Heading for Heaphy

Exploring Golden Bay is made much easier by the fact that there are very few roads with just three longer than about 30kms and they all head inland; two ending in the Kahurangi National Park and the other one on the west coast at Anatori (that’s if you don’t count the 4WD road that can take you further on past Anatori). The rest are reasonably short and usually service the beach settlements and farming communities in the area.

The Heaphy Track, another “NZ Great Walk”, begins right at the end of one of the longer roads, at the head of the Aorere Valley. And while we aren’t going to walk the 78km, 4-5 day walk we wanted to check out the beginning of the track and explore a few areas along the way.

First things first though; it’s lunch at the ‘Naked Possum’, a well known cafe at the end of a side road surrounded by cow paddocks. Lucky the sign points down the road to the café otherwise we might just have thought this was it. There's sure to be a few very naked possums in there though.

Unfortunately there aren’t too many people about at the cafe. Well in fact, there’s only us but we had an enjoyable visit, we both had their signature venison pie which was very tasty indeed. Apparently during the summer (and over the weekends) this is a busy place, the cafe is also located at the start of the Kaituna Track, a 15km tramp up and over the Whakamarama Range ending out near the west coast (we’ll pass the other end later in the week). But for the moment it’s just us & the lunches they supply to the builders of a new dairy shed down the road.

After lunch we’re back on the road and heading towards Bainham and the ‘famous in NZ’ Langfords Store. The store is thought to be the oldest operating shop in New Zealand. But it was not operating when we visited. It’s been closed for winter, reopening this week. The store first opened it’s doors in 1928 and it’s still in the same family with the original owner's great, great grand-daughter running it now. 

With no visitors and the shop shut, it gave me a good opportunity to take photos. But I’d love to see inside so I’m hoping to head back there this week sometime to check it out.

Further down the road a sign post pointed down another side road towards a historic bridge which of course we had to check out. The Salisbury Bridge was a suspension foot bridge that crossed a narrow gorge over the Upper Aorere River. But all that remains of it, is one of the supports (middle right), the 37m long wire bridge, built in 1902, was swept away in a huge 14 metre flood on 28th December 2010, only 6 years after being fully restored and becoming one of Golden Bay’s tourist icons.

It would seem that the 2010 flood (the biggest in 150 years) was horrendous and probably the cause of all the new embankments on rivers and streams, and a couple of new bridges, that we’ve seen in the area and also why there are so many whole trees and huge tree trunks littering the estuaries in all directions. A tour guide we spoke to told us that the Aorere River has an average water flow of 80 cubic metres per second and at the height of the flood it was 8000 cubic metres per second.

What an interesting little gorge; very narrow with deep clear pools of forest green water. I can imagine the water raging through here in a flood, it would be quite terrifying crossing it on the swingbridge (especially if it was during the 2010 flood!). Can you see our shadows on the rocks? A short side walk to the end of the gorge reveals the Salisbury Falls located on a stream that enters the river near the bend. After nearly a month of little more than a few light showers, Golden Bay needs a heavy dose of rain, that would be certain to increase the flow of the falls. The whitebaiters back at camp are also wanting a good dousing to flush out the rivers, they think this will improve their catches. Going by the quantity we’ve seen some come back with we aren’t convinced the lack of rain is the reason others haven't started to fill their freezers yet.

The road to the Heaphy Track has now turned to gravel and narrows down considerably, it seems a long way in too. Travelling a dusty winding gravel road always feels twice as long as it actually is. It must be to do with all the bouncing about in the cab at half (or less) the usual speed & the taste of dust. I know David curses everytime we hit gravel as the wellside fills up with dust leaving a thick coating over everything we store back there and he’ll have to get out with the hose when we get back home. But needs must, and gravel roads are very much a part of our journey. We wouldn’t have explored half the area that we have if we kept off them.

This is Mt Olympus (1519m) and for LOTR fans this was the "Rugged Country south of Rivendell Eregion Hills"

Finally we reach the Heaphy Track carpark and as it’s getting on into the afternoon we decide to walk to the first hut only; Brown River Hut. Once again it’s deserted although there were 3 vehicles in the carpark.

This hut is very clean & tidy compared with most of the others we’ve visited but it still doesn’t make us want to stay over anytime soon. The next hut is 17km further on and the walk to it is the steepest on all the Heaphy, climbing from 500m above sea level, here at Brown River Hut, to 3000m at Perry Saddle. It’s the reason we’ve decided we’ll do a day walk on the Heaphy Track from the other end, when we get to the West Coast early next year.

I walk a little further on up the track to a wooden bridge that crosses the Aorere River, no swing bridges here. I wonder how this one faired in the flood.

Then it’s back down the track to the ute and a quick shot of the sign board at the carpark. What? You weren’t expecting us to put in a long walk late in the day were you? Our shortest walk ever! Just what we needed at the end of another day exploring. 

Family & Invercargill

Well it’s been a few days since my last post & while we don’t seem to have done much it’s felt like we’ve been very busy!

We are ensconced in an inner city camp ground here in Invercargill just a short walkable distance from the family(not that we’ve walked yet). The small camp ground is perfectly adequate, set back off the road with tall shady trees, very good amenities & with a few semi permanents down along the back fence which is where we are parked at the moment.

 

 

The hosts are fairly new to the campground and are in the process of beautifying the grounds with plenty of plantings. It’s a very busy park with lots of people passing through it nightly. We yet again got caught out with our satellite dish & TV reception when we first arrived. We backed in to our site straight but unfortunately the neighbours trees blocked us so we had to pull out and reposition, hence the odd angle we are on.  A caravan next door (on our right) left this morning and we’ll be shifting in there for the rest of our time once the lawn has been mowed. 

 

And wouldn't you know it, it's like coals to Newcastle. Right over the back fence is an old abandoned church!

 

 

The family, David’s daughter Rachel, her husband Cameron & the children, Ollie (6) & Ruby(4), were pleased to see us and we were thrilled to finally see them again after 8 months & also see their “new” home & city nearly three years after they shifted down here. It was reassuring for David & great for us to see how well they have settled into life in the deep south, they used to live half a kilometre from us in Tauranga so it was a big wrench for us all when they left.  I love that the kids are rolling their rrrrs just like true Southerners.  

 

We spent the first few days catching up with them, relaxing & getting the van back into ship-shape order. We also did the necessary appointments; hair & dentist (David broke his tooth, & I chipped one) and finished our Christmas shopping. Not long after arriving Rachel & Cameron took us out for a welcoming coffee at the award winning café The Batch (shouldn't that be The Crib?), very pleasant too and then on a mini tour of Invercargill pointing out all the landmarks & places we could visit when we were ready.

 

 

We checked out E Hayes & Sons, a Southland institution & an early version of the department store or as they claim “the ultimate bloke’s tool shop” with something for the ladies too. Located within the store are plenty of old motorbikes, cars, tools etc on display with pride of place being taken by The World’s Fastest Indian, Burt Munro’s bike which  broke the land speed record in 1967  at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA.

 

 

We also visited Ollie’s school and Ruby’s kindergarten. Twice. The next day we went to see Ruby’s Kindergarten Christmas show, what fun that was, sitting on the small chairs with the rest of the parents watching the littlies perform “A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree”. All dressed up as one of the items in the song or holding props that they’d made themselves which represented some of the others.  It was super cute!!

 

That's Ruby in the red twirling her pois

For my overseas readers here’s the lyrics, a pukeko is our native swamp hen, a ponga is a tree fern, kumara a sweet potato….you get the idea (I’ll let you google the rest)

On the first day of Christmas
 My true love gave to me
 A pukeko in a ponga tree 
On the second day of Christmas
 My true love gave to me
 two kumara
 And a pukeko in a ponga tree 

On the third day of Christmas
....
and so on, until... 

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve piupius swinging
Eleven haka lessons
Ten juicy fish heads
Nine sacks of pipis
Eight plants of puha
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling
Five - big - fat - pigs !
Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumara
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!

I’d have to say Invercargill is a lovely city. There are lots of heritage buildings from the Victorian, Edwardian & Art Deco eras, with plenty of beautiful old villas & houses too. There are also loads of green spaces including, what must be the jewel in the crown, the very large Queens Park right in the centre of the city. Fortunately for Invercargill, when the John Turnbull Thomson the Chief Surveyor laid out the town in 1857 he had the foresight to set aside 81 hectares (200 acres) of land  for the park. There’s now an 18 hole golf course, animal park, aviary, sculpture park, formal gardens, band rotunda, fitness trail, children’s playgrounds and the Museum which is located near the grand entrance to the park. The city itself is easy to navigate around as the area is very flat and the roads criss-cross each other at regular intervals. So once you get your bearings (David is still working on that one) it’s only a matter of turn right, right, right & you’re back home.

The historic 40 metre high Invercargill Water Tower dominates the skyline, it was built in 1888/89 to support the city’s first high pressure water supply tank. It is still used as a backup for the city’s water supply and able to provide enough pressure should the electric supply to the modern pumps be interrupted. Sadly public admission to the top of the tower was stopped in early 2012 due to the earthquake risk.

We did have a good laugh during the week when David locked himself out of the van while dressed only in his dressing gown. It’ll take awhile for him to live this one down.  I had gone off to town to get my hair done & locked one of the doors while David was still in bed. When he got up he checked & of course it opened from the inside so he thought it was now unlocked. He went off to the shower locking the other door & it wasn’t until he returned that he realised the door I had locked was still locked, from the outside!

There he was with just his dressing gown on, no phone, no key, no undies, and on a very windy day. He sheepishly went to the office & called Rachel from there to see if she could pick the key up from me in town. Not possible, Cameron was out with the child seats in the car & she had the kids. Lucky for him Doug our campground host offered to drive into town and collect the key. You can imagine my surprise when Doug suddenly appeared beside me in the salon- a very flash salon- where I was sitting with colour in my hair and looking like I’d stuck my finger in a power socket. I thought to myself “hmmm….this is not quite the establishment I’d have thought Doug would get his hair done” Doug has wild hair & an even wilder beard! But the funniest thing was that David had to hold the fort in the office while Doug was out. He was wishing like hell that nobody turned up to check-in (or out) while he sat there in his dressing gown stark naked underneath!! 

We had the kids overnight on Saturday while Rachel & Cameron celebrated an anniversary. The kids were also very keen to stay overnight in the “kamprvan” (Ollie wrote this on the fridge diary) and it was hard to contain their excitement. It nearly didn’t happen, on that day at least, as the weather was shocking; cold, heavy rain & lashing winds overnight but it cleared a little in the morning so that was good. First they wanted to take us to the museum to show us Henry(a famous tuatara) & the other tuataras too. The museum has an active tuatara breeding programme & we managed to spot quite a number in amongst the undergrowth. The rest of the museum displays were very well done too & we all had a great time.

Back at the fifth-wheeler we settled in for the night with plenty of DVDs (thank God for DVDs) and the kids had a ball & were very good. We transferred the sleeping kids from our bed onto the beds in the lounge once we went to bed & I laughed when Ruby was telling her Mum the next day that she got a fright when she woke up in the night & “I was in bed in the kitchen!!”

Budding young birdwatchers

Yesterday we all went out to the farm, about 30 minutes away, to put up the tent for Rach, Cam & the kids ready for Christmas night. The farm, a large dairy farm, is where we are going for Christmas Day and belongs to David’s nephew James & his wife Darnelle with their four children. This is also where David’s sister Jackie & husband Bob (James' parents) are parked up in their motorhome (you’ll remember they surprised us at the Newhaven Holiday Park in the Catlins on their way south). We are taking the fifth-wheeler out there to join in the festivities too.  The only fly in the ointment at the moment is the weather, it was very hot the first couple days after we arrived but since then it’s been raining & windy off & on most of the time, and quite often very cold. The forecast says clearing & sunny so we shall see.

After we left the farm we did a side trip out to the coast to a familiar spot, Fortrose, it’s where we had lunch on the Friday we left the Catlins & just before we arrived in Invercargill. As it’s turned out we drove right past the road to the farm and didn’t know it. We wanted to check the freedom camping spot out to see if it was suitable to visit with the family next month for a few days. It was blowing a gale & bitterly cold totally different to the day we had lunch. We drove up onto the headland where the estuary & river mouth entered the sea & it was wild.

We also got a huge shock when we realised we were right on the cliff edge, an edge that looked like it regularly broke away. It was scary & exhilarating all in one standing there getting buffeted by the wind.

The trees tell the story......

As this’ll be my last post before Christmas I’d like to take the opportunity of thanking you all for reading, following & commenting on my blog & hope that you have enjoyed (and will continue to enjoy) your virtual tiki-tour. David & I would also like to wish you and your families along with all our family & friends a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Happy & safe travels wherever in the world you may be.

Merry Christmas my friends

 

 

 

 

"Fleurs Place"

"When British television chef and restaurateur Rick Stein was told he could choose to go anywhere in the world to write a travel article for English newspaper the Daily Mail, he chose Fleurs Place in Moeraki, New Zealand. The restaurant, run by the inimitable Fleur Sullivan, was 'Just one of those places that keeps cropping up in conversations' whenever there was a gathering of 'foodies', he said.

Set in the sleepy little fishing village of Moeraki on the Otago coast, Fleurs Place has an unbeatable setting. There's water on three sides, fishing boats bobbing in the harbour, the famous Moeraki boulders across the bay and, to the north, the open sea. Fleur uses only the freshest of local ingredients - indeed, fishing boats land their catches right into her restaurant."

And so it was that Fleurs Place was one of three reasons why we have been staying in Moeraki for the last two nights. This very popular and very busy little restaurant miles from any major towns or cities is usually fully booked for lunch & dinner every day it is open (Wednesday-Sunday) We had booked for dinner and it was a short five minute walk from the camp ground around the harbour to the restaurant.

The dishes we had were all amazing with lots of flavour & the freshest of ingredients & seafood. I had Seafood Chowder then Blue Cod wrapped in Smoked Bacon (those are mine on the left) & David had Scallops followed by Panfried Moki. I couldn't help myself & finished with a Cream Brulee! We both couldn't help ourselves and went back for lunch the next day! Totally decadent but hey, you only live once!

The "seaweed" metal work above the bar was very interesting & that's Fleur on the right. I did get a photo taken with her, she was very obliging, but it's not good enough to add to my blog :) I only used my cellphone for photos as I didn't want to look a total tourist with by big camera at dinner!

The inside of the restaurant had a eclectic mix of furniture, photos, mementos & other associated  bits & pieces related to the history of Moeraki & the fishing industry that would have been the mainstay of the community here before Fleur arrived on their shores.

We had lunch the next day upstairs and from the balcony we watched this guy fillet the blue cod for the restaurant, how fresh is that. The local seagulls obviously know what happens when he steps outside, they patiently waited around the outskirts of the table. You can't quite see our van here but it's parked up in the trees, just above & to the left of the anchored boat.

As we walked back to the camp ground a dinghy arrived below Fleurs with another load of fresh fish, the fisherman is carrying a blue bin up the stairs to add to another two bins waiting at the top. There is definitely a hive of activity happening around Fleurs Place most days.

We've been to Rick Steins restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, UK & we thoroughly enjoyed it there too but we both thought Fleurs was much more down to earth with a friendly atmosphere & probably fresher fish! We certainly didn't see any of Rick's fish being filleted outside his front door!

Catching up in Napier

Well we've been parked up here beside my parents place in Napier for the last two weeks & it looks like it'll be another week before we have finished with all we have wanted to do. Not only that but at this stage we can't book our ferry trip across the Strait as all bookings have been suspended while the problem is sorted with one of the ferries(not our one) which lost a propeller while crossing Cook Strait a couple of days ago.

Hopefully things will be back to normal next week & once we have a day to cross in mind we can book ahead as we want to travel on one particular ferry; the drive on, drive off Kaitaki which is ideal for fifth-wheelers. The Kaitaki also has recently been relaunched after a major refurbishment, inside & out & comes with a Premium Lounge. I have too many bad memories of long ago Cook Strait crossings so I'm hoping a little more luxury this time (& fine weather) might help erase the horror of those past rough rides.

Last week was Dad's birthday and we celebrated it by having lunch at Off The Track restaurant in Havelock North, a restaurant that Dad & Mum had wanted to take us too the next time we were in town. It was a lovely spacious restaurant & café just off one of the many Hawkes Bay cycle trails, hence its name, and had Te Mata Peak framed in this large picture window. The meals were great although rather large, the coffee was superb & topped off with a fine work of art.

In the evening we went to a film I had been chasing around half of the North Island to see. It was in the NZ Film Festival & I had missed it in Tauranga as we'd been in Auckland, it was then in Whangarei but we left a day earlier, then Whakatane but we were in the process of moving house & now finally I saw that "Soul of the Sea" was here in Napier but only on the night of Dad's birthday. So I convinced the family to come with me & not knowing how large the theatre was going to be I wanted to arrive early enough to get a good seat. I needn't have worried there were only about 10 people in a theatre that sat a couple of hundred!

No problems seeing the screen!

Soul of the Sea is the story of Moko, the friendly bottle nose dolphin that I swum with a few years ago. I had met most of the people in the film & in fact there was a fleeting view of me as the camera zoomed past the sea of faces at Moko's memorial. As an added bonus & a surprise I got to see my name on the big screen, in the credits at the end, because I had donated some money (& photos) to help the film maker, Amy Taylor produce the movie. I was pleased to have finally caught up with the film, the final chapter for me, on Moko.

Not only did we go to the Moko movie we were given tickets  to the premier of the Paul Potts movie, One Chance, the story of the rags to riches story of the Welsh opera singer & winner of Britian's Got Talent. We all thoroughly enjoyed it too, it's well worth seeing. So after not having been to the movies in quite a number of years Mum & Dad got to go twice in a week!

Over Labour weekend the Gypsy Fair was in progress just around the corner in Anderson Park. We had a wander through the odd assortment of vans, buses, stalls, people & dogs. And marvelled in particular at the bus in the top photo. That must surely be the earliest version of a slide out there is. Maybe that's where the alternative term of "push out" (& push in) comes from.

During the week I took the opportunity of paying a last visit to my favourite pair of ducks. These plumed whistling ducks are very rare visitors to New Zealand (only 2 or 3 sightings have ever been recorded) and they have made a suburban pond their home for the last few years. I have been visiting them regularly on my visits to Napier and up until the beginning of last winter there were in fact three ducks. Sadly one has disappeared sometime over the colder months & I wonder what will happen if & when another disappears. There will be one very lonely duck left behind.  Their natural habitat is in tropical northern Australia & Indonesia so they are a very long way from home.

Yesterday I had my first round of golf since my foot operation, just six days short of four months since the op & I was a little nervous of how my feet were going to stand up to the rigors of playing 9 holes of golf even though I had a cart to carry me (& Mum) around. My feet are still quite swollen & I have only been able to wear a couple of pair of shoes with adjustable straps, up until today that is. I couldn't get my golf shoes on but I managed to get my walking shoes on with their softer sides. It was still quite a tight fit & I worried that I'd have to remove them before I got too far but they were fine. And my golf wasn't too bad either, I managed to match Dad on a couple of holes & beat him on another, I was just a little rusty here & there but I was happy I did as well as I did. Although I did lose two balls in exactly the same spot which didn't help with my score.

                                       Waiohiki Golf Course Hole #9                                                      Mum looking for my lost balls

We had a few drinks last weekend with extended family and we've come up with a name for these gatherings; we're having drinks with a "Chatter Platter". There are many females on my mother's side of the family and they span four generations in ages & we all like to talk, lots! Usually it is very hard to hear yourself think let alone get a word in so when we saw a Chatter Platter on the menu at Off The Track Restaurant we decided it fitted the Johnstone girls perfectly.

I've had a bit of a distraction while writing my blog & catching up on paper work this past week. This has been the view from the dining table as the neighbourhood transformer gets replaced right beside where we are parked. Little do they know that they are being watched as I sit typing at my laptop although I must say it's a little bit disconcerting waking up in the morning when there's just a thin wall between you in bed & them out there. There have been lots of comings & goings with anything up to six men and four vehicles here at once, they all seem to have their own particular job to do & there's much leaning on the bollards offering advice to each other. And occasionally in amongst the group I even see a white haired lady offering advice!

Busy, Busy



Our last day at the Mount & what a busy one, for us & the seaside town which is gearing up for an even busier Labour Weekend. There's a different vibe about, people are cheerful & friendly, they're obviously in holiday mode.  The camp ground is fully booked for the long weekend & turning away people already. We had hoped to have this final day free to relax, wind down & prepare the van before leaving for Napier in the morning but as has been the case for just about every day we've been here we've had a day full of appointments & errands to run.

But before we got the day underway we had one last breakfast at Slow Fish, our favourite café here at the Mount & were pleased to find another friend having a coffee there too. She was surprised as she'd thought we'd already left town so we were able to say another farewell to her.

Big Breakfast for him & Waffle & fruit salad with a side of bacon for me.

On the way back to the van we came across the mobile catering truck again, parked in the camp ground beside the boardwalk. It was there a few days ago & David had asked what they were up to. They run impromptu cook schools for passing pedestrians, they were also having some photography done on some of the dishes they were preparing. It's a pity the gulls flew in when they turned their backs!

The beach came alive this evening when the new season's business house beach volley ball competition started up.

And when we arrived back after our busy day out we found another Ultima parked up with new owners on board awaiting their ute which again was having the fifth-wheel fitted. This Ultima was the same size as ours but with a different inside configuration. It has a large rear window where two comfy chairs are located, it has a smaller kitchen with a large C shaped sofa in the slide-out. The entry is also towards the rear. The new owners came over to introduced themselves & to see if we had any helpful tips. We look forward to seeing them on the road sometime.

And while I was out taking photos of the new Ultima I took the opportunity of taking some of another one that arrived a few days ago. It was located up on the level behind us so we haven't had too much to do with the owners although we've said hello. This one is three years old & is a slightly smaller van than ours with a few differences. So now there's been four Ultimas including ours in camp while we've been here & all of them have been different models. Different strokes for different folks!

Something else that has been busy, busy in the camp are the rabbits, dozens & dozens of rabbits breeding like, well, rabbits! They are everywhere. Step outside your van at night and there are dozens of small dark shapes dotted around the grass. Clap your hands and they scatter in every direction.

There's a large family that have a rabbit warren inside the retaining blocks of the wall beside the stairs. They have to jump up three blocks to get inside but it must be a large home as there's a huge pile of dirt outside. It's been quite entertaining watching them spread out to feed during the day. They run flat stick from car to car, caravan to caravan cautiously checking out what's about before moving out to graze. There's about six babies that hide under the ramp up to the stairs, they aren't quite so scared & enjoy jumping about like spring bunnies doing flips & high kicks around each other.

David spoke to the camp manager about them & he said it's been a bonus season for breeding & they're having trouble keeping on top of these cute pests. We thought being in the city they would probably have to poison them but apparently they do get in a rabbit shooter every so often.

Well that's it for the Mount & Tauranga, we have had a wonderful if somewhat busy three weeks since selling the house. We've tied up all the loose ends, said our farewells to family & friends & even though we feel a little sad to be leaving the city that has been our home for the last 24 years we're keen to get this show on the road!

And just for those who are still keen to know numbers, what was the count this evening? The counter read 51,785! That means close to 40,000 people have passed by our humble abode in the last 13 days. It's a pity I missed the first week's count. And I promise I won't mention counter numbers again :)