Sea Kayak Wilderness Adventure

Our final adventure was a 3 day sea kayaking camping in the wilderness trip in the Pelorus Sounds, part of

the beautiful Marlborough sounds.

We set of in 2 double fibreglass kayaks, all dressed in fetching, spray jackets and rubber skirts, with all our camping gear, food and dry clothes packed into the compartments - everything pared even more to the minimum!

The first day kayak teams were Barbara and Steve, Amy and Malcolm and Rob and Shona. We had a leisurely paddle across to a lunchtime stop where some of the compartments were reorganised.

 

 After this comfortable start - some of the team were raring to go again!

BUTTTTT - little did we know that the headwind and tide were now very much against us with a LONGGG way to go. After much hard paddling and some very near sense of humour failures (both Shona and Barbara resorted to counting paddle strokes in order to keep going!) We made it to our camp site at Jackson Bay.
PHEW!

After a restorative cup of tea and pitching the tents we set about camp cooking.

And all slept very well that night (except Amy who thought something was rustling in the canoes near her tent!)

Next day was a beautiful paddling day up to see if the place marked on the map as selling fuel also sold coffee - Shona was already getting a bit grumpy after 24hours without a flat white!

And lo and behold we found a wonderful lodge run by a German family where we had coffee, sausage sarnies chips and beer, before paddling home to our wee tents as very happy campers. The afternoon wind was now blowing us home!.

 A nice idea for old teapots!

We all felt so relaxed and happy we went for a very bracing swim!

After 2 nights in a camp site you can only reach by water, we had to head home, again it was a perfect day with the wind behind us and calm to start with. The teams had changed for this trip, Malcolm and Shona, Barbara and Steve and Amy with Rob.

We had lunch at the same beach as on the way out - this time much more experienced and stronger paddlers! (if a little more dishevelled and unkempt!)

One team however was not content to pootle back home oh no they decided to add some 'go faster' modifications to their kayak!

And yes it did work and yes they did beat us (Steve did put the rudder down too!)

All in all a superb Swallows and Amazons adventure.

'And so we say farewell'.
Our last couple of days of the South Island holiday sped past with a very rainy night in Havelock where we had a tasty meal of mussels at the Mussel Pot. Then a quick trip to Picton to put Rob on the ferry and back to the farm in Dannevirke, before the long run down to Christchurch via a couple of wine tastings in Blenheim and a very windy walk at Kaikoura, and finally spending the night in Christchurch jail.

Then it was farewell to the Gammans at Christchurch airport and we headed back up to Auckland.

What a holiday!

'Potter'-ing up the West Coast

Sorry to take the wonderful Potter families name in vain, but they did make our trip up the West coast brilliant.

First off we all descended on Steve's Aunt, Jean Potter, who allowed us to stay in her tower in the garden of her home in Okarito. Steve and Amy went kayaking on the lagoon which is a huge wetland area, with huge flax plants (and LOTS of sandflies!)

Jean, Barbara and Shona had a superb walk up the trig point to look back at the lagoon and Mt Cook and Mt Tasman behind. Steve and Malcolm went for a scrambling walk along the shore and found a startled wee blue penguin!

Jean even managed to lay on a local firework display for New Year 2016!

After 2 lovely family days, we headed off to visit yet more of Steve's Potter relations - his cousin Steve, wife Christy and Blake, not to mention all the dog sled team Huskies. We had yet another superb warm kiwi welcome, and were VERY pleased to be under a roof rather than canvas as the heavens opened and we had a night of real west coast rain.
A top culinary highlight of the whole trip was when we were treated to an amazing feast of the best whitebait fritters it is possible to imagine.

We went for a damp but very atmospheric walk along the Hokitika gorge then up to a coal mining museum at Deniston in the mist.

 Amy as a hobbit!

 Cars and trains share the same bridges here (hopefully there is a system to keep them apart!)

 Steve Potter

 Christy

We won't mention the speeding ticket shall we!

The final Potter welcome was with Steve's cousin Kathleen, when we stayed at the batch she and her family were staying at along with all her in-laws and their families. We didn't realise it but there were 19 people already staying there before we extra 6 arrived!!!

However yet again we were made so very welcome and had a wonderful family meal and had a great time with lots of lovely new people. Kiwi hospitality is officially AWESOME.
Our accommodation was a very mini caravan, with Rob in a tent and Amy on a sofa in the house.

The view from their batch.

What a special time we had with the Potters - Thanks a million.

Quieter Wanaka and through the Haast Pass

After rushing about in Queenstown we arrived in much quieter and slightly damper Wanaka, where we were very lucky to find very comfortable accommodation at the last minute.

We had a superb walk up to the Rob Roy Glacier which comes down off Mt Aspiring, which unfortunately kept its head in the clouds, but it was lovely to have a cooler day.

 

 Mt Aspiring behind the cloud!

 

 Rob Roy glacier.

We headed off towards the West coast through the Haast Pass the next day - amazed to see the large display of purple, pink, blue and mauve lupins along all our roads.

Aww!

And we did manage to get a view of Mt Aspiring as well!

When we arrived on the West coast we stopped for a quick seaside lunch accompanied by major

 

sandflies and an unexpected but brilliant visit by some endangered Hectors dolphins playing in the waves a stones throw from where we were sitting.

Sorry no pictures of the dolphins!

A very hot and dusty walk up to the end of the Fox Glacier was the next port of call. 25 years before Barbara and Steve had managed to walk on to the foot of the glacier itself, now it has retreated so much and become so unstable it is not possible to walk to the ice at all. The only way on to the glacier now is to fly. Climate Change in the raw.

 The 'mirror 'lake of Lake Matheson was also a bit disappointing as cloud was coming in over Mt Cook.