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I woke to find that the weather was much improved on yesterday. I wanted to go to the cinema today in Blenheim but I wanted to take a different route as I’d already driven up and down the SH1 twice. As I had done the east coast, I decided this time to drive west, to Havelock which was a quaint little town. Now if I’d known what was between Nelson and Haverlock, I’d have continued driving just a little further and that would have saved me a less than interesting journey some days later, however I don’t have foresight and my primary thought was to get to Blenheim in time to see the film I had decided to watch. From Haverlock I turned southwards, down the SH6 to the town of Renwick and here I turned east to Blenheim through roads bordered by vineyards nearly all the way.

At Blenheim, I was a little early for the cinema and as it was a nice day, I stopped by the side of the river to eat my sandwich and have a drink of fruit tea from the thermos. They must have a miniature railway of some sort as there is a track running quite a distance through the park on the side of the river I was sitting; the rails stretched as far as my eye could see and later, when I visited another part of town, where the steamboat sits in the water, there was a “station” there and a continuation of the same rails. There were no signs or literature that I could see on this little train but it seems like it would be a good ride whenever it is in action.

Having enjoyed a bit of sunshine and a bit of a read while eating my lunch, it was now time to find the cinema again.

 I located the cinema with just one wrong turning and bought my ticket to watch Transporter 3. It might not have been a first choice however I have seen most of the films showing in the majority of NZ cinemas which tend on the whole to be a little behind the times with their viewings. I actually enjoyed the first Transporter [or was it the second] and I enjoyed this one as well.

Once the film was over, it was still fairly early so I decided to look at a couple more things in Blenheim.  I parked at the railway station and walked back to look at the steamboat that I had seen moored beside the river. Regrettably, it was not a real tourist thing, more a thing for the locals because it only sailed out for Sunday lunches and other than that, it was for private function hire only. I took photos. I then spotted a sign for a theatre and followed directions to the location but there was nothing on the outside to indicate if it ever did shows. I returned to the railway station and had a look in the “i-site” office however there was nothing new to see. I took a picture of the railway station because it is an historic building then returned to the car and from there, up the SH1 again, to Picton.

As usual, back at the hostel, I prepared, cooked and ate my dinner and retired to my room to work on the computer a bit before bed.

Thursday 2^nd April

I was starting to realise how far behind I was falling with my blog and in all honesty I didn’t have anywhere I particularly wanted to go, so after breakfast, I spent the morning with the computer on my lap in the quiet room of the hostel, bashing away at my notes.

At around 12h30 I stopped and put away the computer, had lunch and then drove into town as I had booked a second Mail Boat trip down the Sound, taking in different bays from the last trip.

As the weather was so much nicer today, I spent some of the time up on the top of the boat, appreciating the weather and the scenery. To be honest, two trips were unnecessary. One trip on a fine day is all that is needed and if you do stand topside on the ferry from North Island, you get to see the Tory Channel anyway, so you don’t need to see it again, which is what I did on the Tuesday trip. Still, experience is generally gained by the doing.

The boat returned just after 5h30pm and the shops were shut today so I just returned to the hostel, made dinner and read a little before going to bed.

Friday 3^rd April

Today I was heading to St. Arnaud. I packed up my stuff and said goodbye however I didn’t leave town immediately. I thought I should see the Edward Fox Maritime Museum in Picton first. I drove into Picton and stopped outside the historical museum which for some reason I thought was the right one; paid to go inside and looked around and then asked where I should go to see the Edward Fox. I was directed to another museum and it dawned on me that I’d gone to the wrong museum. Ah well, this little place had its own value but I’d seen all that I could by the time I asked, so I left and drove the car to the correct museum. That meant paying again to enter the Edward Fox Maritime Museum, next to the Aquarium come cinema. It is a museum set aside specifically for this one ship that had worked for so many years in and out of Picton in a number of guises until it was left to rot in the harbour before being towed into another bay, because it was a blot on Picton’s seascape. In this bay, it listed sideways in the water for a number of years before a preservation society arranged for a dry dock to be built and for it to be re-floated and returned to Picton and a museum built around it. After much consultation and thought, it was decided to preserve what remained of the ship rather than rebuilding it to its former glory. It had been built entirely of Teak and would still have been in excellent condition had it not listed to the side in the bay where it was left to the elements. Here the sea took its toll and many of the upright struts have been eroded by the sea, however a fair portion of the ship is still solid and you can and do walk though the actual remains of the ship, seeing how the wooden joints went together and the copper sheet covering and the metal bits – it’s possible my pictures might tell more.

Anyway, all this looking around took me until a little after 11h30, when I left and set off on my trip.  I drove down the SH1 as far as Spring Creek where I turned off down the Rapaura Road until it joined the SH6 and from there to Renwick just to ring the changes, covering a different road between two points already travelled and then onto the SH63 heading for St. Arnaud. Most of the way along the SH63 to St. Arnaud it was a valley with ranges on either side making it very easy driving. The Richmond Range was for the most part on my right, [north] with various individual mountains and loads of high hills on my left. The Wairau River runs all the way through this valley although you don’t get to see it until nearer St. Arnaud. For the first half of the journey you see mostly Vineyards. There is only one little community along this stretch of road, called Wairau Valley and because it’s all farm land, there are no lookout points or picnic spots along the way. As I was driving and wanting to rest for five minutes to eat my sandwich lunch, I spotted a sign pointed to “Lake Argyll”. There was nothing marked on my map but with curiosity, I turned off. At first I turned back because it looked like private property but then I looked at the sign again and thought it through and realised it must be ok for public to access, so I turned around again and followed the road. It was sealed up to the Water Power Station whose property it is and then an unsealed road around and up the hill, with a beautiful reservoir at the top which is open for recreational purposes, for example on certain days of the week, it is used by a ski club and fishing must be allowed because a sign asked that tagged fish be put back into the water. I wasn’t sure if one was allowed to swim in it but it looks as if it would be delightful to do so. There was no-one except me there and if it’s not even marked on the map, it’s probably only known to the locals. It was a lovely day, with this aquamarine lake and a backdrop of tall fir trees and a gorgeous view of the Richmond Range and the valley countryside and I ate my sandwich lunch and had a cup of blackcurrant and apple tea from my thermos flask and thought that a picnic table and chairs was all that was missing from the spot. Had I not wanted to get to St Arnaud early enough to see the area, I would have happily opened my deckchair and enjoyed the afternoon there.  However, I got back into the car and drove on. Some 2km beyond Lake Argyll I crossed the bridge that went over Branch River [in case anyone wants to find the Lake themselves] and about another 7km down the road were road works which disguised the entrance to Kowhai Point, so I missed it, however I don’t think you could see anything better than I had from Lake Argyll so I wasn’t fussed. As I neared St. Arnaud I saw a sign for the Rainbow Ski Fields, so I turned off and drove 17km down a private track that is open to the public, over a hump and dip, 8 cattle grids, five fords and one bridge and missing several sheep that leap out in front of the car to cross to the other side. It was pretty countryside but that’s all. The turn off for the ski fields after the 17km of sealed road became unsealed and I decided to turn back. There was another unsealed route that could take you all the way to Hamner Springs – some 153km however you had to pay to go on that track and you had to have a 4WD and be self sufficient as there are no facilities for water or respite along the route and the weather can be very changeable.

I just drove back and into St. Arnaud. I was on the lookout for a Yellow House or an YHA sign but saw neither and found myself by Lake Rotoiti which looked glorious. I was going to ask at the Visitors Centre but looked again at the YHA map and the Centre’s map and figured it was along the road I’d just come in on. I drove back and saw a backpackers sign and asked at their cafe where it was. They said it had changed its name and was now the Travers Sabine Lodge and was 200m along. I arrived and was told that it was no longer an YHA or a BBH where last year it had been both. It was a lodge now and had been fully booked by the NZ Army however; the Manager’s house was being used as a hostel. There were two boys and a girl in one room and me and another girl (who looked very androgynous) in another room.

At first I was alone to unpack and then I was about to go to the local shops when I met one of the men who walked with me to the shop and back, where I then met the other two and we sat and talked for a while. They encouraged me to go for a leisurely ten minute walk to the lake which I eventually did. Once there, it was so nice that I decided to do the Honeydew walk which was marked as a 45 minute walk. It only took me 30 minutes so I also did the 15 minute Bellbird walk in about 5 minutes and then returned home, made my dinner and sat in the bedroom on the computer for a couple of hours. Before going to bed, I set some more pictures to put on the blog to run through the night.

Saturday 4^th April

Intermittently through the night I woke to keep the computer active but somewhere in the night it had switched itself off and was not working and even when I woke at seven and started it up again it wasn’t working properly. I set it to go and hoped it would work and started typing my blog as I didn’t want to get up early. However by 9am I knew I would have to get up as officially I had to leave in an hour’s time and I was heading to Nelson and its amazing how little gets achieved on the computer in two hours. I did manage to get washed, dressed and breakfasted within the hour though which is pretty good for me; possibly helped by the fact that this was a house not a huge hostel so you didn’t have to go up and down staircases and along corridors to get from one thing to another. So, leaving at 10am I decided to go west to have a look at the second of the Nelson Lakes, Lake Rotoroa. This was further away that I originally thought. Firstly I had to drive down the SH63 to where it joined the SH6. Low cloud and fog lingered over the road and fields and in amongst the mountains and although most of the drive was through valley, there was 3km of twisty mountain road to contend with. At the Highway junction, at Kawatiri, there is a picnic spot and nod to an historic railway where I stopped for five minutes, reading the information panels. I then drove south for about 7 km to the entrance to the Lake. Lake Rotoroa is a lovely lake; somewhere you could happily spend the whole day if you had time – and as long as you had plenty of insect repellent because they have mean little flies that bite very hard all around that area. I did a little 10 minute walk called the Flowers Brothers Walk where there were the most amazing looking fungi and got some nice pictures of the lake, then I returned to the car and drove back the way I had come, past St.Arnaud to take the scenic road to Nelson. I stopped again at Lake Rotoiti where I ploughed through a packet of crisps and had a drink of fruit tea. The ducks liked me because I gave them my crisp crumbs and they were even snatching them from my hands and started pecking at my shoes – cheeky things. I read a chapter of my book before getting back on the road. It was only then that I noticed how low my petrol gauge was, so I tried to maintain a steady 65-70kph to conserve my fuel as much as possible so that I could get to Nelson safely.

The scenic route didn’t take as long as I thought it would, so I was back on the SH6 with a whole unit of fuel to spare before I even fell into the red section however, by the time I got into Wakefield, half an hour from Richmond, and saw a service station, I decided to fill up there to reassure myself. The last thing I want is for the dirt at the bottom of the fuel tank to cause a problem with the engine while I’m driving around these deserted roads with no telephone reception, so I’d rather not empty the tank if I can help it.

I stopped and spent five minutes looking around Wakefield and took a couple of photos and then drove on to Nelson. This is a much bigger town, in that it has a number of neighbourhoods, although the main town is set on a crossroads within a square and there are shops along the crossroads and set within each square. It’s not too difficult to “do” the town centre in about an hour. Actually it is officially a city because it has a cathedral.

After checking in to the hostel and walking down to the Anzac park and back I prepared my vegetables for dinner and put them back in the fridge and went to the car to book the next couple of day’s accommodation (I had left the hostel booklets in the car). I had originally requested two nights in Nelson. On arrival, I changed that to one night. I then rang the Motueka YHA for the second night – but they were full, so I have booked into a BBH hostel in that town instead. I then booked two nights in a BBH hostel at the far western end of the north of South Island called “Innlet” so that I can visit Farewell spit; then I shall return slowly back to Nelson before heading down the west coast.

Once I’d made my reservations, I looked at the town map and decided to have a look at the Cathedral. By doing this, I made a full tour of the town and even found the cinema – not that I had time to see anything this night – well I did have time, but I didn’t want to. I got back to the hostel around 18h30 and immediately went about cooking my dinner. Having eaten it, I went to my room, got ready for bed and sat in bed with my computer. Unfortunately the Wi-Fi access was too low to get onto the net from my room, so I thought about getting on with my blog. However, as is often the case I got sidetracked and didn’t get any of it done. By 10pm I was so tired that I closed down the computer, put it away; turned my telephone clock back an hour (making it 9pm) because tonight the clocks went back declaring it officially winter, and went to sleep.

Sunday 5^th April

The clocks turned back an hour at 2am this morning. I was tired from yesterday and was asleep shortly after 10pm which was like 9pm and I woke in the night and by 05h30 (winter time) I got up because I was bored just lying in bed. I didn’t dress because I had slept in my track suit while my night clothes, which I’d washed the night before, were drying. I just slipped on a bra, brushed my hair, grabbed my computer and room key and went downstairs. I still had some photos to put onto my blog site from 19-24 March and the wireless link was too low in the room, so my decision to go downstairs was to be in the internet room and get wireless reception so that I could complete the transfer. This was all done by 07h30 so I decided to put through the first batch of the 25-31^st March photos too and write up the blog a bit. The trouble with the blog is that I jot down notes, meaning to fill in the detail later but then I get bored and don’t want to do it or I just get hungry or cold or I want to add detail that is on the map in the car, so I have to do it later. It is getting harder and harder to do but I want to persist as it is something for me to keep and remember things by. It does mean I have to spend all my spare time on it one way or another to try and keep it up.

As always, you have to be out of the hostel by 10am and so I got washed, dressed, had breakfast, packed the car and left the hostel by that time, driving to Motueka.

It is not far to Motueka on the map however, I had other plans. I hadn’t driven the route between Nelson and Haverlock and wanted to know what I had missed, so although my final destination was west of Nelson, at first, I drove east. Maybe ten kilometres east was the village of Hira and for about thirty kilometres from there to Rai Valley was a twisty mountainous road which I never find pleasant driving on. Following on, the next village was Pelorus Bridge and that was well worth the drive. The Pelorus River was beautiful. One of those places that you’d like to set your deckchair there and let the day unfold. The water was so inviting I was very tempted to take off my shoes and paddle. Hopefully the pictures should explain what I mean. After a short while appreciating the location I got back into the car and continued to drive on to Haverlock but I have to say that there is nothing to write home about on the route from Pelorus Bridge to Haverlock. Plenty of scenery but nothing more than usual in this very green and pleasant area backed up with mountains.

Once I’d reached Haverlock I visited the facilities, relaxed for five minutes and then drove back the way I’d come. As I came back into Nelson I stopped to photograph a Japanese inspired garden that Nelsonians talk about, Miyazu Park; however I couldn’t see anything special. It looked like a domain to me; a green space with some trees. I drove through Nelson to the western beach suburb of Tahunanui and had a look at the beach there. It was quite attractive being nice sand coloured sand rather than the volcanic black sand found in so many other places and there was so much of it. The beach seemed to stretch forever in both directions, well tramped with a little driftwood but generally clear and a becalmed sea which is obviously very safe for children. I got my deckchair out, installed it and sat eating my sandwich, drinking my fruit tea and reading my book for about an hour for lunch. Behind the beach is a good children’s play area and a domain beyond, where, because it was the weekend, there was someone offering stilt walking lessons to a variety of children.

Time was rolling on so I packed everything back into the car and after a few photos of the surrounding area and a statue, I carried on driving east. At Richmond I filled the car with petrol and carried on until I saw a sign saying Rabbit Island. I looked at my map and was curious about this island that had a road joined to the State Highway that runs right through the middle of it. I followed my nose and took the turn off for the island and drove up to it. The island had gates and is closed at night. There was a road directing right and I was curious as to where it led however, I followed the road straight ahead and found myself in a wooded area that, once I walked over the rise showed me another beach that extended the length of the island which must be all of ten kilometres long and looking to the east, showing Nelson in the distance. This was yet another sandy beach and quite glorious. I walked about a bit and took some photos and again, would have loved to have stayed here but I had another destination, so I had to return to the car and carry on with my route. I decided to come off the State Highway and chose instead the inland road called the Moutere Highway. This took me past the village of Upper Moutere, also known as Sarau which was an attractive village. I stopped to take a few pictures of some of their buildings as I drove through. As I passed this village I saw a sign for an historic settler’s cottage and again went off my route to see this place. It was not easy to find. I found myself driving down little side roads and wondered how much longer I had to travel to see this place. Finally I found it, a little thatched cottage, obviously well looked after, on the corner of a road. I took a picture and had to find my way back to the highway.

All these diversions took the day. I arrived at Motueka towards dusk. I found the Hat Trick Lodge, checked in, found myself to be the last of six girls squished into a small room with two normal bunk-beds plus a double bed bottomed bunk-bed and guess what, I had the bunk above the double bed where it was almost impossible to make the bed without stepping on the double bed beneath. There was nowhere to put my bags although I slipped them under the base of the double bed as best I could. The rungs up to the bed were right in the corner where a chair and the other bunk owner’s bags had been put. I moved the chair to help my access but it was difficult as it was so tight against the wall. The rungs hurt my feet so I had to climb in my slippers and keep them up in the bed with my handbag. The one good thing was that they had a cotton bag attached to each bed to put your last minute night things in, so at least I had somewhere to store my tablets, water, spectacles, jewellery and reading book.

I made dinner and didn’t like the atmosphere of the hostel. It was full of people who had come there to work in the apple orchards for which the area is famed as it was apple picking time. It made me feel out of place. I was glad I had only booked to stay one night. It wasn’t long after dinner that I made my way to read in bed and go to sleep.

Monday 6^th April

I didn’t like the feel of Motueka or more precisely the hostel and was happy to be leaving. I was heading for another BBH hostel as far west as I could find hostels. YHA’s furthest hostel west along the northern edge of South Island was Motueka however BBH has one called “Innlet” at Waikato, a stretch along the road west from Collingwood. It took me all day to get there as well. I stopped off at various places along the way. My first diversion was to call in and have a look at Kaiteriteri. When I thought a right hand turn must be the town of Kaiteriteri, as there were loads of signs for B&B’s, it was to find that this was all there was there, together with a plenty of new building work going on;  I turned the car around, returned to the main road and continued in the same direction as before. I then turned into another road when I saw a sign saying “Little Kaiteriteri”. It was not the road to the town either, however it was lovely. The houses obviously belonged to a lot of rich people and most were summer houses, all closed up – what a waste. There was a lovely little beach and not a soul on it. I could happily have spent a day there; however this was not the town. I turned the car around once again and continued down the main road. About half a kilometre on and it was evident that I was finally coming into town because of its commercial aspect. Being on the border of the Abel Tasman N.P. there were all manner of kayak self hire and guided tour companies; mountain cycling; water taxis; you name it, they have it and a lovely stretch of beach. I noticed that the Kaiteriteri Lodge had a sign out saying dorm rooms for $30. That’s expensive but it looked really nice and right next to the beach, so I went inside and took a leaflet with their number on it before returning down the same road, to continue my journey along the SH60.

 I next stopped at “Hawkes Lookout” on Takaka Hill which had lovely views and where I read a lovely Maori story and had a walk around the area before continuing my journey. Not much further along, I arrived at the entrance to Ngarua Caves. I had been thinking of going on one of their tours, however I arrived at about 11h07 and their tours were hourly on the hour. I decided I wouldn’t wait for the 12noon tour, so after driving down their driveway that gave onto spectacular views, and taking a couple of pictures, I drove back up the very steep incline of their driveway and back onto SH60. Just a couple of kilometres on from the caves, is a sign for “Harwood’s Hole”. On my map there is no indication of what this hole is or even that there is a hole. What there is on the map is a line for a dirt track and a movie location sign and the notation “Chetwood Forest”. I don’t know to what film it refers. I don’t recall that name being in LOTR so I think it is from some other film, but anyway, it was reason enough to turn off the highway and drive the 11kms of dirt track through a variety of scenery in the Canaan Downs Scenic Reserve, part of the Abel Tasman National Park. The journey took well over half an hour, over one bridge, five cattle grids, 9 fords and 74 culvert markers.  Finally arriving at the car park at the end of the road, I discovered that it was a further 45 minute walk to get to Harwood’s Hole. As I had driven this far, I decided I’d better do the walk and changed into my walking shoes. The major part of the walk was delightful through this ancient beech forest however towards the end it required watching my step as I had to climb over or between stones in the ground. When I got to the site of the lookout point a couple were coming down. The lady said she couldn’t make it to the top. I looked straight up and couldn’t see any steps or any route at all in fact. I started to climb but like the lady, gave up when it looked like the only way to get there would be to scramble up on your hands and knees and maybe even pull yourself up through the undergrowth. I decided against it. Perhaps the hole would be better. Signs indicated that the hole was very dangerous and only experienced cavers should enter ensuring they had the right equipment and had informed others of their plans didn’t auger well. Other signs explained the dangers of loose rocks around the hole and recommended people should not get too close to the edge and there were also signs indicating that the ground was full of sink holes. As I progressed, the rocks got larger and became the size that I had had to climb at Jim-Jim Falls in Kakadu N.P., OZ. [Almost as tall as me and no space to walk between them, it’s up and over or not at all!] I swore I was never doing that again and after attempting to climb over some of the smaller examples of rock at the “Hole”, I decided a twisted ankle and /or a mass of bruised legs and arms really wasn’t an option just to look at a hole; so I just took pictures from where I was. At least I could see the open cavern above the hole and that was enough for me. I took some pictures and then turned around and walked back to the car. By the time I got back to the car, it was getting on to 13h30, so I decided to eat my lunchtime sandwich there, at the picnic table near the car park. Seeing as how obscure this place was and the rough road to nowhere, I find it quite extraordinary that there were six cars in the car park at lunchtime.

It was nearing 14h30 when I got back onto the State Highway and apart from stopping at “Bobs Lookout” in the Takaka Hill Scenic Reserve and taking a photo; it was non-stop to the town of Takaka.

At Takaka, I filled the car with petrol and checked the tyre pressures and radiator water and I did some shopping in the local supermarket.

I saw a sign for the cheapest Backpackers ever, at $15 (that’s about £6) just before the village of Onekaka but I didn’t take details. I wondered if someone who had a house there just put people up if they should pass by and called themselves Backpackers, or maybe they had a barn with straw mattresses and it was all very primitive. Who knows?

The road separates just outside Collingwood and as it was getting towards the end of the day, I wasn’t inclined to have a look at this village but continued down the road to my final destination. I was driving along the road thinking of something else when my brain went into gear and I realised I may just have driven past the sign for the hostel. I stopped the car, turned around, drove back about 200m and Yes, I had driven straight past the hostel “Innlet”.

The hostel itself was up a dirt track and I was surprised to be told to take my shoes off in the house! It’s not as if I’d been tramping in my sneakers, I have walking shoes for tramping... and it’s not as if they had a white carpet or anything. Fortunately I was allowed to wear my carpet slippers around the house however I found it irritating to have to keep changing shoes every time I wanted something out of the car.

The hostel was old adequately comfortable and fortunately I got a single bed, even though there was a bunk bed in the room, for some reason the German girls who were in the room on my first night, had stayed in the bunk beds. They left on the morning of my second nights stay and I was alone that night in the room. Very nice. The beds and bedding were more than adequate although when I was alone, I did feel slightly cold during the night with the light weight duvet.

The atmosphere in the kitchen/living room which is open plan is very warm and relaxing with the managers, staff and clients all mucking in together. There’s a vegetable plot in the garden and there was a glut of Russet Apples and Oranges for anyone to help themselves to. Cyril, a gentleman on an Easter Holiday break from south of Auckland, near the Coromandel, was here for the second year. He would go shellfish collecting and would cook up his find in the evening for anyone wishing to try a bit. The evening I arrived he’d found a load of oysters and the second night he’d cooked up mussels and paua. I’d had oysters and mussels before and didn’t like them. The paua was like eating a thick piece of elastic band, albeit a tasty one.

There is no telephone reception there, so I had to use a land line to make some reservations. It was clear that the weather the next day was not expected to be very nice and it was showing it already this evening as it started to rain heavily shortly after I had arrived, even though it had started lightly sometime after I left Takaka. I decided that I would love to learn to weave something with flax. I was so proud of my first try at making a flower and there was this lady in the area who offered a day’s workshop experience in flax weaving. Just up my street for a rainy day but she had been away and had left a message on her answer-phone that she was expecting to be back that night. I tried before and after dinner with no success, so I thought I’d try in the morning. I also decided to stay at Kaiteriteri on my return journey because it looked so pretty and do some dangerous sports while I’m there, so I booked a dorm bed in the Lodge . I tried to book on to Nelson YHA but I couldn’t get through. I also tried to book a trip to Farewell Spit for the following day but couldn’t get through to them either.

I decided to retire to my room and like one of the German girls, I got out my computer and did a little work for an hour or so before going to sleep.

I got up, dressed, had breakfast and packed up the car; said goodbye and drove to Wellington. Once inside the city, I promptly got lost. I rang the Bluebridge Ferry Company and asked for directions which helped, even though they were wrong, because they helped pinpoint where I was so that I could locate my route on the city map in my road map book. I arrived at the Bluebridge terminal absolutely bursting at the seams, so sorted that out first in the passenger terminal. Once I was comfortable again, I drove up to the car check in area. The computer reservation hadn’t worked; there was no sign of my booking. I thought it was strange that from pressing the completion button it went straight back to a new booking, no confirmation number and no e-mail sent to me. I had worried that this was the case and had in more ways than one decided to come early, not only because I knew I’d get lost but also because if there was a problem with the reservation, I wanted to be early enough to re-book on the premise that they would still have space available. I was correct, there was plenty of space on board, so I was told to park up the car in a lane and go back into the passenger terminal to reserve it there and then.  

Last night I tried to reserve the Picton YHA on line but they were fully booked so I rang and booked a BBH hostel for just one night. I have decided to alter all my plans and go to the Armageddon Expo in Christchurch this weekend so in order to do that, I shall leave Picton tomorrow and head south to Kaikoura where I shall stay one night in the YHA before driving on to Christchurch on the Friday. I spend two nights in Christchurch, going to Armageddon on the Saturday and head back up north, as much as possible by a different route, on the Sunday. I don’t have it all worked out but I’ve got that much booked anyway.

Once on board the ferry, I noticed there was a table where I could use my computer, so I went back to my car, fished out the computer bag and spent the whole trip typing up as much of my blog as I could to help me get up to date while on the move. As I shall be doing the ferry trip again, I can look at the Cook Strait another time.

I arrived into Picton which is a much smaller town than I expected and quite easily found my hostel. It is called Tombstone Backpackers because it is just across the road from the cemetery. It’s not in town, but on the outskirts however, with a car that’s no problem and for the Ferry, the hostel runs a shuttle service to and from for free, for foot passengers. It is a lovely hostel with sturdy beds and lovely crisp white linen complementing the black covered duvet and black under pillow. Yes, I was amazed; this is the only hostel I have come across where you get two pillows! The dorm is tightly packed with six beds in it and as the last in, I had to take a top bunk, however it was only for one night. It was also a mixed dorm which I don’t like but Lynne, the owner, said if next time I asked specifically for a female dorm, she would see what she could do. There was an exercise machine, a pool table, a piano, a spa, a quiet room, a TV lounge, a dining room, a kitchen and an internet room. What’s more she was linked to the same company as YHA so I could use wireless. The place was very clean and Lynne kept a keen eye on everything to make it stay like that. When I pointed out that the shower was leaking onto the wall and a light was out; the next day it had been fixed. I would say the only things missing were[a] no little shelf next to the top bunks to put your precious and night requirements on; and [b] a second sink in the kitchen, as during breakfast and evening meals there is a queue for the sink; and [c] a little more work space in the kitchen. These are little things though, although the shelf would be the most useful addition. One of the things I did appreciate that they had added was little LED touch lights attached to each bed head so that if you went to bed late at night or got up early in the morning, you had a little light to work by so that you could see what you were doing without putting the main light on and annoying everyone or having to do everything one handed while you hold your torch – that’s how I left my telephone charger behind in Taupo, not seeing it by torchlight!

Anyway, I made dinner, ate it and went to bed and read a while before sleeping.

Thursday 26^th March 2009

I got up, had breakfast and packed the car. I was driving to Kaikoura. There is a range of mountains to go through which involves the twisty road however; a lot of the route from Picton to well beyond Blenheim is a valley full of vineyards. Even though the heritage wine trail finishes with the mountain range, after it, in the next valley there seemed to be just as many vineyards, with the occasional animal farm in between. The only trouble with the journey is that I had absolutely no radio reception throughout the journey. The reception is not good but bearable in Picton but as soon as you drive east or south, there is nothing, so it got very lonely for me. When I saw posters with local radio wavelengths it was to discover that my car radio didn’t have those wavelengths, which I found very frustrating. What is more, I brought some CDs with me but the car had a Mini Disc player - who has mini discs!!

Anyway, I eventually drove into Blenheim and this is a lovely clean town on the wine trail, full of boutique B&Bs and suchlike. I photographed a couple of structures of interest and the river that flows through the town as I travelled through it, making a detour through the town centre.

I was now entering what is termed the Alpine Pacific Triangle. I stopped at a spot where it mentioned an historic bridge by the Awatere River and took a photograph of the sign there and of the old and new bridges before carrying on with my journey.

I drove through a town which may have been Seddon, which is located not far from the Awatere River, where I photographed the Anzac memorial.

As I climbed over another large hill and came over the crest, looking down on the valley floor below I was intrigued by a patch of bright pink in amidst the green fields and wondered what on earth it could be. I even turned the car around and drove back up the hill again so that I could take a photo and have another look before turning the car around again and continuing the journey.

As I reached the valley floor I saw a sign for a Salt works and turned off the highway to have a look. Lake Grassmere is a salt lake and there is a salt works there. I took a picture. The map said there was a visitor’s centre however I drove all the way to the works yet didn’t feel it was really set up for tourists and didn’t like to bother them, so I just turned around and drove off.

The Lake was so incredibly pink and I found it more and more frustrating that the camera couldn’t capture that colour. For the camera, the water was blue, try as I might to capture what I saw. Later, when trying to capture the colour by using the computer adjustments, I still couldn’t get the pictures to show the pink of the water without changing the colour of the countryside to a weird yucky fake colour. I have tried to compromise with a half and half state but it is less than satisfactory.

As I drove on there was a sign for a Lake lookout point which I followed but the lookout point wasn’t brilliant. I took a couple of photos but the water didn’t really look very nice and I even forgot to take a note of the name of the lake or where it was.

I stopped at a spot where there was property for sale and several cows around. I don’t know why because the scenery was nothing spectacular but I just fancied taking a photo of this scene.

Continuing on, that first glimpse of sea is always exciting and I had to take the obligatory photo. As I travelled past Wharanui I photographed a church because it was all by itself and was constructed of a lovely coloured grey stone. For the remainder of the journey, the road hugged the coastline and it was very beautiful.  It was a nice day, the sun was shining and I think that always makes the sea and the beaches look appealing. The water was a lovely azure blue and turquoise and it was a shame that there were no stopping places to give access to the beach. Possibly although it looked good, perhaps it was dangerous. The railway line also ran along the coast, interchanging between being on the inside of the road and on the outside, next to the coastline.

Crayfish and lobster are specialities of this coastline and I was tempted to buy one but knew that I couldn’t keep shellfish fresh while travelling and it was an unnecessary expense that I could do without and stored the idea to maybe do it on my final journey in South Island when perhaps I’d have a little more time.

A short way before arriving in Kaikoura I stopped at the Ohau Lookout which is an observation point of a seal colony below. I spent a good half hour just watching this baby seal wandering around. I found him fascinating.

On the outskirts of Kaikoura I travelled past a deer farm that did tours and thought that might be interesting to do one day. I also travelled past a holiday resort that had tree houses. I wanted to photograph them and I did, but instead of turning the car around and getting a shot in a clear area, I just took a photo through the fence, so unfortunately the photo makes it looks more like a prison camp but I thought the tree houses were something else, most unusual.

Kaikoura is a beautiful little place, seeming to have everything. The Southern Alps run across the skyline all the way to the sea. The coast line stretches for miles, even the town beach goes on for a good 5km and the YHA is right at the end. Firstly you have the town section with the information office and all the shops, then you have the “Westend” section and then you have what is called “The Esplanade” and right at the end of the Esplanade is the YHA. The view from this hostel is to die for, it is so beautiful. No wonder it is difficult to get a chair sitting outside on the sun deck, because they’re grabbed quickly while people sit for hours with a drink and a book or just chatting while looking out on one of the prettiest views ever. For some reason I forgot to take photos of the view from the hostel. I was probably overawed by it and somehow I don’t think the camera could do it justice. The following day I took a picture of a statue in the Westend section with the view beyond and that’s near enough the view you get from the hostel but it’s so much better when you’re actually there and can see it for yourself.

Once I was settled in the hostel (and I got a single bed, not a bunk so I was very chuffed) I looked at the brochures to see what I could do in the short time I’d be there. The first brochure I saw was a Night Sky tour and immediately that interested me so I rang to see if I could go on it the same evening and they said yes and that they’d pick me up from the hostel at 9pm. I then saw a tour to view albatrosses. As I’ve never seen an albatross, I thought that was an excellent idea.  I went to the “i-site” and enquired about the tour with them. There was two day-time tours with an option of an early morning tour on request. I said that it they were doing an early morning tour, I would book on it, but I needed to be away to continue my journey and couldn’t do a regular day time tour. I needn’t have worried. They were doing a tour at 7am, so I asked the “i-site” people to book it for me.

After looking around the town a bit and treating myself to fresh fish and chips from a takeaway,[cooked to order and only $5.50; incredibly cheap, delicious and large portion], I returned to the hostel to eat my dinner, after which I laid on the bed to try and rest a bit before my evening out, as normally I would be getting ready for bed around 9pm, not going out to look at the stars.

I was ready and waiting when the coach came to pick me up and I was surprised to see the coach full of young people. The man in charge drove us to a field where a mountain blocks the light from the town so that the only light to detract from the night sky was the 15second interval lighthouse light.

The sky was so clear and there was no moon to detract from the marvel of the sky above. I couldn’t have asked for a better night to be shown the celestial heavens. The Milky Way was so clear in its ride across the sky. We could even see the Magellan clouds. Our guide, with the use of a laser pointed out the stars that made the Southern Cross and then he pointed to the “pointer” stars below the Southern Cross and from them to two other bright stars in the sky. Obviously he mentioned their names but it would be expecting too much from me to remember all these names. Anyway, he explained that if you make a mark in the sky equidistant from the lower pointer star and this bright star to its right, you get celestial South. He then pointed to another bright star in the sky and said that if you take the two bright stars (I have just mentioned) and look on them as being one side of an equilateral triangle, where the other point of the triangle would be, IF there was such a star in the Southern skies (which unfortunately there isn’t), that point is celestial South. He showed us beetle-juice and Orion and other stars of which I can’t remember their names.

I asked why there appeared to be a black space within the Milky Way and it was explained to us that this was such a dense area of something I’ve forgotten, that is blocks out the stars. He asked us to look down from the black spot and notice that the blackness runs down the side of the Milky Way too. He asked us to see what shape we could see in the blackness and then said that Maori people called it the Whale. The black oval in the Milky Way that I had seen first, was supposed to be the tail and the body runs down the side of the Milky Way. He says that over the next month this black form would appear clearer in the sky and Maoris would see that as being the time when the Whales would migrate. Our guide also told us that Aborigines think this black shape looks like a giant Emu but couldn’t tell us what that might mean to the Aborigine people.

We were also shown Astrology signs; The Archer; Scorpio and Gemini and pointed to where Cancer was but said it is probably the hardest star sign to see in the night sky. We broke for tea and biscuits and our guide then set up his telescope to look at Saturn and so each of us in turn had a look down the viewer to see this little white dot with its rings around it. How amazing is that. When we’d all seen Saturn, he adjusted the viewer to look at a globular cluster of stars. This I found fascinating. To me, a globular cluster looked like a kaleidoscope. Millions of diamond shapes inside the circle of the telescope viewer. There was a lot more involved as well and it was a truly fabulous evening. I was dropped off about 11h30 and went straight to bed having set my alarm before going out. It didn’t take me long before I was fast asleep.

Friday 27^th March 2009

I had set the alarm for 05h45; got washed, dressed and breakfasted before getting in the car and driving to the collection point, only a couple of minutes down the road. I was at the “Encounter” office on time at 06h50 for the Albatross tour where another three people and I boarded a bus and were driven to the dockside. We then had to get into a boat which was on a trailer and the boat drove to the water and down into it. We sailed out to a spot in the sea where our guide put a metal cage of fish livers over the back of the boat and even before he’d done that, we were surrounded by dozens of Cape Pigeon Petrels and then a few seconds more and an Albatross or two arrived on the scene and within a short space of time there were at least a dozen Albatrosses, a good half dozen Giant Petrels, several dozen Cape Pigeon Petrels and a few other varieties of bird all wanting a look in on a free feed.

Now I thought an Albatross was an Albatross. However, I’m wrong. There are several different species of Albatross. If you look at my pictures, there is a smooth headed, open eyed variety that is the Royal Albatross; the ones with grey necks and white heads are White Caped Albatrosses. The Albatrosses with whiter necks than the grey necked ones and with even more distinctive black lines over their eyes like “Spock” style eyebrows are the Black Browed Albatrosses. There were also Salvin and Wandering Albatrosses in amongst them according to the list our guide gave us at the end of the day however I don’t recall him pointed them out to me to distinguish from the others although I believe a Salvin Albatross is smaller in size.

There was a large amount of fish liver in the metal cage and it was put in a cage so that they didn’t eat it too fast and get sick. By having to put their beaks in through a hole, they can only open their beaks a little bit to take a small bite, well, the bigger birds that is; and so the feast lasts a good long time for the tourists.

We also had the opportunity of seeing a male seal. He was rolling gently over and over in the water. Our guide said that he did this to fill his lungs with air before he went fishing himself. I asked if seals sometimes wanted a look in on the fish liver but he said no they were very good fishermen themselves and didn’t need any help at it.

At one point in time we moved the boat a few kilometres on, however I’m pretty sure the same birds came after us. It was fun watching an albatross come into land on the water because it’s just like in that mouse cartoon where they pull their wings back and stepping forward on the water as if trying to use their feet as brakes, until their legs start to sink and then they sit down and start paddling.

Before the sun came up the sky was streaked with the most lovely red colours which meant at times our attention was diverted from the birds to the skyline and then some time later the sun itself rose above the horizon and once again we were taking pictures out to sea while the birds were getting on with their free breakfast.

We were not left out on the breakfast front – well, we got offered hot chocolate and a ginger biscuit. I love ginger biscuits and he let me take a couple more, so I was very happy with the offerings.

There were quite a number of squabbles amongst the birds as well; generally for supremacy in the pecking order. The Giant Petrels were the worst for that. This young black bird attacked this older greying one and it was fun watching the older one think out his revenge tactics; opening up his wings and sticking his tail feathers right up; circling around all the birds to get to the younger’s rear, ready for the attack. The young’un spotted him and there was such a raucous.

We heard on the radio that the dolphin cruise was having difficulty locating the dolphins in their usual spot but they could see loads of orcas and our guide told us that the dolphins often disappear when the orcas are around because dolphins constitute the orcas breakfast, even though they are of a related species to each other.

Anyway, eventually all the fish liver had been finished so that was to be the end of the trip. The boat readied to return to shore. After some distance had been covered, the boat was stopped and we were told to look out the side while our guide radioed to shore to advise the dolphin boat that he’d found the dolphins. We looked out to see well over a hundred dolphins swimming and leaping in the water around us. Officially we shouldn’t have stopped to see that but I guess it was too much to turn down, even for the guide. We didn’t stay long however because we were already late back.

The boat drove right up onto the jetty and into the framework that rolled us back to the bus that we boarded to return to the Encounter office. Here we were each given a complimentary package and our guide photocopied his count of birds seen this day. On the Encounter website they keep a daily record of which birds have been seen that anyone may use for whatever purpose they may find to use it.

I looked around the shop before returning to the hostel by 09h40 just giving me sufficient time to pack my things up and say goodbye as I left the town, stopping a couple of times to take pictures of things I hadn’t photographed before and then headed out of town in the direction of Christchurch.

I don’t like driving into big cities. They have one way systems and more traffic than most of the towns in New Zealand and you have little chance to find a parking space when you want to check the map for directions. I’d marked up the YHA on the map but when I came to look, once I’d got to the city, I saw two crosses. I thought it was the outer one and headed to it, found the YHA and parked up. The Reception was closed but opened a few minutes later, only to tell me that I’d got the wrong hostel, that I was booked into the one in the centre of the city. I was quite sad to have to leave. When I found the central YHA, I couldn’t see any parking spaces, so left the car on the 5minute waiting space to enquire within. Just my luck, all the parking spaces had already been taken and I would have to park in the paying car park across the road. Fortunately the parking was free at the weekend so I only had to pay for Friday – and they charge right up to 11pm. With a note from the YHA the reduced fee was $10 however, it certainly ups the cost of the accommodation when you have to start paying car park charges on top. It would have been awful if I had come mid-week and had to pay fees like that every day.

Anyway, I checked in and what did I find but it’s a mixed dorm room. I never sleep very well in a room with men and they’d squished five beds into this small room too. There was a normal bunk then there were two beds at right angles with a bunk half way over the two bottom beds. I had to have this bunk, the last bed left. There was no room for baggage; no shelf to put anything and it hurt my feet to climb the rungs. I left my bag in the middle of the room abutting the windows as there was no-where else while my handbag and computer had to be left on the bed; I had to sleep round them. Because there was nowhere safe, like a shelf by the upper bunk light, for my jewellery, I got a plastic zip up food bag and carefully took off my stud earrings and my necklace, put them in the bag, zipped it up and put it and my spectacles in my coat pocket which I also zipped up before climbing onto the bed in my dressing gown and slippers which I then had to take off and add to the collection of things taking up half my bed space. It was so hot with five people in the room that the duvet was added to the collection of things on one side of my bed while I tried to feel cool enough to drop off to sleep with just the sheet over me and my mobile phone which at night is used to tell the time, tucked into the lip of the pillow case so that it won’t fall out during the night.

That was all later of course. There was still a couple of hours of daylight left, so I walked around the city centre to familiarise myself with the route to the location of Armageddon for the following morning and then followed my nose and found Victoria Square and then Cathedral Square, taking pictures of lots of things, before returning to the hostel, preparing dinner and eventually heading to bed. As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep very well. I do have to say that the reception did try to see if they could move people into different rooms so that I could go in a female only dorm but they couldn’t. The hostel was full.

Saturday 28^th March 2009

This morning, I woke at 7am and decided to get up. As quietly as I could, I put on my slippers and dressing gown while still on the bed, before climbing down. I then had to collect all my bathroom bits together and my clothes, because, being a mixed room, I couldn’t get dressed in the room as I would if it was an all girls’ room. I returned to get my face creams, make-up, spectacles and jewellery and returned to the bathroom. Once I’d put my face on, I opened the bag that held my jewellery and could only find one stud earring. I looked all around the bathroom. I looked on the floor all the way between the room and the bathroom. I felt around in the pocket of my coat. By this time, everyone else in the room was up, so the curtains were open. I checked all around the floor. No sign of this other stud earring. It was a silver fern that I had bought here in New Zealand and had been wearing ever since I lost one of my original studs in Okahune. It wasn’t expensive but I was really upset to have lost it, especially with all the care I had taken and still I can’t think what happened. The only thing I can think of was perhaps it jumped out of the bag as I was opening it and fell immediately into the hole in the centre of the sink that was next to me. I didn’t see anything and I didn’t hear anything to indicate that this was what happened but it has definitely gone. I even checked twice in lost property but there is no trace of it. So, that’s two single studs I have now! I went across to my car where I had recently purchased some more studs and put in my paua shell ones, but I really liked the silver ferns and hope that I come across another shop that sells them so I can buy some more.

Because I got up so early, even with all this fiddling around, I was out and at Armageddon Expo at 10am where I entered immediately. The show was rubbish by English standards although they had done their best to have reasonably entertaining product. The one guest who I was interested in viewing (not meeting or getting a signature from) was Hercules’s best buddy however due to work commitments he was not attending that day. He was coming on the Sunday but I’d already decided to leave Christchurch on the Sunday morning and anyway, there wasn’t enough to hold my attention for two days. None of the ‘pay for signature’ guests were there until the afternoon. There was voice over actors and actresses who covered Japanese anime’ films and they were offering their signatures for free but I didn’t know them from Adam. When I sat in on a Q&A session, one of them had worked for Disney since 1986 doing the voice of Pluto and various other regulars. Now his signature might have been good to have but when I looked for them later, I couldn’t find them again; perhaps they’d gone for the day. One of these voice over actresses mentioned a Japanese series which I noticed was being shown in one of the upper rooms, so I sat for an hour and watched three episodes of the show which was moderately interesting. Later the man from the film “Police Academy” who made all the noises, Michael Winslow, was in a Q&A session and he was brilliant, so funny and entertaining. I know I shouldn’t,  but I had to video small bits of things he did because it was incredible. All these noises were coming from him, not from extraneous recordings around him.  I know that I would have been paying a lot more if I’d been entertained by him for an hour in an evening show so I consider myself very fortunate. Peter Davidson (Doctor Who) was quite animated in his Q&A session too however he looked his usual depressed self by the time he had to sit down and start signing autographs.

I had the opportunity of playing a game of ten pin bowling on a computer game. You hold this unit in your hand, line yourself up on the screen and move your arm back and bring it forward swiftly, just as if you were releasing a real ball while the screen ball rolls down the alley, knocking down the pins. By the end of the game I was getting strike after strike, getting really good at it. I enjoyed that a lot. I bought a couple of things – one was one of those electronic badges that you can put words of your choice into. It was a lot cheaper here in NZ than it would be to buy it in England. There weren’t a great deal of stall holders and only one with photographs. The goody bag was ok too. There was a microwavable noodle bowl and an Oreo wafer biscuit in the bag together with the programme. It cost $16 to get in which was comparable to a trip to the cinema, so all in all, it wasn’t so bad, but by 3pm I’d had enough and left to return to the hostel where my plan had been to work on the computer, which I did after dinner, while watching TV in the hostel lounge until nearly 11pm.

What is wrong with the people in this YHA? There was a note up to be careful with your items because there was a thief about, so I put a padlock on my freezer/fridge bag, however I had too many things, so those extra things each got separately labelled with my name, my departure date and my room number and put in a drawer of a fridge yesterday. This evening I see someone taking out my unopened bottle of orange juice and my unopened half of pineapple, each clearly labelled and they were going to take them. Lucky I was around. I said to them that they were mine and the girl’s reply was they were in a drawer marked “Free Food”. I said No, the drawer on the left says Free Food. The one on the right which contained my food items doesn’t; and what more can I do than mark each item clearly to make it obvious that I purchased these items for my own consumption, not to give to others. It’s not as if the date of departure has expired yet. It just shows how careful you have to be; people will give any excuse to take things that don’t belong to them.

Earlier I had my bag on the counter and had taken out my bacon box which holds my personal knives and forks and things and put it beside the bag and next to my drink and was preparing to work in front of the bag. A women was looking for a pen to write up labels to mark her property with and I was about to offer her the use of my pen when a man just took it out of my box. I snatched the pen from him and asked him if it was his usual practise to help himself to other people’s things and his excuse was he thought the box belonged to the kitchen. I then handed the pen to the lady and a few minutes later she walked out of the kitchen and I asked her for my pen and she said she’d left it with the labels. I replied as it was my personal property that it would have been nice if she had returned it to me and retrieved it myself. People just don’t seem to care and you have to have eyes out the back of your head to make sure you keep everything that belongs to you.

Sunday 29^th March 2009

Because I had not gone to bed until after 11pm, I didn’t wake as early this morning. I think it was 8am when I got up and I didn’t hurry to go when I saw a fun run of a few thousand people run past the bedroom window. By 10am there were no more runners, so I got into the car and drove back to Kaikoura. There’s not a lot to say about the return journey because it was the same one that I’d done two days ago but in reverse. I was looking forward to getting to Kaikoura which I’d fallen in love with. I did stop for lunch at that nice picnic spot that I had discovered on the way to Christchurch; the one with an old bit of bridge next to the Waiau River. Unfortunately I had to share it with another couple of cars who also discovered this pleasant spot. I arrived in Kaikoura in the middle of the afternoon and popped into the ‘i-site’ office as soon as I arrived to book a Llama trek for the next morning and two mail-run boat trips for Tuesday and Thursday from Picton. I drove on to the hostel where I checked in and met Carolyn who had not been feeling well that day and had been resting in her bed in the same room that I was in. She wanted to go to the supermarket so I offered to drive her there as I also wanted to do a quick recce of the route to the Llama Trek and how long it would take me to get there. After dropping Carolyn off at the supermarket, I drove on, following the map. I made a wrong turn the first time but even with that, the whole journey only took 20 minutes so now I knew the route and had even found a little shortcut to the route drawn out for me; I knew that if I left at 10am I’d been there with time to spare. I couldn’t resist buying myself another fish and chips which I took back to the hostel and ate quite early for me. Although it is so beautiful just to look out of the window or sit outside and stare at the fabulous scenery as night falls, at the YHA in Kaikoura, I decided to retire to my room and have an early night after working on my blog a little, however, I didn’t get much done because Carolyn had also decided to stay in the room and we ended up chatting until we wanted to get to sleep.

Monday 30^th March 2009

I was the first up, at 7am. I needed the loo and decided I might as well get washed and dressed too. Carolyn was catching the bus from town to go to Picton and then on the ferry to Wellington today. I had told her that I would drive her into town as she was thinking of walking there with this heavy backpack. I would have offered to take her all the way to Picton but I was doing my Llama Trek later this morning. 

By 09h15 she was ready to go so I drove her into town and left her at the ‘i-site’ office. I drove back and packed up my things and put them in the car except my fridge bag which I asked to leave in the fridge while I went Llama trekking to save my food going off in the sun. This was OK with the hostel and so I checked out and drove to the site of the Llama trek.      

The lady who runs the llama trekking also has a family farm. She bought the land, the house, the chattels and the business from a retired couple 18 months ago. She was living in England and was looking out for the right place to buy in New Zealand, saw the place for sale; knew the location and went for it. She had been struggling for just over a year by herself while her partner tied up loose ends in England and in the last six months he’d joined her and she felt things were getting better. She has a couple of backpackers working for her in exchange for accommodation for however many days or weeks they want to stay and is trying to make improvements to the place which she said the retired couple had let run down. We had a nice chat.

Firstly, while she was waiting for the other people who’d booked a trek to arrive, she asked if I’d like to look around the farm. She had a baby deer, geese, a big pink mummy pig with babies and some male blackish pigs but they’re not Vietnamese pot bellied – they’re some other breed. She has a donkey, two dogs, one of which just loved licking my face, rabbits and guinea pigs as well as llamas. I adored the brown and black stripy baby piglet that looked like the runt of the litter. I wanted to pick him up and cuddle him but was told they squeal like someone has murdered them when you pick them up and encouraged me not to do it.

When the other two girls had arrived, three llamas were selected for us. I was given “Legend”. All the llamas used for trekking are males. Legend was a young inexperienced trekker who needed a firm hand to stop him from pulling all the time with his desire to graze. I was told he should only be allowed to graze when I wanted to let him, not when he wanted to and he would have to learn this. I took it to heart and kept control of the situation (most of the time).

This was a two hour trek in the region around the property, including walking through a river bed that won’t fill up with water until after the mountain snows melt and dry out to a very stony floor by summer.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and I had to say goodbye to Legend and all the other animals. We were given a piece of cake and a drink before we left and if anyone needs a guinea pig, she has too many and is selling them for $10 each which is about £3.50. She said [I think jokingly] that she might have to end up eating the guinea pigs if business doesn’t improve. [I’d told her that Gill’s friends in the Pyrenees raised and ate guinea pigs].

I said goodbye, drove back to the hostel to pick up my freezer bag and drove back to Picton. I felt incredibly tired as I came close to my destination and stopped for a snooze for about half an hour at the seal colony lookout point. What with my snorts and snores waking me these past few nights and the other girl’s coughs, even with an early night, this not being able to sleep properly is taking its toll.  Half an hour did the trick and I felt able to carry on driving.

Arriving in Blenheim I decided to drive around the town to locate either the ‘i site’ so that I could get a plan of the town and ask where I could locate a cinema or find the cinema, whichever came first.  I found the cinema and they had a free map of the town so I was able to find my way around the town and know where the cinema was, as i was intending to visit them over the next couple of days to see a film.

As I drove out of town, I found the ’i site’ office near the historic rail station, on the road to Picton but I didn’t stop on that occasion, I just kept driving on to my destination, arriving at the Tombstone Backpackers at 16h30 ish.

Having rung and asked Lynne [the hostel owner] if I could have a female dorm, she kindly put me into a three bedded room in an outside shed complex of two small dorm rooms which required an outside under cover walk around to the rear complex for toilet and showers. I didn’t mind. Being a three-bedded room, it had a bunk and a single bed and of course there was already a girl in the room so the single bed was taken. Luckily I was only the second person in the room, so I had the bottom bunk, which I was very happy with, especially as it’s only $22 a night! – So much cheaper than an YHA.

Knowing I was going to stay put for four days in Picton, I decided to buy some mincemeat and make spaghetti bolognaise. Normally I don’t make this because it’s quantity is enough for three days meals , so unless I can keep it fresh in the fridge, I don’t make it and I rarely stay in the same place for three days; however, here, because I knew I was staying for four days, I decided to make it. After starting to prepare the bolognaise, cooking the onion and meat, I remembered I had not bought the tinned tomatoes or spaghetti, stupid fool that I am, so I put the dinner as far as it’s cooked in a pot I have, let it cool then put it in the fridge. Meantime, I prepared my butternut squash, kumara and carrots and did my usual of cooking them together, adding a pumpkin cup-a-soup into the residual water in the saucepan at the end of the cooking time; mix it together and pop it in a deep rimmed dish and a handful of grated cheese. It makes a lovely meal.

I probably slipped into bed and spent an hour or two on the computer because that’s what I do most nights after dinner before getting ready for bed.

Tuesday 31^st March

The day didn’t look good; it was overcast and looking like it would rain sooner or later. I decided to drive east to Waikawa, but when I realised it was only a few minutes up the road, I followed my nose and continued travelling in an easterly direction. I could see the road led almost to the east coast and there was alternate unsealed and sealed road running the length of the Robertson Range down to Whites Bay and Rarangi and from there, the Rarangi Road would take me back to the SH1 and a short trip back to Picton.

Why I do this to myself I don’t know because this was all twisty turny mountainous tight roads throughout the length of the Range with the sealed portions of the road being where little communities had been created, probably mostly for summer holiday periods and weekend retreats although each had an inn or a B&B. I was handling the unsealed roads ok but it was all taking much longer than I expected to get to the end of this little portion of the world and I was getting a little anxious as I had booked myself onto a trip for the afternoon. The last piece of unsealed road was the worst. I was getting tired of concentrating; this portion of the road was being actively deforested; I kept meeting large Lorries from the logging companies and they had turned the road into a dry but very muddy mess. The dust being kicked up by the back of my car was like a storm. What a relief when I finally got to the sealed road at Whites Bay and thank goodness I was on the Rarangi Road before it started to rain. It’s just a shame it couldn’t have held off until I could have got the dust off the back of the car; instead the dust turned to mud in all the crevices at the back – not that I saw that until much later.

By the time I was back on the SH1 I had only 20 minutes to get back to Picton. I put my foot down and did it – well 22 minutes, but not bad. I had to go back to the hostel first as I’d left my lunchtime sandwich there and then a quick scoot into town and to the wharf where I booked in for my afternoon Mail boat run tour making it right on time at 1pm and sooner than a lot of people who turned up in drips and drabs over the next twenty minutes. I know the mail boat doesn’t leave until 13h30 but I was told I had to be there at 1pm so that’s the time I got there; still, better be made to get there early than to miss it.

The Queen Charlotte Sound is full of little communities. Most are holiday houses however there are some farms and retired people who have settled in amongst the coves of the varies bays and inlets. There are no roads to these communities – some may have walking tracks but for the majority the only way to get to these places is by boat. The Mail boat only visits the permanent residents of the Sound doing three different routes Monday to Saturday. Some, like the Lodges located along the Queen Charlotte walking track, get visited almost every day but the farms and retired folk may only get visited once or twice a week. The boat drives up to their jetty, hands over the mail bag and generally receives one back. Sometimes it’s more than mail, like a case of alcohol; then there are the residents who have gone into town to do their shopping and return with numerous assorted baggages. Unfortunately, the rain really had set in and the overall trip was a little disappointing. There wasn’t really anything to photograph because it was all green hills and blue sea and there is only so much of that you can photograph. It’s beautiful, magnificent even for the eye, but with limited photographic value. We were fortunate that it stopped raining when we did the tourist part of the trip, stopping at Ship Cove, on the outer reaches of the Sound, where I’m reliably informed Captain Cook stopped on his first trip to South Island and stayed for 60 days and cleaned up his ship. Along with the beach and a little fresh water stream there is a plaque and structure in his memory and various bits of historical information on a series of panels. There are picnic tables and a shelter there too. This can also be the start, or the stop of the Queen Charlotte trek, if you do the whole length. I thought about walking it but that was as far as it got – mostly for the lack of company on such a walk but also because I couldn’t walk a whole day and then do it again the next; I would seize up.

 Anyway, back on the boat we made our way back down the Sound, returning to Picton just before 5pm. I drove into town before heading home. It had stopped raining and I wanted to see if I could find some more silver fern earring studs as I lost one of the pair I had, in Christchurch.

As I walked from shop to shop, who did I nearly bump into, only Craig Revel Horwood [from Strictly come Dancing] with an entourage, perhaps his mother and family, who knows. Anyway, I smiled in recognition and he kindly smiled back. Fancy bumping into a celebrity on the high street of a little town like Picton!

I went through most of the shops but didn’t find any earrings. I went to the post office to buy some stamps and then to the supermarket for one or two items before returning to the hostel, making dinner, a bit of reading and bed.

I left Ohakune around 9am and drove east to Waiouru where I stopped for a few seconds outside the Military museum. Looking through my rear view mirror I said goodbye to Mt Ruapehu. From Waiouru it was down the SH2 all the way south by south west to Palmerstone North.

I had been considering doing some mad gravity adventure at Moki but my original meaning for turning off and heading off my route was that it was also an area of a LOTR scene. When I got there I stared out at the zip line, bridge drop and bungee ropes hanging across this extremely deep gorge and felt positively nauseous. I had been thinking of maybe doing the zip line but one look and I said no – maybe I’ll pluck up courage and go back, but I don’t think so. As for the LOTR site, it was actually further up the gorge than you could drive to. To get closer to it, you have to take a raft trip up there. I took a leaflet on a rafting expedition that goes up to where the filming took place and hope I’ll have the opportunity of doing that on my return up north.

I continued on my southerly journey, passing the gumboot capital with a huge welly boot, Taihape; and not too many kilometres from my destination, I arrived in Bulls, famous for its “bully” names. The florist is “Bloomabull” and the baker is “Bakeabull” for instance. The museum there was closed so I didn’t get to read up about this place but the town is named after James Bull who owned the first grocery store in the town.

I got to Palmerstone North around 1pm and found the hostel without a problem and checked in. Leaving the car, because this is a biggish town with parking restrictions, I walked to the cinema and saw “Duplicity” with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts which was an ok film. On exiting the cinema I walked around the square and popped into the information centre and wandered around a few shops and did a tiny bit of food shopping and then as it had got to 17h30 and the shops were shut, I walked back to the hostel. There I made myself a fruit tea, sat out in their front porch with the door open which was pleasant as the house itself was old and musty – Grandma’s Place it was called and that’s how it smells – like a musty old lady’s house. Anyway, I was looking at brochures and trying to calculate where I’d be and when – and frankly I find it a great way to waste time because I can’t seem to plan this trip. I’ve changed my plans so many times.

I’m actually starting to get scared of driving in south island what with the big mountains, the snow, the cold and the distances between places; I now wish I’d done it in midsummer instead or on a tour instead of with the car – but I have so much junk that I carry along with me, even if there was somewhere secure I could leave the car, I’m not sure I could condense sufficiently now. I’ll see how things go.

I was so engrossed in my brochure and map reading that I forgot the time until it got too dark to read and found it was nearly 8pm and I hadn’t had dinner. I had bought a half cooked chicken from the supermarket and heated up half of it together with a corn on the cob which I’d had in my supplies. I’d been recommended to microwave the corn with its husk intact so I did it that way and remarkably, it works – no water required, the leaves around create the humidity in which to cook the corn and it was delicious.

I retired to my room once I’d eaten and read a little of my book before turning off the light around 10pm.

Friday 20^th March

I woke up at 02h45 after my brain had been active for some time and spent a penny. On my return I didn’t feel at all like sleep so I pulled out my computer and wrote up a little of my log for a couple of hours before dropping off to sleep again for another hour and a half by which time I decided to get up and have a shower before there was a queue for it. I slipped back into bed after that for another half hour or so, just resting. The mattress was horrible and lumpy and soft and squishy and no doubt should have been dumped years ago and I’m glad I’m not staying here more than one night. The room itself is fine. I paid $45 for a single room and at first thought I was a fruit cake because the dorm room was empty however two more girls came later that night so I think I was better off where I was.

I got myself dressed then sat back at the computer for another half hour before putting it away and having breakfast. I had to check out at 10am and was planning to go to the cinema again for 10h30 to see “The boy in the striped pyjamas”. I had asked if I could leave the car at the hostel and that had been agreed, so after breakfast, I packed up the car and walked to the cinema. The film was very good although not Oscar material. I walked back to the hostel and drove on to Paraparaumu on the lower West Coast.

I arrived in the early afternoon and was pleased to discover that there was only one other girl in the dorm, so I got a lower bunk. The Barnacles was an old hotel but had a comfortable feel about it that made you happy to stay there and it was just across the road from the sea.

I don’t recall anything else so I daresay I used the computer or read my book, ate dinner and went to bed.

Saturday 21^st March

There are two LOTR locations near to Paraparaumu. Today I drove to Otaki Forks, the area having been used to depict the outer shire. This is another location that is across twisty mountain roads on a dirt track and it took me some time to get there. When I did, I found the place very tranquil. There was a river and a swing bridge and I forgot to look at the map to know what this location was in the film and originally thought it must be something to do with the water and tended to take photographs of that. Only later did I read that it relates to the outer shire and start taking pictures of the surrounding countryside. As usual, I’d made my lunchtime sandwich at breakfast time and now had it in the car. It was well past lunchtime and I felt I should eat. The day was lovely, full of sunshine and so I decided to christen my deckchair. I had bought it in my first few weeks in Auckland at sale price and have carted in around in the car ever since but never stayed long enough anywhere to use it. Today I opened it up, sat on it, ate my sandwich and read some of my book, enjoying the day and the location.

The only problem is that it is missing a nut and washer – the deckchair, that is. It’s possible it just fell off somewhere. I have the screw but not the nut and washer to hold it firmly. Because of this, the sun hood is a bit complicated being put together because parts that should be fixed aren’t and wave about, however, it’s not a big problem although I doubt I’ll ever remember to find a hardware store and get a nut to replace the missing one.

I always feel guilty just sitting still, so after an hour or so, I felt it was time to move on. I packed up the deckchair and stowed it back in the car; said a silent goodbye to the location and drove off. Back on the road to Paraparaumu, I follow the directions south of the town to where the next LOTR location is supposed to be. Having chatted with an organiser of an LOTR tour in Wellington, I’m told that it is unrecognisable because it was the very last of the filming; it was raining everywhere and they wanted to complete and this stretch of coast was the only place the sun was shining. The man continued to say that most of the work was completed with green screen and CGI. The location was supposed to be the Pelanor Fields. Following the signs on the map this took me to a place called Queens Park. Here there are vintage trams that can take you down to the beach. Due to the hour, I drove through the park down to the beach. Here I took a few snaps and walked along the sand. It was full of shells. Mostly cockle shells with the occasional mussel shell – but not like we know them, large shells that look almost like fairy wings in iridescent translucent colours of the rainbow. There were one or two other shells as well and small crab carcasses and such. I took a photo of a collection I made.

Around 17h30 I made my way back to the car and drove back to Paraparaumu for eventual dinner and bed.

Sunday 22^nd March

Originally I booked to visit Kapiti Island today however, the information lady said it was all subject to the weather and I would need to ring the boatman at 07h30 to check whether he was going or not. Obviously that means you have to get up, wash and dress, just in case. I rang the boatman and feel I must have woken him. He said he was not sailing as the winds were too strong. It was probably for the best because it turned out to be a horrible day. I’d booked my night in Lakes Entrance and had been worrying how I was going to drive there before nightfall if the island visit didn’t return me to Paraparaumu until around 15h30 and I had something else in mind as a second choice, so I wasn’t exactly devastated to hear it was cancelled. As the early morning looked quite promising, I did ring the boatman one more time, about five minutes before the agreed meeting time just to be sure he hadn’t changed his mind. He confirmed again he was not going, so I felt I’d done my best in the circumstances and left it at that, aiming to drive off and follow my second choice. Why I was concerned was that the Information lady had gone out of her way to try and get me a permit for the Island. They had all officially been purchased, however she knew that the rangers on the northern end of the island sometimes had a spare one and had fixed it up for me to have that spare one which I was to pay for when I got to the Island. As my secondary plans meant I couldn’t hang around to explain the situation to the Information lady, I wanted to be absolutely certain I couldn’t do more.

That second plan was to visit Stonehenge Aotearoa. I only looked more closely at the brochure after having booked the Kapiti tour, thinking I could visit it on my way back from Lakes Entrance on the Monday. That is when I read it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so by going to Kapiti, I would not have been able to see Stonehenge; therefore it was actually good fortune that I didn’t get to go to Kapiti Island as it meant I would be able to see Stonehenge on my way to Lake Entrance, today instead.

 I set off by choosing one particular route, not knowing what sort of road it would be like – after all, it’s a straight line on the map; however it was the longest twistiest road I feel I’ve been on and can only thank goodness it was a sealed road. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to get from one end to the other. After an hour I thought I was going to have to turn back. Unbeknownst to me I’d chosen the road that 200 competitors of a mountain bike race were using that day and they had closed the road – fortunately he let me pass and just asked that I take it nice and easy and stop and pull over when I see any cyclists coming at me. This I did and it wasn’t hard because I’d been travelling between 20 and 45kph the whole way due to the twisty mountainous way of the road so stopping was easy. Just when I thought the twisty mountain driving was over as I got onto the SH2,  I found I had to go over another mountain range on this State Highway, so that was another half hour of driving torturous twisty roads. I was so tense by the time I got to Featherstone on the other side of the range that I stopped and had a hot chocolate drink in a cafe to unwind a bit. It didn’t help that it was raining the whole time and the clouds were really low all around the gorges.

Anyway, I finally got to Stonehenge Aotearoa just after 12noon. It’s a bit in the middle of nowhere and it’s only because there was a little map on the back of the brochure that I found my way there. Normally I’d be free to wander around the area by myself but a large body of students from the USA had booked a tour for 12h30 and individuals aren’t allowed to go separately when a tour is in progress. I asked if I could add myself to the tour and that was a positive. While we waited for 12h30 there was a visual presentation that could be watched, showing a variety of stone circles and other significant stone artefacts from around the world.

At 12h30 the man taking the tour presented himself. He is an astronomer from England who had immigrated to New Zealand some years ago. He explained the science behind the creation of Stonehenge Aotearoa and said that all manner of things had been used to ensure it was accurate for exactly where it was situated and if it was moved anywhere else, it wouldn’t work. I won’t go into a lot of detail here, but I’d love to talk about it more to anyone interested because I found it fascinating. Did you know that astrology charts are completely out by some 2000 years and you are almost certainly not the star sign you think you are. I’m actually a Gemini, not a Cancer and this has been checked by plotting the sun through a year and noting it’s path from the shadow it casts at midday from the point of an obelisk and watching the constellations in the sky on three dates in every month and ascertaining the correct star sign in the sky at that time. The Stonehenge has been created with stones that are so perfectly aligned that at each solstice and equinox the sun sets exactly in the middle of one of these stones. It’s quite in depth and complicated but all science and works perfectly. You really have to come and visit it and hear this guy talk. He is so interesting and the subject is so fascinating.