Abel Tasm-- I mean, West Coast Road Trip!

Monday morning, on the ferry back from Wellington, Tom and I had a cup of tea and a muffin and suddenly I had a pain in my left ear.  I haven't had an ear infection in easily 15 years, but this sudden sharp pain in my ear was vaguely familiar and most uncomfortable.  I was hoping it was something related to my fatigue from dancing and staying up late, but after a 3 hour nap on the ferry, it still hurt and I was getting worried.

Nicky had driven up from Dunedin and arrived in Picton on Sunday night so she met me at the ferry terminal Monday morning after Tom left to drive back to Kaikoura.  Nicky and I drove to Nelson and discussed my ear situation.  We ended up at an after hours/emergency doctor's office where $150 later the doctor confirmed that I did have an ear infection.  At that point I was annoyed that I had an ear infection and the doctor was recommending that I not go tramping, but I was happy I had an ear infection because spending $150 to be told I was fine would have sucked much more.  In the end, Nicky and I picked up drugs for my ear and had coffee to plan our next move.  We were too late to start tramping the Abel Tasman like we'd originally planned and we couldn't postpone a day because we both had work commitments, so instead we rescheduled our tramp and decided to road trip!

the beach at Marahau - horseback riders included - and Nicky

Abel Tasman National Park

From Nelson, we drove northwest to Marahau.  Marahau is the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park so visiting it was slightly bittersweet because I really wanted to start tramping!  But Instead we just took pictures on the beach and decided to try and find Split Apple Rock.  Split Apple Rock is somewhere between Marahau and Kaiteriteri.  We weren't exactly sure where it was and the article I'd read in the paper wasn't specific about its location either, so it was a bit of a treasure hunt for us.  Obviously we didn't ask for directions, we're self sufficient women!  Plus getting lost makes everything much more interesting.  So, we drove around between Marahau and Kaiteriteri looking for every beach that could conceivably have a rock just off its coast.  In Kaiteriteri, we thought we'd found the right cove, but alas it was just another beautiful green space with a post showing how far away different cities are.  We wasted time there taking pictures and left as the sun was getting really close to the horizon.  We continued driving around as the sun sank lower and lower and finally, with the use of our headlights, we found the turnoff for Split Apple Rock.  We walked down to the beach with our flashlights and tried to take pictures of the rock in the dark.  Sadly, and not surprisingly, those pictures just turned up with a slightly darker patch of black against the Wellington nighttime skyline.  I decided not to include those pictures here, they weren't that interesting.  After that, we drove to Takaka and planned the next day of our trip.

PUKEKO!

From Takaka we drove all the way up to the top of the South Island to Farewell Spit.  It was a beautiful morning and the clouds (I LOVE the clouds in this country) were stunning.  The Pukekos were also running amok and they're so cute!  From the Farewell Spit we drove back to Takaka and the couple running our backpackers strongly pressured us to visit the Labyrinth Rocks, which we did and spent so much more time there than we'd anticipated.  These rocks are in the middle of a field and they create more of a maze then a technical labyrinth, but they are really fun.  All through the rocks are toy figurines of superheroes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, animals, dwarfs... all sorts of random fun things.  The rocks created numerous different paths so you could easily spend a day exploring them all.  After a couple hours we reluctantly left because we had The Grove to get to, Harwood's Hole and then a 4 hour drive to Karamea.

Farewell Spit

The Grove: very LOTR huh?

The Grove is another random grove of trees and rocks in the middle of another field.  Pretty, but not quite as much fun as the labyrinth rocks.  Regardless, we took pictures and moved on to visit Harwood's Hole, a REALLY big hole in the ground.  Nicky and I turned off the main highway onto a sealed road that quickly became unsealed and drove about 11km up hills, into valleys and waaaay out of cell phone range.  Once reaching the entrance sign to the national park it was another several km to the actual hole.  We forded a wee stream in Pigwidgeon (Nicky's car) and drove through an area that looked like where Deliverance was filmed.  We freaked ourselves out a lot because there was NO ONE else and a random scary cemetery we drove by to boot.  However after a 30 minute drive through Ish Gish, we reached a parking lot with cars and people.  Phew!  It was another half hour walk through the bush to the hole and it really just was a hole in the ground.  We couldn't see the bottom because to get a good look we would have had to fall into the hole first, so here's a better picture that I didn't take.

Wekas investigating the car - Nicky - Beneath the Oparara arch - Looking out from under the arch (amazing light!)

By the time we drove through deliverance land again, it was getting close to sunset and we had to book it to the other side of the Kahurangi National Park to get to Karamea.  We stayed on a small farm in Karamea and in the morning drove up to Oparara to see the limestone arch.  We also stopped to explore a couple caves.  There are only two that you don't need a tour guide for.  The first one has spiders and they're being studied so even though they're huge and scary you're not allowed to kill them.  They also hang grotesquely from the ceiling of the cave and the ceiling is REALLY low.  Needless to say, we didn't stay in that cave long.  The other cave was a dry cave (read: no spiders or anything slimy and creepy).  It was HUGE and you had to descend nearly two flights of stairs from ground level to reach the bottom.  We brought our flashlights because the light only reached so far inside and once you passed the first turn you couldn't see bubkus.  There were lots of crevices carved into the rock and the spaces kept going and morphing into more small pathways that led to more spaces and on and on.  Sadly, pictures of the interior don't easily capture the cool and slightly claustrophobic spaces, and those pictures were on Nicky's camera and we lost those pictures. (tear)  Looks like you'll have to go visit them yourself sometime!  On our way out of the park we were going to immediately start driving down the west coast, but the beach we drove out facing was absolutely stunning so we had to stop and explore.

Oparara Beach

Punakaiki Pancake Rocks

After oohing and aahing over the amazing misty morning sunlight and the pristine beach, we started driving down the west coast.  The west coast is well known for being grey, rainy and generally host to crappy weather.  We were SO lucky because the weather was stunning!  It was sunny and warm and made every beach and cove look beautiful.  It was all we could do to not stop at every new beach and cove to take pictures.  The west coast may have crappy weather, but I would buy/build a house there in a heartbeat because when it's good, it's reallllly good.  Between Westport and Greymouth is Punakaiki, home to the pancake rocks and blowholes.  Fun rock formations that look like pancakes and make really cool water explosions.  We hung out there for a long while waiting for the perfect waves to make the perfect spray for the perfect pictures.  After a while I gave up and just took a picture of us instead.  Perfect, as always!

Random cove on the west coast

We did stop at one random beach because it was all secluded and pretty.  I sat on a rock taking pictures and Nicky wandered off to do the same.  The tide must have been coming in, but I was sitting on the rock and, I thought, out of reach of the waves.  I was mistaken and taken off guard when my arse suddenly felt wet and I realized a much larger wave had breached the top of my rock and soaked me completely.  Nicky thought she was safe too behind some rocks but had to wade through the receding water to meet me, stranded on my wet rock.  Once the water was gone we beat feet to the car to change into dry clothes and amidst constant giggles continued our drive south. 

Before we hit Franz Josef we decided to turn off and visit Okarito.  Okarito is a TINY (shocker) town on the west coast where Keri Hulme, the author of The Bone People, wrote her book and where she has since become a hermit.  Seeing as The Bone People is a classic New Zealand novel, we decided it was worth a visit to the author's home.  There isn't much there, including gas stations as we started to fret about, but there were plenty of holiday homes and a really nice beach.  We took pictures on the beach but sadly we didn't run into Keri.

Pics I took to keep myself amused while driving - Driftwood & stone sculpture on Okarito beach

Franz Josef Glacier - and the riverbed we walked along

At Franz Josef we stopped and visited the glacier.  I was slightly unimpressed because it looked cooler from further away and we weren't allowed to get close enough to walk on it.  They make you pay money and take a safe guided tour to walk on the glacier, lame huh? But we did walk out to it and then spent the evening with Nicky's friend Rory who moved from her backpackers in Dunedin to work at a hostel in Franz Josef.  Good to see him again and I wouldn't have minded hanging out longer, but I had to return to work sooner than Nicky did.  

From the Bus to Qtown

Early the next morning I caught a bus for an 8 hour drive down to Queenstown.  I bummed around for a while waiting for Dougall to show up as he agreed to come pick me up and drive me back to Dunedin!  We went out for a drink at a Lonely Planet recommended bar with a large foreign beer selection and talked to the bartender who had moved to Queenstown from Hawaii.  So many Americans moving down here...  The next morning, Dougall picked me up from my backpackers and we had brunch, I met his sister who works at the Novotel and then we headed home via Omakau and Naseby.  Omakau is just fun to say (Oh-ma-cow) and then we visited Dougall's family holiday home in Naseby.  Nothing much in Naseby except holiday homes, 2 bars, and an International Curling Rink.  Priorities, eh?  So, Dougall took me on a tour of all the tiny tiny towns in the middle of the South Island and dropped me off back home, a quality road trip in two parts.  And even though I was gutted not to be able to hike the Abel Tasman, Nicky and I rescheduled and hiked it later.  That blog post coming soon!