Marlborough Region

Crossing Cook Strait

February 18, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

On the second day of our trip, we got up early at our campground in Picton and went to catch the ferry. We sailed on the Bluebridge line, and our ferry was to leave at 7:45, so we needed to check in by 6:45. We made sure to be there early, and took our breakfast along with us. Some ate in the van while we waited, after we had our family worship time, and some ate on the ferry later. We had a pretty smooth sailing. There was enough rolling when we were on the open ocean that my head felt very dizzy, but it wasn’t too bad. The scenery was gorgeous while we were going through the Marlborough Sounds!

This was soon after we left Picton. We had spent the night at a campground near the bay to the left of this picture where the marina is; Picton harbor is to the right of the point of land in the middle.

One of the Interislander ferries. We followed it all the way to Picton, and passed two others going the opposite direction.

This was likely a mussel or oyster farm. There are a lot of them in the Sounds.

Reaching the open ocean! The Interislander is out of the Sounds in this picture.

We spent a little while on the viewing platform at the bow of the ship, but it was so windy that we went inside after awhile.

Nearing Wellington. There are a lot of windmills around to generate electricity!

I think this is the Baring Head lighthouse at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.

Wellington

Here is a video I put together of clips from that trip, including driving onto the ferry.

This next group of pictures are from our return trip, a week and a half later. We traveled on the Bluebridge line again, but on their other ship. Again, we caught a morning sailing, arriving at the docks just before sunrise.

While we were waiting to board, we could see the Beehive, our country’s Parliament building.

Our last view of Wellington! After this, we stayed inside most of the time. This boat didn’t have the nice viewing decks that the other one did, and the wind was fierce.

We passed this cruise ship as we were leaving Wellington Harbour. Two tugboats were on the way to guide it to the dock.

There was one viewing deck that was pretty sheltered, so I spent time there with the little girls at various times. The wave the ship made cutting through the water was fascinating!

Gayle also spent time outside with the girls. Here Gayle and Miss Joy are peeking in at us!

Back into the Sounds! Little Miss and I spent most of the rest of the trip here on this deck, enjoying the gorgeous day.

Lots of seagulls there!

The wake of our ship as we turned around a point in the Sounds to head into Picton.

Trip to Picton

February 11, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

On the 25th of January, we took off from home to travel to the North Island. Most of us had never been there before, but we were invited to a conference just north of Palmerston North. We decided to go, and then go on up to Auckland to get US passports renewed for six of the children. Some friends here loaned us their van, since we no longer have a van and would have had to take two cars. We were away for a total of 12 days.

On our way to Picton, where the ferry takes off for the North Island, we stopped for lunch at Lake Rotoiti, in St. Arnaud. There were a lot of eels under the pier that went out into the lake, looking for a handout. It was fun to see them!

When we arrived in Picton, we had a few hours before we needed to check in at the holiday park where we planned to spend the night, so we went to the marina. The aquarium that used to be there, which we visited a couple of times years ago, is gone–there is an empty space where it used to be. The Edwin Fox museum next door is still there, though, so we went through it. We couldn’t actually go on the ship this time, as it is being restored, but we enjoyed watching the film about its history and looking at the ship.

Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie enjoyed the cutout pictures!

Little Miss enjoyed climbing on top of an anchor.

After we settled in at the holiday park, while I heated the soup for our supper, Gayle took the younger children to the pool. They loved swimming!

Farewell to Picton/Saltworks

August 31, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We drove out to an overlook for one last view of the Sounds. It was gorgeous!

We saw the Bluebridge come in again. This picture is very washed out; it was actually a brilliant morning, but the sun was wrong for a picture.

We also saw the Interislander come in again.

We finally left Picton around 1:00 and headed toward home. When we got to Dominion Saltworks, a ways south of Blenheim, we drove around to see what we could see from the road. They let saltwater into huge shallow ponds here and let it evaporate, then clean the salt up somehow.

And here is a pretty church I saw beside the highway somewhere between Blenheim and Kaikoura.

We made it home by 6:00 that night—so good to sleep in our own beds again after a full week away from home!

This brings my travelogue to an end—now I can go back to normal posts! It has taken nearly a month to get all these posts up!

Aquarium and Edwin Fox

August 30, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After we watched the ferries for an hour or two from the overlook above Picton, we went down into the town. We had seen, beside the aquarium we visited a few years ago when we were in Picton, a museum. The museum held the Edwin Fox, a wooden merchant ship. First, we watched a DVD of the ship’s history, which was quite fascinating. This sign tells the highlights of the ship’s career.

She was built in India in 1853, of teak and saul wood. The timbers were steamed over a charcoal fire and then hammered into place quickly to take the right shape. After hauling immigrants to New Zealand, she was converted into a freezer to freeze down sheep for shipment to England. When the new freezer works was built on land, the Edwin Fox became a coal storage; a big hole was cut in her side to let trucks go on. After some years of that, she was towed to a bay near Picton and abandoned. In 1999 she was towed (still able to float, despite being underwater for years!) to a drydock on the Picton waterfront. You are allowed to walk inside the boat and touch it—that was special! It’s quite an experience to know that you are touching timbers that were formed into a boat over 160 years ago.

How do you like this pirate? One end of the ship has been rebuilt so you can get a feel for what it was like.

Mr. Intellectual inside the hold.

An immigrant family (six people) would have one top and one bottom bunk. Each bunk was the size of a single bed or smaller, and three people would have to sleep in it. When they arrived in New Zealand they would dismantle their bunks and use the timber to build a house.

We also toured the aquarium. Because they are side by side, we were able to go back and forth between the two places. At 11:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon, they feed the animals and give a tour. We took in the 2:00 tour and, since we spent the night in Picton, went back for the next morning’s tour—they let us back into both the museum and aquarium without paying again.

We got to touch a tuatara.

This stingray was asleep the whole time we were there.

The aquarium rescues little blue penguins.

Marlborough Sounds and Ferries

August 29, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

After we left Smith’s Farm Holiday Park, we were soon enjoying the beautiful views of the Marlborough Sounds from the Queen Charlotte Drive.

Just before we reached Picton, we stopped for a little while to watch logs being moved around in a giant logyard for shipment overseas. This machine could lift all the logs off a truck at once! The boys were excited to finally find out how the second trailer of a log truck is loaded on top of the first. We have seen these for years; when the trucks are empty they stack the trailers to go back to the logging site, presumably to save wear and tear on the second trailer. They have a framework that they drive under, which lifts up the second trailer, and then they back the first trailer underneath and drop the second one down onto it!

After watching the log trucks for awhile, we went around the corner to an overlook above the ferry docks. The Bluebridge was in, and soon the Interislander showed up. It was very cold and windy, so I mostly sat in the van with Little Miss. She enjoyed being outside for a little while, though.

Picton, from the overlook above the ferries.

Gayle badly wanted to see the train cars being loaded and unloaded, but the noon Interislander didn’t have any train cars. We learned that the 6:00 boat had them, so after we checked into our motel room that evening he took most of the family back to the overlook to watch that process. Esther and I stayed to cook a meal and get ready for the night, but someone got this picture of the ferry docks at night.

Pelorus Bridge and Smith’s Farm

August 28, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We spent two nights with our friends near Nelson, and left Monday morning. After visiting some mutual friends for awhile, we finally got underway again around 1:00 and headed toward Picton. It was raining as we went through Nelson and over the hills; we couldn’t see much of anything. We stopped for a little while at the Pelorus River. There is a one-lane bridge over the river, with a footpath along the side. I crossed it, then went back to the van to wait while the others walked a trail to a swing bridge just downstream. I had hoped to get to see it this time (the other time we were there, I had a 3-week-old baby and wasn’t doing much hiking). With the rain, though, I decided it was best if I just went to the van and fed the baby. The boys, Esther, and their aunt seemed to enjoy the walk, though!

This is Mr. Sweetie on the footpath of the bridge.

The boys teased their aunt by swinging the bridge as she crossed.

Mr. Inventor is pretty good at skipping stones.

The bridge from down by the river.

Mr. Sweetie

The river, from the bridge.

We decided to stop for the night at Smith’s Farm Holiday Park, between Havelock and Picton. It is a small motel/campground on a farm. Because it is winter, they gave us a good deal on two cabins under one roof, sharing a covered veranda, with a ramp down to the kitchen/toilets/showers/laundry. The rooms were warm and cozy—it couldn’t have been much better!

As we were talking to the owners about accommodations, I noticed a sign on the wall about their glowworms. When we asked, they told us that we could walk out to the hills to see the worms, which were on open banks in the forest along a creek and waterfall. It was only a 20-minute walk, so we all headed out as soon as we had the camper unloaded. The walk out there wasn’t too bad; it was still daylight and we could see where to walk to avoid getting muddy. As soon as we crossed the creek and entered the trees, however, it was suddenly quite dark and we were glad for our headlamps! We soon saw glowing specks of light on exposed banks, and when we looked closely, we could see a little worm, with strands like spider webs dangling in front of it. Apparently, the light is to attract insects which get caught in the webs. One of the boys carried Little Miss out there, but about as soon as we found the worms, she decided she wanted to eat. I didn’t want to sit in the dripping, muddy woods to feed her, so took her and headed back. Gayle started back with Mr. Imagination about the same time, and the other children and their aunt stayed to explore a little more. The trip back was rather more difficult than the trip out! It was now pitch dark, and raining some. The trail went diagonally across a paddock, over a bridge, across another paddock to a stile, along a fence to a gate, across another paddock to another gate…. I remembered most of the paddocks and gates, but there was one place where I was lost for a couple of minutes! I finally found the right gate into the last paddock before getting back to the cabin. And all this time, I had a screaming baby, and kept slipping in the mud. (Thankfully, crocs are washable!) Gayle had a hard time, carrying Mr. Imagination, too. He couldn’t find the last bridge, and had to jump across the creek, and Mr. Imagination’s croc fell off, into the water. It got caught in a branch 20 meters downstream. All in all, it was quite an adventure—we really enjoyed finally getting to see glowworms!

Going up the trail through the woods.

A glowworm

Mr. Inventor showed Little Miss the pet sheep in the morning.

Several pukekos visited in the morning.

We walked across these paddocks to the base of the hills and up into the bush a little way, to see the glowworms.

The park’s letter box!

Holiday Trip Day 3

April 24, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

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

April 22, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

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

April 22, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

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!