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Holiday Trip

Holiday Trip Days 6 and 7

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Friday morning we loaded up again in Collingwood after enjoying a gorgeous sunrise over Golden Bay at high tide.

The boys tried fishing, but the reel broke.

We stopped at Pupu Springs on our way back to Takaka Hill–the largest spring in Australasia, which produces 14,000 liters of water per second and has the second clearest water on earth–second only to that under the Ross Ice Shelf.

The colors under the water were amazing!

The river that flowed away from the springs was clear as could be!

Takaka Hill–see the road we were on?

I enjoyed the rock outcroppings on top of Takaka Hill.

We stopped to buy fruit at the bottom of Takaka Hill, and got a close-up view of some of the vines we had been seeing–kiwis!  We had never seen them growing before.

We spent Friday night camped in the backyard of some friends, and in the morning they helped load up and tie down for the last time.

Our route home took us through an area where there had obviously been a forest fire a few years ago.  What desolation!

Fall colors along Leader Road as we neared home….

Baby was happy to be home again the next morning!

Holiday Trip Day 5

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Wednesday evening we made it as far as Collingwood, on Golden Bay.  We decided to stay two nights in that campground, as there were a number of things we wanted to do close by and it was as far north as we were able to go.  How nice not to have to take down tents and load and tie down the trailer Thursday morning!

The boys were up at the crack of dawn again, down at the beach to see what they could find.  This was the prize find–same boy who found the weta the day before–a dead shark! One person told us it was a dog fish; another said a carpet shark.  Either way, it was fascinating.

Sunrise over Golden Bay. This is high tide.

Grandma found a good place for her devotions just above the high tide line.

The morning’s beachcombing finds.

We drove up along the coast to Farewell Spit that morning.  These are some of the mud flats we passed in an estuary along the way–high tide.

The base of Farewell Spit. It is an enormous sandbar stretching 26 km (16 miles) into the Tasman Sea.  Four people walked a few kilometers out on it; I stayed back with the youngest five boys.  This is the inside of the spit.  I happened to overhear a tourguide telling the group he was with that there are 2 million hectares of land in the nature preserve here at high tide; 11 million at low tide!

They found several jellyfish stranded by the receding tide.

Mud flats and the spit.

After eating our picnic lunch, we drove to Cape Farewell, named because it was the last sight Captain Cook had of New Zealand.

The boys ran up the hill above the overlook.  Rather nerve-wracking for Mom and Grandma, envisioning boys getting too close to the sheer cliff dropping down to the sea!

The mudflats in the estuary at low tide, on our way back to Collingwood.

This is the beach at our campground when we arrived back in the afternoon, at low tide!  What a difference.  The tides rise 5 meters here (16 feet).

It was cold, but the boys played in the water anyway.  The older boys were able to wade through the chest-deep water to the sand bar, and decided to build a raft so they could ferry the little boys across.

Before the raft could be built, the tide turned and the water was rising too fast.

They built sand castles instead.

This is the same place a few hours later, with the tide about halfway in.

Holiday Trip Day 4

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Wednesday morning the boys were up and exploring the campground before breakfast.  One of them found this weta.

After leaving Nelson and passing through Motueka, we went up Takaka Hill.  This is looking back down, in the direction of Motueka.

We stopped near the top of Takaka Hill at an overlook.  These gray rocks were all along the trail out to the lookout.  We learned at our next stop that they are marble.  Marble was quarried from this hill to build the government buildings in Wellington many years ago.

A view from the lookout.  At the far left is the Tasman Sea, beyond the orchards and vineyards near Motueka.  Nelson is on the far side of that bay.

Our next stop was only a short distance from the overlook, at Ngarua Caves.  We thoroughly enjoyed touring this beautiful cave.

At some time in the distant past, moas (the smallest variety, not the giant ones) fell into the cave and died; their bones have been found there.

This area of the cave had a “new” growth of stalactites forming.

The way out–this is the hole through which the cave was originally discovered by a survey party in 1876.

The landscape around the cave.  If I understood right, some of the filming of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit was done here.

There are a lot of sink holes on this hill.  At our previous stop, at the overlook, we saw signs warning about them.  One of our boys was fascinated and badly wanted to see one; finally here he got his wish!

Going down the other side of Takaka Hill, towards Golden Bay.  The road winds back and forth down the side of this hill–an incredible drive!

Holiday Trip Day 3

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Tuesday morning in Picton, while the trailer was being tied down those of us who were not involved with that process explored the rushing creek beside the campground.  Our tents had been pitched just beyond the bushes on the left side of this picture, so we got to listen to the water all night.

A bridge went across the creek here, and a trail went along it on both banks.  Grandma and several of us went exploring.

We found this beautiful waterfall downstream just a short ways.

Here comes the train!  The track ran along the hillside maybe 200 feet from our campsite! Three trains roared through during the night!  We were glad that most of the boys slept through the noise.

After we left the campground, we started up Queen Charlotte Drive again.  This time, we made it past the lookout over the harbor without stopping (no ferries in dock or coming in, this time!), but just a short way past, there was another overlook!  We pulled in, thinking maybe we’d just take a quick look from the van.  No way–there was an enormous logyard down there, and we ended up spending half an hour or more watching the activity down below.  There were log trucks coming in constantly to be unloaded, with huge clam loaders that took an entire load in one trip, and then sorted the logs by size.  There was one clam loader being worked on, as well.  There was a barge tied up to the dock, but nothing loaded on it.  This is a deep-water harbor where ships come in from the ocean to load with logs which are taken to Japan, processed into lumber, and then the lumber is shipped back here!

On we went again!  The scenery was so amazing that Gayle stopped at most of the tiny pull-offs on the way up the hill, so he could admire the view, too.  We were glad he stopped, rather than trying to look as he drove; that would have been downright dangerous.  The Marlbourough Sounds are spectacular!

Some of the geologic formations along the road were really something to see, too–look at these rock layers!

Almost to Havelock!  We stopped at another overlook and Gayle and the children went down the trail to these mudflats that are exposed at low tide.

Made it to the bottom!  Now they have to climb back up the hill.

We ate lunch at a small picnic area at the edge of Havelock, and watched the tide starting to come in to cover these mud flats as we ate.

On we went again, this time as far as the Pelorus Bridge, over the Pelorus River.  This bridge is one lane, with a walkway along one side.  We walked over the bridge, then down a trail to the rocks along the side of the river.

Simon has learned how to skip stones, and Esther somehow caught a picture of his best skip–seven jumps!

Gayle and the children walked down another trail while Grandma and I went back to the van.  They got to cross this swinging bridge.We made it as far as Nelson that night, and found a campground there.

Holiday Trip Day 2

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Monday morning we were all up at the crack of dawn.

We pitched our tents between this road and some bushes; right on the other side of the bushes was the sea!

There were gorgeous flowers along the shore.

There was also a lot of Silverbeet (Swiss Chard) growing wild.  We harvested some for our supper the first night (it tasted quite salty!), and also for lunch and supper the second night.

While we were eating breakfast around the trailer, we got to watch sheep walking along the very edge of the cliff above us!

Baby doesn’t mind his surroundings too much, so long as he has his mama!

This was the view to the east of our campsite.  While the trailer was being tarped, some of us walked down the road to the fence in the distance.

After we left our campsite, we drove around the Lake Grasmere Saltworks.  Those are huge piles of sea salt, produced by evaporation from huge ponds.

The salt evaporation ponds.

See the salt along the edge?

Vineyards near Blenheim.

This is the kind of route we were driving a lot of the day.

We stopped just north of Blenheim to cook hamburgers for lunch at a rest area beside the highway.  The boys enjoyed playing in the bushes.

Our first family picture with the baby!

We stopped in Picton in the late afternoon.  After spending an hour or two in an aquarium, we went to the marina for awhile.  The boys and their dad walked around looking at the boats, while the rest of us waited at the van.  We got to see this car ferry coming in!

The ship had to turn around and back into the dock.

Late in the afternoon, we left Picton and headed up the hill on the Queen Charlotte Drive, intending to go halfway to Havelock to a campground for the night.  As we climbed the hill over the town, we saw an overlook–and of course, had to stop.  There was the other car ferry coming in, the Interislander.

We stayed to watch the Interislander back into her slip (quite a feat, in my opinion!) and unload.  See both ferries, side by side?

Cars and trucks were coming off the top deck of the Interislander, and trains were being unloaded from the lower deck.  That is a locomotive pushing two flat cars in; they hooked up to a string of eight freight cars and pulled them out, then went back in for more.

 

Holiday Trip Day 1

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We took a week’s holiday, touring the top of the South Island.  We left early Sunday morning, after loading the van and a borrowed trailer with everything we thought we might need for a week’s camping.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the Waiau River was especially pretty.

After church, we set out to go north.  The first stop was to pick up oil for the van.  The oil has to be put in under the passenger seat!

Next, we stopped at Ohau Falls, because the baby seals are spending their days there again.

The sea is always beautiful across the highway from the falls, too.

This little guy found a hollow under a rock into which he could stick his feet to watch the sea in comfort!

After we left the falls, we were going through places we had never seen before.  This long railroad bridge was impressive!

Hills a little ways south of Blenheim.

We turned off on the south side of Lake Grasmere to find the campground we had selected for the night.

Setting up camp for the first time!  This was a DOC (Department of Conservation) campground.  They provided flush toilets and water (boil before drinking), but that was all. We had a propane camp stove to cook on, so Mom and I worked on that while the rest set up tents and figured out how to blow up air mattresses.  We were maybe 200 feet from the sea, which was quite loud here.  Lovely sound to go to sleep to!