Summer Holidays 2018

Will and I had a very relaxed Christmas. It was the first one we have had by ourselves, and the first one where we have actually been at home in Wellington. Because we are usually away, we don't actually own any Christmas decorations, much to Will's disappointment. I did feel a bit guilty and tried to buy some tinsel to string around the place, but it was all sold out by the time I tried! I think he gets 'into' Christmas a bit more than I do! On the day itself we had a nice lie-in, followed by French toast for brunch with mascarpone and a berry compote. Dinner was asian-style pork belly, followed by tiramisu for dessert. Basically it was a day of cooking and preparing some of our favourite things to eat!  

On the evening of the first of Jan we headed off on our South Island adventure. We had an absolutely stunning night for our evening ferry crossing. It was definitely the smoothest crossing I have ever experienced. 

We kicked off the holiday with a couple of nights in Picton. We have a real soft-spot for this wee place, and always try to stay a night or two on the way to or from the ferry.

Will ended up kicking my butt in mini-golf, so let's not spend any more time discussing that!

Fish and Chips on the seafront is a Picton tradition for us. The liquor ban was still in force so we walked round to one of the side bays, and disguised our vino in mugs from our motel. Yes, this is what middle-aged rebellian looks like!

Picton does have some of the country's cheapest kids entertainment... Where else can you get radio-controlled boat hire or a train ride for 20 cents.

 

A bonus on our last day was catching up with my badminton teammate Rich and his family. They were returning home to Wellington after their South Island holiday

 

On Wednesday 3rd we drove to Hokitika, via a tasty picnic lunch and stretch of the legs in Murchison.

 

We only had one night in Hokitika, but we made the most of it, enjoying a nice long walk on the beach at sunset.

 

 

Later that evening we wandered the short distance down the road to check out the Hokitika Glow Worm Dell which was surprisingly impressive!

On Thursday we drove to Wanaka where we stayed at another favourite place, the Purple Cow Backpackers. We last stayed here about 12 years ago on Will's first trip to NZ, and since then it has rebranded to be the Wanaka YHA. It was still as good as what we remembered though, it has one of the best locations out of all the accommodation in Wanaka. It had a great view of the still smouldering Mt Roy... We watched the seven helicopters at work dipping their monsoon buckets into the lake and dousing the hillside until the light gave out. 

We had arrived in the early afternoon, and it was a beautiful hot summer day, so Will took the opportunity for his first ever swim in a NZ lake. That is him in the middle in the pic above.

 

Wanaka is such a beautiful spot, I've always preferred it to the glitz and glam of Queenstown. However, this was just a fleeting visit, as our main reason for heading south was to spend some time with friends at the Otago Boys' High School lodge near Mt Aspiring National Park.

 

My friend Richie Roe has been in charge of EOTC for many years at OBHS, and he has always talked about the lodge and surrounding area as one of his all-time favourite places. It was great to finally get the chance to visit. The Roes had it booked for just over a week, and there was a continual stream of people coming and going, including the Roe's university-aged kids, Rich's brother, Rach's sister and family, as well as assorted partners. There was plenty of room for everyone, and we all took turns helping out with the food prep and cooking, as well as other assorted chores. Rich had warned us it was pretty rustic, but I think he undersold the place... There was gas in the kitchen to cook on the hobs, and the bbq was used for meals most nights. The generator was fired up in the evenings to provide electricity for lights once the sun went down, and the woodburner was lit each evening to provide hot water for an evening or early morning shower. There was no phone or internet access whatsoever, so the enforced digital detox was refreshing for everybody.

 

 

There was table tennis and indoor bowls to keep us entertained inside, and Rich has a frisbee golf course set up outside.

 

Access to the lodge was on foot, over a swing-bridge crossing the Matukituki river. Depending on the height of the river, you could get a 4WD over a bit further along to get access right up to the lodge, but our little Toyota Corolla definitely wasn't up to the task!

We then had to cross another small stream using a couple of planks. Further up the stream the OBHS boys had formed a dam to create a swimming hole, so below Rich is digging this out further.   

On one of the days Rich led a large group of us on an epic walk to one of his favourite spots -the Hester Pinney waterfall. This started with a river crossing by 4WD.

We then reached the trailhead, although we didn't stay on a track for very long! Rich took us on bit of a 'bushwhacking' adventure to the waterfall.

Not before long we had a river-crossing to do on foot. Luckily I had found some aqua-shoes at the lodge that fit, so I didn't have to get my walking shoes wet.

 

It really is a stunning part of the country, and we didn't see anybody else, probably because we were literally off the beaten track!

 

We arrived at the waterfall and enjoyed our well-deserved lunch. It was a magic spot with views out to Mt Aspiring.

 

When Rich takes his schoolboys up on their annual camp they usually swim, but it was a bit on the chilly side! He tested the depth of the big pool at the bottom using the stick in the pic above, and it was well over his head.

 

As well as that big walk, we did a couple of other walks to some small local falls, including the Wishbone Falls (where I was entertained by some posing Japanese tourists who busted out some press-ups before having their photo taken in order to look buff!) and also Raspberry Falls.

 

 

On another day Rich, his daughter Georgia, Will and I did the Rob Roy Glacier track which was another lovely walk. The weather kept threatening to close in, but it held off long enough for us to get some good views of the glacier.

 

 

 

We had a brilliant time at the lodge, it is always a pleasure spending time with the Roe family, they really are great friends to have. Bring on the next adventure!

 

On Thursday 11th Jan we left the lodge and drove to Tekapo for a night. Here, our luck with the weather finally run out... You would hardly know the lake was surrounded by large mountains! We managed a quick visit to the iconic Church of the Good Shepherd during a break in the weather, then decided to while away the rest of the afternoon at the hot pools. Well, we got to the hot pools to find the manager at the entrance turning people away. There had been a burst pipe affecting the water supply, and they weren't letting anybody else into the pools. Instead we picked up some supplies at the supermarket and enjoyed a cosy evening in, watching a movie and catching up with all the news of the world we had missed during our week in the wilderness. 

The next day it was onwards to Akaroa for a night, as this was another place Will had never been. The place was absolutely heaving as two cruise ships were in, and it's not exactly the biggest of places! They only visit Akaroa for the day, so it was almost a relief when the tourists started heading back out to the ships in the early evening. We enjoyed a very pretty sunset.

 

Our last night away from home was spent in Kaikoura. It was quite sobering to see the damage still evident from the November 2016 earthquake. We went for a nice walk along the beach and enjoyed some quite spectacular fish and chips for dinner. A fitting last meal for our summer holiday.

 

 

On Sunday 14th Jan we had a 7pm ferry sailing from Picton back to Wellington. Luckily the road between Kaikoura and Blenheim had reopened after the quake (literally a couple of days earlier) so we didn't have to take the long detour inland. We left at a decent time in the morning and spent most of the day at White's Bay, another favourite spot of ours, where we had spent an epic week camping with the Roe family a couple of years earlier. The weather played its part and it made for a lovely last day of our South Island adventure, before travelling the short distance to Picton for our ferry home.