Hanmer Springs and Home

19/11/12

Celia drove to Hanmer yesterday, which not only relieved me of the stress of it but also gave me a much greater chance to see the incredible mountains, streams, rivers and forests - all in abundance!  What a trip that is!  We're still of a mind that the road from Blenheim to Nelson was the most difficult because of the unending twisting and steep decline from its peak (it may be better going the other way) and it was a pleasure to drive on this road because only in a few places were there difficult corners; for the most part it was navigable and not especially steep - even for me as a passenger (when you drive most of the time, you miss the security of not having a brake on your side of the car...)  Scenery wise it would take the cake, I think.  The Kaikoura Coast was lovely and wild, and that had held pride of place till now I think, but yesterday's road via the Lewis Pass has now surpassed it.  The way the mountains loom up ahead of you, as though you could reach out and touch them, is phenomenal, and you feel almost swamped by their massiveness.  But besides these, there were the wonderful natural forests at every hand, and streams and rivers.  There seemed to be two Rough Creeks (rough, I guess, in the sense that the rocks are strewn every which way, and the water tumbles down between them with great gusto), but perhaps it's only one that turns up in two different places.  

We were really glad to be out if the Murchison camp: the last straw was Celia discovering she'd have pay two dollars to take a shower, a real imposition in this place where, with all the kayaking that goes on, hot showers are an essential. The place really niggled us in a number of ways: in spite of the fact that the cabin had a kettle and toaster (and toast rack!) - and a wonky four-legged stool - and an abundance of drawers and shelves, and a porch!, it was badly laid out, with poor use made of the space. The double bed was built in, and you wouldn't have wanted to be over six feet tall, since it was foreshortened by having cupboards on one end.  The lounge area we used was dark and uninviting, though we did spend some time there watching TV, and reading (because there was nowhere to sit in the cabin - the wonky stool was iffy to sit on). And the kitchen we used, as I noted yesterday, was distinctly lacking in cutlery and crockery.  Sometimes a place just doesn't appeal because the weather's not good, or you're not in the right mood, and both of those could have applied to this camp, but in general the price was high for what was there, compared to some of the other camps we stayed in.  However, it's a bit of a lottery this camping business, whether you use a tent or a cabin.  You never quite know what the owners will think are adequate facilities. 

The curious thing is that the cabin in Hanmer, which had a double bed and four bunks in it, and nothing else, was far more comfortable than the one in Murchison.  The kitchen just across the drive was well stocked with cutlery and crockery and pots and pans and everything has its place, with labels all over, and friendly signage. (Compare the signage in Geraldine, for instance, where you felt as though you were being treated like a naughty child.) The lounge next to the kitchen has couches and armchairs that aren't falling apart, and several tables, and plenty of seating.  Just a totally different atmosphere. The place itself is utterly clean and tidy, very well-maintained, and run by a youth trust which has obviously put a huge amount of work into it over many years. (They even had it closed down on them for a year in 1993 when the Department of Health discovered some form of contamination on the site and shut it on the spot, disrupting bookings and people staying here and staff working here.).  The current manager, (I think that's her role), is a delightful young Canadian, whose husband also works there - he's a Kiwi - and they couldn't do enough for you. 

The only other guests in our end of the complex were a French couple with their two children, a boy of eight and a girl of five and a bit.  The kids were bilingual, switching back and forth from French to English without blinking an eye, and the parents spoke good English too.  They've settled in NZ and are contract dairy farmers currently working near Reefton.  They've moved around a bit in their four years here having been in Oamaru and Takaka - possibly other places too.  We talked a lot with them, and the kids played on the iPad and he iPhone and chattered away.  The boyis learning hip hop and wants to be a hip hop star, of course!

We went into the village in the afternoon and walked round a bit.  There was a sale of tools on in a hall, great stuff, all new, and brought in from the UK.  Rolson is the brand name, one we'd never heard of.  (The guy selling the tools imports them himself and travels around town selling them.)  Celia bought a pair of knee pads, though I'm sure she was tempted to buy one of everything!   We also walked around the now mostly unused hospital area (one is used for community gatherings); seems an awful shame to have all these wonderful buildings sitting empty.  The nurses' home is reminiscent of the one at the old sanatorium at Waipiata: sunny rooms with their own built in wardrobes and drawers. 

20.11.12

Home again, after a long drive, all the way from ChCh. Went back through Glentunnel and the Rakaia Gorge – it rained a great deal of the time and didn’t come right till Timaru, where we stopped for about three quarters of an hour. Got stuck behind a very slow and wide truck that was transporting some large piece of machinery. Tried to overtake it by detouring through Morven, but weren't quite quick enough and found ourselves behind it again when we got back onto the main road.  Finally passed it in Oamaru, stopped at the long beach before Shag Point and found ourselves behind it again!  Very tired when we got home.  There's been a lot of driving on this trip, probably getting up to 1800 kms by the time we take in all the detours and running back and forth within cities, like Christchurch and Nelson.  Still, that's not as bad as the trip that one of the people I play Scrabble with online did recently: 6000 miles in two weeks.  Crikey!  They can hardly have ever been out of the car...

On to, and in, Murchison

17/11/12 - in Nelson
Turns out the kids I mentioned in the last post - boys and girls of a variety of ages, though mostly around the Intermediate level - are up from Christchurch to play in a touch rugby tournament.   They certainly brought plenty of life to the place which was pretty quiet the night before, and they seem well organised.  They're up and about early this morning: I thought there was no one around until I went to the toilet about 6.30 and discovered they were already up and running.  The walls in this place a surprisingly soundproof.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a long stroll/walk on the beach at Tahunanui.  It's glorious: a huge expanse that gets covered with the tide when it comes in, and warm water and sunshine streaming down on it all.  You can see why people like the place.  Nelson seems to have grown hugely since we were last here, but that might be just my view of it.  It's certainly not a little place.

We got some Soov from the chemist yesterday and that's certainly helped ease the itchiness of the mozzie bites.  We could hear one in the cabin just before we went to bed last night but Celia may have frightened it to death or even caught it in a mighty clap she gave!

We're off to Murchison today. Almost missed out on getting a place to stay until Celia discovered, on an iPad app she's got, that there was a place not listed in the AA book.  Hopefully the road isn't totally winding and hilly!


18/12/12 - in Murchison
Restless night after a not so wondrous day.  It rained on and off all the way to Murchison, and then rained more when we got here. Between times it would be quite warm and pleasant, and I actually went for a walk at one point looking for the river on the other side of the road and strangely forgetting that I'd just been looking at it with Celia at the back of the camp!  I'd missed noting the bridge we came over, somehow.

She wasn't in the best of states: the midges are everywhere here and she got very agitated because she was so sure they were all out to bite her, after all the trouble she'd had with the bites she'd got in Picton.  Her ankles are still swollen, and she wants to be at home now, so everything combined to make her feel miserable for a while. The camp isn't very good considering what we're paying for it (only five dollars less than the very good cabin in Nelson) and the so-called double bed in the room is literally just a built in bunk that Celia immediately knew wouldn't be comfortable for the two of us.  So we brought one of the air beds in and she slept on that.  It was stuck in the corner under the little shelf where the cutlery and electric jug is.  The kitchen we used was okay, but whether they're doing some overhauling of it or what I don't know, but it's almost bare of utensils. The jug in it was so foul looking inside that we couldn't bear to use it.  It reminded us of the one in London that had been peed in, though that obviously wasn't the problem with it.*  Still, there's a quite large lounge area and we sat and watched a repeat of Doc Martin and read a bit. Ironically, there's a notice in the office that you should check out the place before you pay as no refunds will be given.  I'm not sure how you'd do that, and what your alternative would be anyway!

The place is geared up for people doing kayaking, and there are wet suits hanging everywhere, and a lot of young people about. Not that we saw them much: they were either out kayaking or cooking in the other kitchen, which had pots and pans galore in shopping bags on the floor.  That might explain their absence in our kitchen.  The toilets, which are next to our cabin, are pretty good and look as though they've been built, or done up, recently.  I guess if you have a place like this you have to work on a bit at a time, depending on finances.  The problem is, as seemed to be the case in Kaikoura, if you let it run down too much people won't come at all and then you've got no money to work with.

We had pottered around in Nelson before we left.  There was a market with a lot of stalls that was worth wandering around, though it was raining lightly, and I went up to the Cathedral to have a look. It's in a beautiful setting, a well-established garden on the hillside, and that's a delight, but the cathedral itself seems rather stark to me, and lacking in much warmth.  The great bell tower is square and open, so you can see the bells, but has a skeletal feel about it, and the building, while imposing, doesn't invite you in.  There was a short-haired cat wandering around inside, a friendly creature, which I thought must have belonged, but neither of the two women doing the flowers knew where it came from, and one of them was shooing it away from the altar, and asking me what it was doing there.


We've booked to go to Hanmer Springs today, though I'm not much looking forward to the drive.  The one to Murchison was a bit winding and hilly but not as bad as the Blenheim to Nelson one; today's drive may be much the same it seems.

*Curiously enough I don't seem to have mentioned the jug/kettle that had been peed in, in London, in the posts I wrote at the time. We'd been in this hovel of a room for three days right near the end of our five month trip, and hadn't used the kettle for one reason or another - probably because the room wasn't pleasant just to sit around in, and we'd eaten out all the time.  On the last night I went to fill it up with water, opened it, and discovered someone had used it for a toilet at some point.  We'd paid £40 pounds for this room, with breakfast in the cafe downstairs included.  That was around $120NZ at the time.  Phenomenal rip off.

Nelson and ships in bottles

16/11/12
Currently the plan is to leave for Murchison tomorrow, spend the night there, and then go to Hanmer Springs for a night and then to our daughter's for Monday night .  After that we may just drive straight home.  Celia didn't sleep well last night as the mozzies that bit her in Picton had left their mark and she was very itchy.  I didn't think I'd been bitten but I noticed, about half an hour ago, that I had three bites. Yet none of those were itchy at all.  I slept pretty well, even though I went to bed about 9.30 and in spite of Celia tossing and turning and going to the loo and reading the iPad under the blanket.

Took us a while to get off the ground this morning because we needed to get the tent tidied up after it was bundled in the car yesterday and the car itself needed some sorting out - something that happens every few days.  We then went grocery shopping as we were running out of some essentials, and then went onto the Founders Park which isn't far from here,  Celia had wanted to go to Högland's glass factory - in fact it had been one of the things she was coming for and then we discovered it was closed for major repairs.  She was quite disappointed, I think. We'd been there last time we were in Nelson, and really enjoyed it.

However Founders Park was well worth a visit.  Celia's convinced it's where the wedding reception was held for a wedding we came up to Nelson for about fourteen years ago, and she could be right, though I don't really remember it at all. The reception would have been the big building called the Granary [picture above], but again it didn't look particularly familiar.  The Park has some lovely old buildings in it, and early in the piece we got into a fun conversation with the people in the bakery shop: the guy is from the States, the woman from Hounslow, and the younger bloke just got on with baking, throwing a laugh or a word in occasionally.  The Cooper who works in the Park was there at the time with another older guy and they'd obviously already been having a bit of a laugh together.  Made the visit start off well.  There weren't many other people working today, but it's possibly too early in the tourist season.

We really enjoyed the Park.  The buildings are lovely, and well preserved, and there are surprises around every corner.  Some of the collections are still in the process of being cleaned up, but there are others that have had a lot of work put into them.  One of these was the vast array of ships in bottles - it's claimed to be the biggest collection of these in the Southern hemisphere.  Some of them are outstanding,  such as the enormous bottle that has fourteen separate sailing ships inside it [see photo] or the ship inside a light bulb.  There are also fascinating crib boards made in the shape of ships, and some enormously detailed sailing ships (not in bottles).

It's another very hot day, alleviated at least by a bit of a breeze.  We're not sure we could live here in the high summer.  Both of us were worn out by all the walking round the park, me because it was all strolling, and I don't find strolling does me much good.  I'm better if I'm striding out and getting my legs moving.  I get very stiff otherwise.  Celia's ankles are swollen so she's uncomfortable from that too.  A huge bunch of school kids arrived at the Tahuna camp in the evening and took over the cabins opposite us.  Thankfully they're not staying on our side, especially the one who screams every few minutes.

Nelson, tents and beach

15/11/12
Absolutely hot day and consequently quite exhausting in the car.  We said goodbye to the noisy trucks and cars going over the bridge and have had them replaced here in Nelson by an aeroplane leaving the airport every half hour or so.  Surprisingly it's not as noisy as it was in Blenheim.

Picton: Sounds and boats.  Difficult to capture the
beauty of this harbour on film. 

The trip to Picton was fine and easy and took less than half an hour.  We wandered around for a while checking it out, enjoying the water and the boats - the Interislander in her berth - and the sunshine.  Found a secondhand shop that also sold antiques and it had a huge range of stuff from all sorts of vintages.  Bought a potato masher for a dollar, since we discovered last night that along with the lack of potatoes we didn't have a masher either.  Tempted by some other things, including the bus outside the building that was offered as a trade-in - it was fitted out as a campervan - but managed to control ourselves.  Also found a secondhand bookshop, a very good done, and finished up buying an Ian Rankin that I don't think I've read: Exit Music.  I think it was supposed to be the last Rebus book, but the most recent book by Rankin brings Rebus out of retirement, and also includes the characters from the two Complaints books, who, curiously, come across as different characters in this new book - it's like they're seen as different because we're seeing them through Rebus' eyes.  Consequently we get very little insight into Malcolm Fox in this new book.  I had a bit of a discussion with the proprietor of the bookshop about the way paper books are being taken over by electronic versions; naturally he wasn't very impressed by the latter and thought a monopoly would eventuate and cut lots of people out.  However I think it's a transition time, like it or not, and we'll have to live with it somehow. Books as such don't seem to be going out of fashion as yet.  There was a good secondhand bookshop n Blenheim as well as a very good new books bookshop, staffed by at least five people.

We checked at the info place about just how hilly and winding the Queen Charlotte road was and, on the basis of what they said, decided it was too hilly.  Just as well, as the road from Havelock to Nelson was not at all pleasant to drive on.  Up to Havelock it was fine, running along through a lovely valley (the Rai Valley, I think?) but a few miles after Havelock it climbed up into the mountains.  That wasn't too much of a problem - it was the endless trip downhill again that nearly drove us crazy with its constant twists and turns, and with trying to keep the car from going too fast.  With all the weight on board I don't much trust the brakes to hold us if we have a problem.  When we were coming back from Christchurch after our last trip there, and Celia was driving, the car was doing an awful shuddering thing as we came down the Kilmog, which made Celia very nervous (not to mention me!)

We stopped off in Havelock for lunch near the water, and were joined by a very fluffy cat who just sat beside us without demanding anything, in spite of the fact that we were eating sardines (not on toast, but on pita bread - we'd run out of ordinary bread).

Tahuna Beach, Tahunanui.  You can just see some of the
dozen or so surf kites people were practicing with.

Anyway after our long trip down the neverending hill, we got to Nelson - and began to breath normally again.  We'd decided to stay at the Tahuna Beach motor camp, which turns out to be 54 acres of campervans, tents, cabins, motels and whatever, all within spitting distance of the sea.  It's a good place but when we tried to get the tent up, the wind just wouldn't let us.  We decided to try a different tent site since we were told it didn't matter which site we used but while that was a little less windy, we still had enormous trouble getting the tent to sit properly. The front kept blowing inwards and in general not looking right.  The rest was okay, but the area round the door bent inwards.  Turned out that one of the rods had split badly, so it's not surprising that it wouldn't take the strain.  Celia had already repaired another one on site and we'd got that in place - she'd repaired several split ones before left home - bit in the end the tent was just plain wonky and was going to get wonkier.  We capitulated and hired a cabin instead, which meant taking the tent down again.  At least that was a much quicker job than the two attempts we'd made to get it up!   The cabin is a standard one but in fact is better than the so-called de luxe one we had in Kaikoura.  It doesn't have a sink, which was an advantage at the other place, but it has a fridge and a telly.  It would sleep four if necessary, so we have a choice of beds.

Celia's happy to start heading home after we've been here for a couple of nights.  She's over tenting for the time being, and in fact, given the relative price of the cabins, it's not worth all the hefting and heaving and shoving and back-breaking that the tent takes to get up, just to save a few dollars.  She'd had plans about going into more remote camp sites, like the DOC ones, but that idea went west after we'd been at Waitaki Waters, and had spent some time at Marfells Beach.  I think she's realised that we're getting a bit past all the hassles of camping, although she enjoys cooking on her gas stove - making pikelets on it near Glentunnel and cooking eggs on the side of the road near Makikihi were both highlights.

Now we have to figure out how to get home without too many mountain roads like the one we went on today.  Looks like we can avoid going back to Blenheim, by going down through the middle of the island but I think that road is a winding as well.  Anyway, we'll see how it goes.  We can stop between here and Christchurch and again between Christchurch and Dunedin if we want.   That'll take us through the weekend and into next  week and that'll be enough.   We'll probably stop overnight with my daughter and her family on the way back as well.

Blenheim and ducklings

14/11/12
We got into Blenheim about four and booked into the Top Ten park, which by the time night fell was fairly full with campervans. Not so many tents - in fact, ours is just about the only one, it think - but it's a very tidy, and large, site.  Only disadvantage is that the bridge on which all the main road traffic travels is over the stream that runs through the caravan park and the traffic noise echoes and reverberates around the place.  When the trains go past, and there seem to be plenty of them, the noise is fortissimo!  In spite of that we both slept pretty well, so that's a plus.  I'm over in the kitchen typing this because Celia is still asleep.  I was awake at four, prayed for a while, and went back to sleep at five I guess, woke again at six, and have been over here pretty much since then.

We did a bit of a tour around Blenheim on foot last night, getting some idea of the place.  Quite a different town to what I expected, though it was very deserted last night.  We'll check it out further today.  The weather has got past its wet and heavy cloud stuff, so it looks as though it's going to be a decent day, always a relief when camping!

Feeding the ducklings, while the
mother duck looks on unconcerned.

Last night we cooked and had our tea outside rather than dragging everything over to the kitchen - the kitchen is up a little rise and then up some stairs (for some reason the facilities near us are in a building where everything is upstairs and nothing on ground level).  While we were eating, a mother duck and her six ducklings - we'd seen them down by the stream before - came over to see if there was anything going food-wise.  I went and got some bread, and while the mother looked on, her six ducklings scrabbled for bits of bread right out of my hand,  I've just passed them again coming back from the kitchen. They show absolutely no fear.

Later. We had a very quiet day all up, spending the morning mostly either reading, snoozing, or doing the puzzles we got from 1066.  I managed to complete three of these including one I hadn't been able to do the other day, but this afternoon I couldn't get my head round them at all.  Maybe I'd worn my brain out.  I finished the latest Ian Rankin tonight; very good read with a nice red herring running through the greater part of it.  I’m not sure that the solution to the serial murders is handled as much of a surprise: the killer is a character who doesn't turn until late in the book, and there's only Rebus's hunch to undo him.

This afternoon we drove into the town centre and wandered around doing our own thing separately: Celia at the op shops, me taking some photos and visiting the Millennium Gallery, which had a couple of exhibitions on (with paintings all for sale) but had no room for any of its permanent collection.  An ongoing problem apparently.

We were going to have potatoes for tea (along with some other things) but the potatoes had vanished out of the car.   Must have left them at my daughter's.  Tomorrow we're aiming to go to Picton and then round the coast road to Havelock and so to Nelson.  We're told that the coast road round the Queen Charlotte Sound is good and not too hilly.  Let's hope that's right!