We were going to stay two nights in Nelson but it only took a day to see what there was to see, nothing special, so we headed further south to Greymouth.
The weather has turned a bit rainy and it was grey until we reached Greymouth where it brightened up again.
The Montieth’s Brewery is only small and has been swept up by the bigger Diminion Breweries, much the same story as UK, but it has retained much of its tradition and remains my favourite beer to date in NZ. The tour was just the same as previous brewery tours I have taken in the UK and the best bit was to sample the full range of Montieth’s beers which were all excellent, even Sheila liked all except one which was the dark beer.
The drive down the west coast the following day was quite bad, really heavy rain and mist all day, we had to bypass three landslides which partially blocked the road. We passed through Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers but could not see anything; all the helicopter and plane flightseeing trips had been cancelled. We stayed in a one horse town called Haast and that’s all there is to say about it.
Next day was beautiful and we were really pleased that the weather had cleared as the trip to Queenstown through the Haast Pass and the following lakes Wanaka, Hawea and Wakitupa was the best scenery we have ever witnessed. I had to stop at least twenty times on the way and completely filled the camera’s memory card with excellent photos, the best selection is attached and it was very hard to pick which ones to add to the Blog.
We got a great deal on a three night stay in the Millennium Hotel, Queenstown, and we have really enjoyed the extra luxuries that a Hotel of this class can provide. The town is quite busy although I should imagine it is a lot busier in winter when the snow fields are full, it reminds me of a Lake District town but on a grander scale. There are a lot of Alpine style houses with typical stone walls and the lake is the clearest, deepest blue you can imagine all backed by a mountain range called The Remarkables which are 7800 feet tall.
Sheila has been looking forward to taking a ride on the Shotover Jet which speeds through the gorges and canyons of the Shotover River, sometimes in as little as 10 cm of water. I am sure you have seen videos of the ride on TV as it has been on a lot of travel programs, I know that is where Sheila saw it and wanted to experience it herself.
When you ‘check-in’ they give you a spray cape and life jacket so it looks a bit strange all the passengers waiting in these outfits to get on the boat. After the customary photos we boarded and off it went at a tremendous rate of knots, so much that it literally took your breath away. The driver indicates when he is going to perform a 360 degree spin so you can hang on for grim death and the inevitable soaking from freezing cold water. This lasts for half an hour, skimming past narrow gaps and jutting out rocks and going over water barely enough to paddle in. It was an experience not to miss and we both agreed it was well worth trying it, although it did take Sheila some time to unravel her hair.
There is quite a lot to do here and we visited an old style gold mining town called Arrowtown where the old buildings have been expertly restored.
A visit to Queenstown cannot be complete without a trip on Lake Wakapitu on the TSS Earnshaw, the only surviving passenger carrying steamship left, according to the plaque.
It was during the trip that we had our lunch and I decided to wind-up the seagulls which were sitting on one of the lifeboats, so I held up a chip to the window and this crazy seagull was hovering on the other side of the glass trying to snatch it, everybody thought it was very funny.
Queenstown can be classed as one of our favourite towns in NZ, not only for the beautiful setting but the amount of activities to do.
Next we’re off the Te Anau and Milford Sound.
Saturday, 6 December 2008
Monday, 1 December 2008
Abel Tasman National Park
The ferry trip from Wellington to Picton is said to be one of the most picturesque in the world and it certainly lived up to its name even though it was a bit cloudy. The majority of the trip sails down fjord like channels with hills on both sides of the boat.
Our accommodation for the next five days is in another cottage in the town of Motueka which is just outside the Abel Tasman National Park.
The town itself is not unlike the rest of the towns I have previously described, restaurants, shops, petrol station and a supermarket.
Just up the road are two beaches, Kaiteriteri and Marahau, from these towns water taxis take tourists to the remote beaches on the Abel Tasman Park track where they hike back or are picked up by the taxi on another beach. There are a lot of Kayakers here who also travel to remote beaches and camp overnight. On the way back from the beaches my in-built beer magnet kicked in as we passed the Riwaka Brewery named the Monkey Puzzle and we just had to call in. The brewer is from the UK and has been in NZ for eight years, most of the equipment he was using was converted dairy hardware. We sampled some Abel’s Ale which was outstanding and a oatmeal stout which was also very good, Sheila tried some test beer brewed with elderflower, cherries and Nelson Sauvage hops, it smelt good but tasted rubbish, but Sheila surprisingly liked it. I took away a 2L riggler?, of the Abel’s Ale and just managed to finish it the same night, no use letting it go off is there.
About 55Km up the coast is the Golden Bay area and you have to cross Marble Mountain to reach it via Takaka Hill, the scenery as you can see on the corresponding photo is magnificent.
The town of Pohara lies a further 4 Km on but the sandy bay is rather dirty with piles of driftwood strewn all over the beach, maybe it’s due to the storms they had in this region 3-4 days ago. It has been hot and sunny the last two days around 25C, it seems the summer weather is following us as we travel south.
We are now sat here exhausted because today we took a boat taxi from Marahau to Tonga Bay and then hiked to Torrent Bay a distance of 14Km of not very flat track, then a boat taxi back to Marahau. It was an early start, for us anyway, out at 8AM then out on the boat for 9, the day started cloudy but that was soon burnt off and it’s back to the mid 20sC. The sea was a bit lumpy and getting to Tonga Bay was like a roller coaster, on the way we stopped at Split Apple Rock, which surprisingly looks like a split apple, and Tonga Island where there’s a colony of seals.
After getting dropped off on Tonga Beach it was off up the track, most of the way was native rainforest but occasionally the track opened up onto one of the isolated bays on the way, these were pristine white sand and no habitation. There were quite a few people doing the same thing in both directions of the track and a lot of what I assume were gap year students with heavy rucksacks camping their way through Abel Tasman, we are obviously doing it the other way round.
This is the longest trek we have made and it took its toll towards the end of the hike and must admit to being relieved when we saw Torrent Bay come in to view, I can’t believe we paid out money for this but considered money well spent.
It has been another excellent day although rather tiring and I am sure we will sleep well tonight especially after some cold alcoholic beverages.
The last day was spent in the Abel Tasman area and we were going to walk a few Km to loosen the muscles from yesterday’s effort, we started to walk to the sandspit on Motueka waterfront when it started to rain so we abandoned this which was not too hard a decision to make.
Our accommodation for the next five days is in another cottage in the town of Motueka which is just outside the Abel Tasman National Park.
The town itself is not unlike the rest of the towns I have previously described, restaurants, shops, petrol station and a supermarket.
Just up the road are two beaches, Kaiteriteri and Marahau, from these towns water taxis take tourists to the remote beaches on the Abel Tasman Park track where they hike back or are picked up by the taxi on another beach. There are a lot of Kayakers here who also travel to remote beaches and camp overnight. On the way back from the beaches my in-built beer magnet kicked in as we passed the Riwaka Brewery named the Monkey Puzzle and we just had to call in. The brewer is from the UK and has been in NZ for eight years, most of the equipment he was using was converted dairy hardware. We sampled some Abel’s Ale which was outstanding and a oatmeal stout which was also very good, Sheila tried some test beer brewed with elderflower, cherries and Nelson Sauvage hops, it smelt good but tasted rubbish, but Sheila surprisingly liked it. I took away a 2L riggler?, of the Abel’s Ale and just managed to finish it the same night, no use letting it go off is there.
About 55Km up the coast is the Golden Bay area and you have to cross Marble Mountain to reach it via Takaka Hill, the scenery as you can see on the corresponding photo is magnificent.
The town of Pohara lies a further 4 Km on but the sandy bay is rather dirty with piles of driftwood strewn all over the beach, maybe it’s due to the storms they had in this region 3-4 days ago. It has been hot and sunny the last two days around 25C, it seems the summer weather is following us as we travel south.
We are now sat here exhausted because today we took a boat taxi from Marahau to Tonga Bay and then hiked to Torrent Bay a distance of 14Km of not very flat track, then a boat taxi back to Marahau. It was an early start, for us anyway, out at 8AM then out on the boat for 9, the day started cloudy but that was soon burnt off and it’s back to the mid 20sC. The sea was a bit lumpy and getting to Tonga Bay was like a roller coaster, on the way we stopped at Split Apple Rock, which surprisingly looks like a split apple, and Tonga Island where there’s a colony of seals.
After getting dropped off on Tonga Beach it was off up the track, most of the way was native rainforest but occasionally the track opened up onto one of the isolated bays on the way, these were pristine white sand and no habitation. There were quite a few people doing the same thing in both directions of the track and a lot of what I assume were gap year students with heavy rucksacks camping their way through Abel Tasman, we are obviously doing it the other way round.
This is the longest trek we have made and it took its toll towards the end of the hike and must admit to being relieved when we saw Torrent Bay come in to view, I can’t believe we paid out money for this but considered money well spent.
It has been another excellent day although rather tiring and I am sure we will sleep well tonight especially after some cold alcoholic beverages.
The last day was spent in the Abel Tasman area and we were going to walk a few Km to loosen the muscles from yesterday’s effort, we started to walk to the sandspit on Motueka waterfront when it started to rain so we abandoned this which was not too hard a decision to make.
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