Le Petit Chateau
G & P's caravan travels around the South Island
Monday, 7 May 2012
Journeys End
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Nearly at Journeys End
Leaving Nelson today for the drive to Picton and the ferry tomorrow. A distant view of one of the Navy Patrol vessels just entering Port as we leave.
The road takes a good few twists and turns as it climbs out of Nelson and over the Richmond Range. The hills seem endless but finally we descend into the Rai Valley and on towards Picton. The road signs gave us an overall mileage of 139km but our GPS was about 30km less so we decided to follow that. It turned us off into Queen Charlotte Drive for a lovely scenic drive along the side of Queen Charlotte sound. It was very narrow in places and the winding road made the journey hard work. It would be a lovely trip just in a car but I probably wouldn’t do it again with the caravan on the back.
Arriving finally at Picton we stopped for a quick photo at the lookout and watched the Bluebridge ferry arriving while the Interislander was preparing to leave.
The Trans Coastal was ready to leave (another train trip we would like to do) so we watched that, bought some lunch and had a look around Picton (that didn’t take long) – most of it was shut !
Trans Coastal
The Picton War Memorial
We are staying at a motor camp for our last night in the South Island just up the road from the terminal. We are leaving on the Kaitaki tomorrow at 1:05 and should be home by 5pm.
Friday, 4 May 2012
Mucking About in Nelson
Another brilliantly sunny day today and we drove into Nelson City for a look around the shops. We have decided not to do the normal sightseeing things as we intend to return to this area next year and will have a good look at all the normal tourist things then. So today was a wander through the CBD and a stop for a nice coffee.
We followed this with a visit to Burnsco Marine where I found a good 48 LED outside light for the caravan. Eventually I will get most of the interior lights changed to LED’s.
Panoramic View of Nelson Inlet
Tomorrow we head even closer to home as we relocate to Picton ready for the ferry on Monday – we will definitely be returning south next year if we can.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Motueka to Nelson
A pleasant stay in Motueka and somewhere we must revisit at a later date, just a lazy day wandering round the shops after our visit with Terrence and Mavis yesterday. We had joined the other travellers at the Marchwood Park A&P grounds this morning.
Marchwood Park
This another good stop which has a large number of motorhomes and caravans wintering over in the relatively warm Tasman weather. The camp is located on the edge of Motueka airport so there is a constant stream of entertainment taking off and flying in.
Dropping in for Tea !
Pauline and I are moving on ahead of the others now and will relocate to Nelson for a couple of nights before catching the ferry home. We all went out for a farewell dinner at the Motueka Hotel and a had a nice meal and drink or two before meeting back in Robin and Jennys caravan for a drink.
Farewell Dinner
We will miss the company of the others but it is nice that we were able to stay with them for the majority of our trip instead of having to race ahead as we thought we might have to do earlier.
We arrived in Richmond just 10 mins from Nelson and into another Racecourse, another place popular for wintering over and getting quite busy for those enjoying that lifestyle. Richmond is a lovely satellite town outside Nelson and it enjoys good weather, shopping and a relaxed lifestyle.
Richmonds’s Main Street
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Across to Motueka
Yesterday (Tuesday) Pauline and I headed off earlier than the others as we were driving direct to Motueka without stopping at Tapawera which the others intended. The drive from Murchison to Motueka was stunning going through a valley beside the river with beautiful Autumn colours on the roadside trees and a hint of snow on the mountains in the distance.
We had decided to go on ahead to visit our friends who used to live in York Bay in Wellington and who relocated to Motueka some years ago. Terrence and Pauline and I had many a good time sailing together on Wellington Harbour in either Terrence's trailer sailer or ours. We duly parked up their driveway and spent the afternoon “jawing” about the good times we used to enjoy when sailing was the main hobby. Terrence cooked us an excellent roast meal followed by a lovely dessert from Mavis, we were really spoiled.
We have now caught up with the other two travellers at the A&P showgrounds at Motueka. We are going to go out to dinner tonight as it’s our last night travelling with them. We need to keep moving to get back to Wellington by next Monday or Tuesday so will move to Nelson for a couple of nights before going to Picton and the Ferry.
Monday, 30 April 2012
Murchison
Murchison has a very good NZMCA POP located in the town centre with all the facilities available except power on good hardstanding, a credit to the team who put it together.
Pauline has heard from Hutt Hospital that she has to go in for a pre op assessment for her hip operation on 9 may prior to the Op on 31 May so our trip is nearing it’s end fortunately only about a week earlier than intended. Tomorrow we are heading right through to Motueka to catch up with friends who used to live in Wellington. The others are stopping halfway to Motueka and we will catch up with them the following day
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Through the Buller Gorge to Reefton
Well we’ve finally left Seddonville and headed back, retracing our route to Westport where a good shop at the Supermarket was required and a large diesel refuel. At last the diesel has dropped to a reasonable level from it’s $1.84 a litre in Karamea!
A nice drive through the Buller Gorge with the river showing good activity after the heavy rain over the last few days. The overhanging cliffs above our heads were spectacular but I wasn’t able to stop for a photo. We drove off the main road the 28km to Reefton where we intend to stay at the Racecourse, another POP in the NZMCA Travel Directory.
Into the isite to see whats about and to read the information on forests and mining in the area.
Reefton Rail Station Broadway – 1st to See the Light
Reefton was the first town in NZ to get electric light in 1888 after the formation of the Reefton Electrical Transmission and Lighting Company in December 1886. The scheme involved diverting part of the Inangahua river into a water race at Blacks Point. It took 20 months to build the water race install the machinery and wire the town. Total cost was $7000. After a few trials and tribulations 130 lamps were installed in locals houses by Mid September for 1 pound a time by the local tinsmith.
Today (Saturday) we went back down Broadway to the Bearded Miners Company, Gavin,Peter and Geoff are “in residence” all year and welcome visitors to their replica miners hut in the centre of town.
These gents are quite happy to sit and “chew the fat” on the history of Reefton and anything else you want to talk about.
From there we headed up the road to a cafe where we understood we could get “the best Whitebait Fritter on the Coast” Unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations, was quite tasteless and very expensive – nothing like the lovely ones we had in Greymouth at the Wild Olive Cafe behind the Royal Hotel
Tomorrow off to Murchison.