TriptotheSouthIsland2021

 Monday 12th April - Homeward Bound Everywhere you go in New Zealand there are logging trucks and Road Works. We left Hawera with an impressive view of Taranaki on our left:- and drove up through Stratford to Waitera. Then we drove along the beautiful coastline to Urenui where we found a bonkers British Tea rooms The inside has to be seen to be believed: ... and the table setting was very genteel:- From there we drove over Mount Messenger and along the next coastline to the Mokau Café for lunch:- We turned inland after Awakino and drove passed the new bridge that will take the road passed the Awakino tunnel. We got home at about 3:00pm tired but happy.

  Sunday 11th April – Hawera As we had quite a long drive ahead of us we got up early and got ourselves organised. We left at about 9:00pm. This was a fingers crossed drive – hoping that the duck-tape and Mary-Ann’s shoe laces would keep the joint between the car and the caravan together.  Fortunately it did. The weather was pretty good with the odd shower. Had a coffee at Bulls at the “Bulls Eye” café. We drove on to Whanganui and took the SH 1 by-pass route round the back of the city to the road to Hawera. On the way we went through Patea - a little town with a big name! We got here about 1:00pm in good order – the lights stayed on with only the odd bit of attention necessary. Here we are at the Hawera NZMCA park:- The weather picked up as well so it is actually quite pleasant here. Amazing view of Taranaki:-

  Saturday 10th April – Visit Marion Hansen and James After we got all our morning tasks done we headed off to Marion Hansen’s place at Raumati Beach for lunch. As there were roadworks on the main road in Google took us a long way round via Poplar Avenue, but we got there eventually. Her place is within 5minutes of the beach. We had a nice lunch and then Mary-Ann and Marion did genealogy stuff while I read the paper. At about 3:00pm we drove back to Plimmerton to pick up stuff to take to James’s place and then followed the motorway to Wellington and then Tinakori Road to Karori. We had a great evening over fish n chips for tea Got back to Plimmerton at about 8:00pm

  Friday 9th April – Picton to Wellington We up-sticksed (?) early and drove to Picton to meet Doug Mills for coffee at the Mariners Mall. We parked the caravan on the side of the hill going up to the New World supermarket, Broadway. . Scoozi, the café Doug had suggested, was closed till 10:00am so went down to the harbour and had coffee in the SeaBreeze café. The staff all seemed to know Doug well. It had a great outlook out over the harbour front. We got a text from BlueBridge to say that the ferry was delayed and that check-in would now be 2:00pm instead of 1:00pm. From there we went back to the caravan to take it down to park it near the BlueBridge Ferry terminal. I realised that the caravan was awfully close to a large concrete power pole. I backed up very carefully to get the caravan clear of it and then watched the oncoming traffic in the driver’s mirror as I turned out into the road, only to hear a gronching noise as the power pole ripped off the outside light above t...

 Thursday 8th April - Picton Again Today dawned in perfect blue. We set off at about 9:30. The day was lovely and so was the drive. We stopped at Havelock again for morning tea. It really is worth another visit, but we had to keep going this time. We got to the Spring Creek Holiday Park about 1:00pm and got the same park as last time by the river, 41 A:- I realised that the old house that is the office is backed by a huge Monkey Puzzle tree

  Wednesday 7th April - Nelson This morning we went up to Peter & Lind's local church, St. Barnabas,  and enjoyed a morning service with the parishioners  ... followed by a morning tea provided by Linda This afternoon managed to Skype Ian for his birthday - now 44!

 Tuesday 6th April - Buller Gorge, Murchison to Nelson It was a beautiful morning when we set off to the Buller Gorge, Murchison and eventually Nelson. We got a visit from our morning weka again:- Here is a short video of his visit to us:- The Buller Gorge is spectacular. The river is beautiful:- We came across Hawke's Crag where the road was dug out of the rocky hillside. One man I spoke to described it as half a tunnel:- ... close up:- We stopped at The Commercial Hotel in Murchison for lunch - lovely:- At about 2:00pm we arrive and Peter & Linda's place in Stoke, Nelson. We went out for dinner at their local pub The Bach   ... and had a great meal and a "jug" of Speights beer - I haven't had a jug of beer since I taught in Kaikohe in 1969!

Monday 5th April - Tauranga and Cape Foulwind This afternoon we took a short drive down to the Seal Colony at Tauranga Bay near Cape Foulwind. Here is the entrance to the walkway:- It was a well developed and maintained track  ... and Boardwalk:- When we got there it took awhile to see where the seals were:- ...    but once we spotted one - mother & pup:-  ...  we began to see lots more:-

  Sunday  4th April - Westport - Kawaiti NZMCA Camp ground  We arrived here in the afternoon and got ourselves organised.  Just after that another caravan pulled in alongside us and who should it be but The Wilsons - my brother's wife Elaine's brother John Wilson and his wife Maureen, with their elderly dog Lucy:- We took a walk down to Westport Beach:- Each morning we were here we got visited by a Camp weka scavenging for food:- The weka would have climbed into our caravan if we had let it! Down town was the Town Clock:- ... and then down to the wharf:-

 Sunday 4th April - Punakaiki Rocks Today when we set off we were expecting cloud in the morning, then rain in the afternoon. Instead it has been mild allday with sunny spells all day We left Hokitika at about 10:30am and headed off to SH 6 to Westport. We passed through Greymouth, which looked to be a fairly prosperous extensive town – all the buildings and houses looked tidy and well maintained. At about lunchtime we got to Punakaiki Rocks which had changed remarkably since the last time I was there in 1966 with Jon de Wyn – a DOC Visitor Centre and a Café with “Elton John” in charge. The first thing we saw when we got out of the car was an opportunist Weka:- When the Weka realised that we weren’t a food source it wandered off. We had a coffee and scone first at the cafe:- In the café we met Linda Mills, Doug Mills wife and her friend. We walked across the road to the entrance to the Punakaiki Rocks:- It was nice to ...

 Saturday 3rd April - Hokitika   Gorge In the afternoon we decided to go and visit the Hokitika Gorge because of its unique blue water:- ... and ... We then got some glimpses of the water:- We found a boardwalk:- ... and finally we got to the swing bridge which Mary-Ann wasn't sure about:- I took a few photos from the bridge:-  ... and then down to the river itself:-  ... and the river itself:-