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Thursday 8th March
It was still pouring with rain as we headed North, our first stop was to be at Punakaiki to look at a series of limestone rock formations called "Pancake Rocks". Luckily for us it stopped raining for the 30 minutes it took us to walk along the path to this attraction, it is really amazing what nature does to the landscape. Huge waves crashing in over the rocks have created "blowholes" and we were given a good explosive show of the power of the sea. Back in the car and now heading inland, the weather started brightening up, the forecast for Nelson was sunshine with a top temperature of 25 degrees, the most amazing sight was suddenly on the horizon, a group of bicycles was heading towards us and amongst there was 5 penny farthings, can you imagine cycling up and down them hills on a penny farthing! Later on we stopped at what is described as "New Zealand's Longest Swing bridge", it transverses the Bullet River which was at the bottom of the gorge. Unbelievingly we were charged NZ$5 each just to cross the bridge and at the other side you could pay a further NZ$35 each to cross back by "wire". On the far side of the gorge we followed a trail that took you past the usual gold mining sites and also information boards showing parts of the devastation caused by an earthquake last century. After a brief stop in Murchison to have our usual cuppa and something to eat we changed drivers and continued on to Nelson. Our hotel was a 15 minute walk away from the town centre, so once we had unpacked we headed in that direction to get our bearings. Street after street, the walkways are adorned with beautiful hanging baskets and it really brightens up the town. As we are in the Marlborough area the first thing we wanted to do was to book a wine tour so off to the information office to find the best one for us, sorted and we are booked for Saturday.
Friday 9th March
Great to wake up to a bright sunny day, the beach is our choice of destination today. We headed towards Tahunanui Beach - about 5 minute drive in the car, the whole bay is sheltered by a 13km wall of rocks which stretches from Nelson to Cable Bay, even when the tide is at its highest, it is still visible. After a couple of hours we headed back to the hotel and cooled down in the hotels outdoor pool. At the end of a nice relaxing day we walked to a local pub near the river and had a great meal sitting on the patio.
Saturday 10th March
The local produce and craft market hits town on a Saturday and Sunday, so off we went to explore and to see if we would part with any of our money, no, the wallet remained intact. At 12.00 our minibus arrived to pick us up for our gourmet wine tasting tour that we had booked. Including the driver there was 12 of us, 5 British, 1 German, 2 Canadians, 2 Australians and 2 New Zealanders. We headed out towards Stoke and Richmond for our first stop at "Grape Escape", here we were served with our "gourmet platter" consisting of smoked salmon, mussels, roast chicken, cooked meats, cheeses, olives and lots of different fruit and nuts. The idea was that we would taste different wines with different foods. We started with a piece of pineapple and then a sip of Riesling, followed by a piece of gherkin and another sip of Riesling, not surprisingly the wine tasted completely different. We stopped at several different locations, including one that produced many fruit wines, such as Kiwi. The last stop was to a microbrewery where Ron could taste as many different beers or lagers as Linda would allow him to. Whilst we were there many customers came in and bought the drink straight from the tanks (sold in 1 or 2 litre bottles). Our driver of the minibus was a real live wire and very knowledgeable about wines and the whole of the Nelson area, we finished the tour feeling that we knew a lot more about the delights of living in Nelson.
Sunday 11th March
The usual early start as we had to be in Picton by 9 a.m. for our 10 a.m. ferry to Wellington, we left before dawn and it was great to see the sun rising above the mountains which were shrouded in wisps of mist. After checking in our luggage at the ferry terminal we returned the car (we would be picking up a different one in Wellington), our mileage for the South Island amounted to 2300 km. Whilst waiting to board the ferry an announcement came over the tannoy to say that a group of travellers had arrived outside, they had travelled from Bluff to Picton on horses and stage coaches to raise money for a rescue helicopter - we had passed them on our way to Picton. We went out the front to give them some money and on speaking to one of the horse riders they informed us that it had taken them 7 weeks and 2 days to complete the journey. We had previously decided that we would upgrade our seats on the ferry to club class (only cost £5 each) in order that we could have a nice comfy chair. The first hour was spent at the front of the boat in order to view the most spectacular coastline as you weave out of the South Island. The remainder of the journey was spent lounging on nice comfortable sofas drinking as much complimentary tea, coffee & soft drinks as we wanted. The car hire representative was waiting for us as we arrived and we picked up the next hire car and drove to our hotel in the city centre. It was a beautiful day so we headed down to the waterfront where there was a dragon boat competition going on at the boat club, there wasn't an inch of viewing space to be had. The finishing line for the Wellington stage of the Women's New Zealand Cycle Race was right in the town centre, so those streets were also very busy. The one thing we had to do in our one afternoon at Wellington was to ride the famous cable car. At the top of the hill we could see all around Wellington Harbour and the mountain ranges further North.
Monday 12th March
We had changed our itinerary for today as we wanted to visit Tony's daughter Mandi and her husband Brian who live at New Plymouth. Foolishly we had thought that we could visit them during the day whilst in Taupo, we discovered during our travels, that the journey from New Plymouth to Taupo involves an 8 hour round trip. We left Wellington at 6.30 a.m. in order to miss the early morning traffic coming into New Zealand's capital city. The distance to New Plymouth was 370km and after a couple of stops we arrived just after midday, Mandi then came and picked us up from our accommodation and took us back to her place. We really enjoyed meeting Brian - who incidentally plays in a band called Hatcher Brothers, we listened to a CD single that he had written (hopefully the band will get the backing they need to release the single). It was great to eat a meal in a real home and not in a restaurant, thanks Mandi.
Tuesday 13th March
Did not sleep too well as the rain was bouncing off our hotel's tin roof, the forecast for the next 2-3 days is not very good. Today we only had a 300km drive ahead of us but the drive would be the usual up hill and down dale. We had not gone too far before the heavens opened again (Linda was driving) and you could not see in front of you, with hair pin bends to deal with as well, it was not too good. Eventually the weather calmed down a bit and we finally arrived into Taupo and checked into our Lakeside resort, the lake looked just like a rough sea! Quick visit into town and then back to the hotel for our evening meal - bbq leg of lamb with char grilled vegetables and red wine jus, sounded and tasted just like heaven.
Wednesday 14th March
The forecast today was for sunshine with heavy showers later, so we had to do our walk around the "Craters of the Moon". It is a strange feeling to be walking so close to areas of ground that are boiling beneath you, it is like walking into a kitchen with the kettle steaming all the time. The biggest difference we noticed to our previous visit to Rotorua was the lack of sulphur smell, which in Rotorua evades the whole township. Carrying on we arrived at the Aratiatia Dam which controls the flow of water from Lake Taupo into the Waikato River, this river is the longest in New Zealand. At certain times of the day the gates are open on the dam and quite a crowd of people are there to watch the gorge fill with millions of litres of water, we were lucky to witness this event. We had booked ourselves a Huka Falls River Cruise which took us from the dam down to Huka Falls passing many interesting sights, such as the Wairakei Geothermal Power Station which is powered from the natural hot springs. On our cruise we went right to the edge of the falls, the boat is called "Maid of The Mist". You also pass "Prawn Park" which uses the warm waters to hatch millions of freshwater prawns every week, the main feature of the park is "Shawn the Prawn's Walk" which shows you how everything is hatched and lets you have a go at hooking your own prawn to eat later, their motto is "Meet, Greet and Eat". By now it was bucketing down with rain again so we had a look at the Volcanic Activity Centre, here we sat in a seat to experience an earthquake, watched films which recorded the last eruptions in the Taupo Area in 1995-96, and looked at lots of exhibits which explained why New Zealand is sitting on a "Feisty" plate. We ventured out again early evening to the "Jolly Good Fellows" pub and restaurant for our evening meal, their advert stated that they cooked "real home English Cooking", so we had sausage and mash and steak & kidney hot pot, lovely warming food on a really cold evening.
Thursday 15th March
Armed with our rain coats and jumpers we walked into Taupo (about 4 km each way) walking along the edge of the lake, it was certainly fresh. After a nice refreshing cup of tea we drove to Taupo Bungy and watched some brave ( or silly) people throwing themselves off the platform to the river below. The local paper had a story of a gentleman who 2 days ago had done the bungy jump at 90 years old, he had also done a skydive and aerobatic plane ride the same day. Our last stop of the day was at the Taupo hot springs, mineral & freshwater pools. The hottest pool was 40 degrees, just like a really hot bath, in fact Linda's glasses would not stop steaming up! The mineral pools, which supposedly are the best ones are 35 degrees and the spa pool was a quite cool 30 degrees. We came out of there like wrinkly prunes and now had to head back to our room to prepare for the next days travelling northwards.
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