For those of you who
thought of ‘that’… well you need to think again!
We have just returned
from a quick and very simply planned trip across the ‘ditch’ to New Zealand (NZ)
having used points for the relaxed 3 hour flight from Brisbane into windy
Wellington, which it was as we rocked and rolled a bit coming into landing.
So rather than waxing
lyrical throughout this blog, let’s dispense with most of the superlatives up
front… gorgeous, breathtaking, stunning, expansive, beautiful, amazing, lovely,
magnificent and windy… no not windy as in weather but windy as in roads through
valleys and across mountains.
NZ has LOTS of windy
roads and it always took us much longer to get anywhere than the distance in
kms would have suggested.
Back to the trip, which
consisted of a few nights in Wellington before catching a ferry for the 3 hr
trip across Cook Strait to Picton on the south island, pick up a car and head
to Nelson, where we based ourselves for 7 nights before returning the car to
Picton, another ferry and car and a drive up to Napier and our base for another
7 nights, back to Wellington and a flight back to Brisbane.
The map below shows
those of you unsure just where these places are in NZ.
We had been to NZ
before and had concentrated our time around the north of the north and island
and the south of the south island, so this trip was about having a better look
at the north of the south island and the south of the north island. Hope you’re not too confused yet?
We had managed to find
some cheaper self catering ‘apartments’ which enabled us to make many of our
own meals, similar to how we quite often do things in Europe for example.
Just by pure chance… if
you believe us, both Nelson and Napier are in the heart of quite large wine
producing regions of NZ, Nelson being in the midst of the famed Marlborough
wine area and Napier in the Hawke Bay region.
Must confess that the wines tasted in a few wineries were very pleasant
indeed.
Around Nelson.
The map below shows where we wandered during our 7 days,
managing to visit both coast and truly enjoying many of the sights NZ has to
offer.
Highlights for us including the two ferry trips across the
strait…
· Marlborough
wineries - there are LOTS of them
 |
| yes they tasted good! |
· Wharariki
Beach – also need to watch out for the NZ fur seals
· Farewell Spit
– stretches 26 kms towards the north island
 |
| the spit is in the distance curving off to the right... |
· Kaikoura –
famous for its crayfish
· Lake Rotoroa
– the scenery, the pier and being able to hand feed the eels
· Paparoa
National Park – the coastal pancake rocks
Around Napier.
The next map shows our travels to and around Napier during our
visit…
…and some of the highlights from this part of NZ were.
· Napier – with
its many art deco buildings as a result of the 1931 earthquake which destroyed
much of the town
· Hawkes Bay
wineries – yes, a lot more very nice wines to taste
 |
| there are wineries everywhere... |
· Te Mata Peak
– with grand views back towards Hastings and Napier
· Lake Taupo area –
very scenic and cosmopolitan
· Ocean and
Waimarama beaches – private and nestled at the bases of large sentry like hills
One thing you also learn quite quickly is how friendly the
locals are with most of them happy to have a chat without much prompting at all,
and very keen to help if they can.
Another learning is that NZ is in the midst of a tourist boom, with
backpackers and other overseas visitors popping up in fairly large numbers, no
matter where we were.
Final key learning, not only are the roads windy but off the
main highways, they are also quite narrow and inhabited by large trucks hauling
huge timber logs on trailers that seem to have a life of their own.
There is a link below to a few more photos, so am keeping this
quite brief, but after this very relaxed trip, we really would like to go back
over the ditch again and probably rent a motorhome for awhile and free camp in
the many accessible places we saw so many others doing so during our 16 days in
the land of the long white clouds. There
is truly a lot to see crammed into those two islands.
As previously, if you’re interested, click on the link below to
gain access to a few more photos:
2016 is going to be an interesting travel year for the
Geripackers so stay tuned and go well!
