Day 1
We got on the road early so that we could utilise most of the day, especially as we thought it was going to be all motorway driving that day. Chance would be a fine thing. The main motorway, SH1, was shut for the majority of our planned route, so we had to take the inland route, which fortunately was a lot more scenic but unfortunately a lot further!!!
As we were driving, something that is almost inevitable in NZ is animals on the road, we didn’t expect to be confronted with a full flock of sheep!!!
Just off this road was the thermal spring resort town of Hanmer Springs (as recommended to us by the immigration officer at the airport!). As we had had a pretty tough (and cold) few days on the slopes, we thought we could do with a chill out, so we soaked our cockles in the lovely pools there. Ranging from 28 to 40 degrees and from man made pool to authentic geothermal spa (which stank of sulphur and nearly made Naomi pass out!) it was a very nice couple of hours. We didn’t take any photographs though as the complex was going through a multi-million dollar upgrade and so looked like a building site. Not so relaxing!
So back on the road again, we passed through the town of Kaikoura. It was a lovely seaside resort renowned for its sea wildlife trips, but they were a bit expensive and the town was dead so we carried on through. By this point we were back on the SH1. Just outside of Kaikoura on the motorway, there was a sign warning us of seals possibly on the road verge for the next 4km. We thought this very strange, but kept a look out. At this point of the SH1, the motorway (single carriage) was right over the sea. As we rounded a corner, there were thousands of fur seals on the rocks just off from the motorway. We didn’t realise that this was one of the biggest seal colonies in NZ at a place called Chau Point. So of course we pulled over in the first layby and took pictures!
It was starting to get late, and we had a DOC campsite to get to just outside Blenheim. This campsite was one of our favourites. We pitched up so that our campervan looked out to the sea and we could hear the waves all night long. It was wonderful!
Day 2
We spent the morning in Blenheim but the weather was terrible so headed on to Picton, hoping the weather would improve. Which it didn’t! So we grabbed some late lunch from town and then headed to our DOC campsite for the rest of the day.
It was a long and winding coastal cliff road that was surrounded by tropical forest. There should have been views out over the sound, but the wind, rain and cloud were so bad that you couldn’t see a thing past the road edge!
We set up camp at a tiny site on the waters edge. After a shattering week, we decided to just sit out the rain and plan our North Island trip! Nothing exciting!
Day 3
Today was the day to catch the ferry to the North Island. And we were off to a good start, the weather was beautiful. So we headed out back on the road we had come the previous evening, but this time we were gifted with beautiful views, so it took us a lot longer to drive to town as we kept stopping to admire!
Off to the North Island :)
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