Feb 5th – 11th – Arrival in South Island – Paradise found!

Mon 5th – We didn’t do too much today, except go down to the beach. The children did some rock pooling at Ohwiro Bay, and then went swimming with their body boards. That evening Jill had her friend over to sort out her computer, Sean, and he stayed for dinner. The weather was beautiful, and we sat outside, although the mozzies were around!! The children had played on the Trampoline with Lux, which makes them slip and slide around. After this they were showered in the garden sprinkler!! They were as happy as anything, and all the adults could hear was the shriek over raucous laughter!
Thanks to Jill and Oddi we had a great time staying in Newtown.
Tues 6th –Got up at 5.30 am, yes 5.30 am!! Lucy’s Birthday!! However the reason we had to get up so early was not to prepare for this happy occasion (well I guess it depends how you look at it, Lucy is another year older, but there are the memories of other happy days on this day in the past!), it was so we could catch the Bluebridge ferry to Picton on the South Island. The trip across the Cook Strait was lovely, with bright blue sunshine. Picton is the gateway to the Marlborough Sounds, and it is stunning scenery with hills (probably classed as mountains!) with trees dropping sharply down in to the sound (the water inlet from the sea). The water is a beautiful clear Turquoise colour, and it’s very inviting to go for a swim. We didn’t, though, because we had to get to Pohara Beach to meet our friends Thomas, Gila and Lisa.
We arrived at the Top 10 Campsite at Pohara beach at about 5.30pm, and then promptly went for a swim. Even Lucy swam in the sea! After this we had a BBQ which Tom and Gila had organised, it was great…..Thanks to Tom and Gila for that.
Wed 7th – We moved from Pohara Beach up to Puponga. On the way we stopped at the Pupu springs, which is the largest freshwater spring. The water here is the clearest I have ever seen, when you look at it you can see right to the bottom, it was absolutely glorious! You used to be able to swim in it, but because of the spread of Algae called Didymo it is illegal to do so now. Apparently people do try to swim in it, but there are wardens to stop them doing it, and a minimum fine of $1000 to try and stop them.
After the springs we went to our campsite at Puponga, which was nice except for a ‘jobs worth’ manager who made sure that our campers were not taking up an extra inch at all on our sites, even though there was nobody else there, and made sure that we left dead on 10am the next morning! It was a shame really, because it is a nice site in a nice area.
That night we went to Nguroa Bay, which is reached down a 10km gravel road, and a great walk through sand dunes. We got to the beach and we were there by ourselves. The sea was crashing in between two islands, so we took to the water with our body boards. Alistair and Rowena had a lovely time surfing in, whilst I stood around looking cold! Lucy, again, came in for a swim, but retreated early to the warmth of the towel!
Touch Rugby was the order of the day after we came out of the sea, and it was a great way to warm up. Tom, Gila and Lisa played, and the boys won a closely fought battle, 10-9! Lucy and I went for a walk along the deserted beach, where we came across large caves and channels in the rocks which had been formed by the sea – what a place this is! We walked father, and spotted some sea lions on the rocks, and one was even right in front of us, so we got within about 10 meters from it before it realised and then retreated. It’s difficult to explain how nice this beach is, but suffice to say it’s another unspoilt paradise in NZ.
Thurs 8th – We left the campsite as soon after 10am as we could, and promptly drove 20 meters from the front gate and parked. Opposite the campsite was a walk at low tide out to an island which housed a seal colony. We walked out across the river of water to the island, and saw what we thought were a whole load of seals. They turned out to be birds! Anyway a bit further on we walked around the rocky point of the island, and came across the seals. There was also one seal swimming, and playing in the sea right by us. We spent some time watching them as they went through their daily routine, and almost forgot about the incoming tide! So we hurried back towards the car where the river that we had crossed had deepened quite considerably, but as we all had our sense of adventure with us we crossed quite easily, only getting our shorts wet!
We drove on through Pohara to Takaka to Tata beach, where the afternoon was spent sun bathing and swimming, a well earned rest!
That evening we drove to Totaranui Beach DOC Camp, where we spent the night. Before settling down for dinner though, we spotted some dolphins out at sea. They gave us a show, by jumping up out of the sea, and then diving down again….really was a lovely sight.
Fri 26th – I made the bicycle up for the children and Rowena, Alistair and Rowena spent some time riding around on these. We were booked on the water taxi to Mutton Cove at 11 am, so had a bit of time to mess about. At 5 to 11 we went to the beach to catch the taxi, but the man said that it had left early! Anyway he said he would detour to take us, so we got our ride. The ride was great because the helmsman took us to our destination, but on the way showed where the seal colony was. This was great because we got so close to them.
After being dropped on another amazing deserted beach, we walked up to Separation Point, where we saw more seals! We became quite Blaze about them now! Back at the beach there was time for more swimming and playing. Alistair, Rowena, Thomas and I went for a swim to the seal colony, and we managed to get a close up from the sea. On the way back Rowena spotted a ‘wall’ of fish, it was amazing there were thousands of fish in the shoal! We have never seen anything like this before, except on ‘The Natural World’ Mr Attenborough! You now know why the seals are there, because they have plenty of breakfast, lunch and dinner right under their noses!
The children made it back to the beach before me, and I managed to spot a manta ray before getting out. What a day so far, so many high lights! We still had to walk back to the campsite, which was about a 2 hour walk. This was a beautiful walk along beaches and through the bush, with great views of the sea crashing in below us.
We finished off by all going in for a swim, as the sea was as flat as a pancake.
A brilliant day which was full of great experiences.
Sat 27th – Could we repeat the day before? We got up about 8 ish, and left the campsite at about 9. Again we had to get somewhere before the tide had come in, this time we going south to Awaroa Bay. Thomas heard that there was a lodge there where we could have a coffee and an Ice Cream before getting the water taxi back.
We started along the track with the rain falling, and pretty soon came across a lovely beach, which we had to walk along. That was the story for the walk as we then went into the bush, and out again on another beach. We were starting to hurry because we didn’t know what the tide was doing, but in the end we got to the water inlet from sea, and crossed with no problem.
We had lunch next to the water inlet, and by the time we had finished the weather was changing with sun coming out. We walked to the lodge past their organic garden, which produces a lot of fresh fruit and veg for the restaurant there. Once at the lodge it was time for coffee and cake, this had been what we ad been looking forward to all along the track! We were not disappointed. Due to their error they brought us the wrong order, so they had to go back and change it. As they had made the mistake we ended up with what we had ordered (something with lots of chocolate!) and the extra order that they had mistakenly given us (not sure what this was, but it was nice!)….Great!
The lodge is a nice place, and to reach it you have to come in by water taxi, or by plane. Otherwise you can walk there.
We left the lodge, and Rowena and Lisa got a lift to the beach on a quad bike, whilst we all had to walk! Another beautiful beach…..getting boring now….NOT!! We followed our routine of going for a swim, then spending some time playing with the tennis ball, before getting the water taxi back to Totaranui. This was quite exiting because the sea was rough, and it we had to dodge the waves as they came in on the beach….the end of a prefect day!
Sun 28th – Today was another moving day. After doing the shopping, and filling up with gas we moved to Kaiterirteri. The beach here is also nice, but there are more people around. It was a bit overcast when we got there, but we still went for a swim. After which we went to the campsite, which had a lot of people on it, and met two of Tom and Gila’s friends – Johnny and Alien (pronounced allee en). We all had a BBQ, and a few beers! Twas another good day for us all.