Karamea on the northern reaches of the West Coast, where he had a couple of farm audits to perform. We set off just before 6am and reached Westport as the sun was coming up on a nice cloudless day. We grabbed a takeaway pie in Westport and continued on through the rather bohemian-looking Granity-Ngakawau-Hector settlements, arriving at the first farm outside Karamea around 9am. Whilst my Dad was busy with the first audit, I took the car down to a pristine estuary which at that time of the morning was full of bird life. It would’ve been a good time to be an avid bird watcher, unfortunately I know next to nothing about birds of the feathered kind. From there I drove round to the Karamea beach which, being so much further north, had classic golden sand unlike the stony grey beaches of the mid-West Coast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After collecting my Dad from his first audit, we had several hours to kill and drove out to Oparara Basin to explore the limestone caves and arches. It’s a really verdant rainforest area and despite the warm sunshine we had water dripping on us from the trees all morning. The first gem was a sighting of a rare Blue Duck, of which there are only 3000 remaining. The Maori name for the Blue Duck is “Whio” (pronounced “Phee-you”) – this comes from the call of the male duck. The Whio likes to live on fast-moving, rocky rivers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The massive limestone arches – over 100m high and 200m long – are very reminiscent of the floating mountains in the film “Avatar”. There are plenty of stalactites and stalagmites, some of them in relatively open air which I haven’t seen before. And being a rainforest there was an abundance of weird & wonderful mushrooms. We also happened across a very friendly little robin who pecked at our shoes. Before departing for the next farm audit we also walked out to the aptly-named Mirror Tarn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a filling and very satisfying lunch at the Last Resort in Karamea, the next farm audit was at Little Wanganui. Again, I dropped off my Dad at the farm and went exploring, this time down to the tidal lagoon near the beach at Little Wanganui where embarrassingly I almost got the 4×4 stuck in the mud. Back at the farm I was invited in whilst the audit was completed and it was a nice opportunity to get a local perspective on the regional economy and other issues facing people around Karamea. It’s a very cut-off place, with only one road leading in from the south.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was pedal to the metal back home in time for an awesome home-cooked meal. A very nice day out indeed.

I took 109 photos from my phone and loads of HD video on the camcorder…but lucky for you I’ve only included a handful of photos here!