Bluff Blows Us Away

The Bluff Oyster Festival started off well and good; blue sky & sunshine with just a chilly breeze to remind us that this was Bluff after all, Bluff at the bottom of the South Island, Bluff in the middle of May with winter fast approaching, Bluff on the edge of the Antarctic & don’t you forget it! But that was fine we went prepared, rugged up with jackets, hats, boots & scarves, & we went early. The occupants of this van had high hopes too.

Dozens of motorhomes, buses & caravans had overnighted along the harbour edge near the venue, the local camp ground was overflowing with RVs too. We stayed on in Invercargill, initially we were going to catch the festival bus to Bluff but instead we took the rental car my two girlfriends had arrived in. They had flown down from Tauranga to see me & to attend the Oyster Festival. We met many people in motorhomes at our camp site and also people sitting with us in the marquee who had made a special trip to the festival, most of them from the North Island. And most spending a tidy sum on flights, accommodation & rentals.

Puffer jackets and boots reigned supreme inside the festival. I’m sure the size of the crowd appeared double what it was, it was wall-to-wall puffer jackets; dozens of people looking like Michelin men, bouncing off each other in their “fat suits” as they squeezed through the crowds and past the queues for food.

We started early. This was fortunate as it turned out. And, well, there was nothing else to do but sample the wares so we did. We’d also heard they had run out of some items in previous years. First up of course were Bluff Oysters, arguably the best darn oysters in the world, tasting like they had just been hauled out of the ferocious Foveaux Strait that very morning. We had them in the shell & then battered, I only wished I’d brought along a small bottle of balsamic vinegar to slurp them down with. Oysters were followed by scallops, then prawns and then a wee break to refill our wine glasses and contemplate what would be next on the menu.

Whitebait fritters were up next and with a queue a mile long I had plenty of time to watch the fast approaching band of dark foreboding cloud in the distance. The wind was picking up and there was the odd spot of rain. The wind was also playing havoc with the gas BBQs the fritters were being cooked on. I shifted queues in time to get four well cooked fritters full of tasty whitebait, people behind me weren’t so lucky. One of the BBQs died & the queue size doubled.

The girl behind the counter told me the crew had driven over from the West Coast the day before, it had been an epic 17 hour journey. They’d got half way over Arthur’s Pass when they were stopped by a massive slip that had come down, they had to retrace their steps and cross over via Lewis Pass and then drive all the way down to Bluff. Now it looked like they were going to be caught out again by the weather.

I did learn one thing about whitebait fritters while I waited, they go well with mint sauce! I kid you not. Mint sauce! The stall had a bottle of mint sauce with the lemons & salt etc and suggested just a dribble around the edges of the fritter, not too much just a hint to compliment the whitebait. And it tasted great. I must remember that next time I have whitebait.

After the fritters and before the rain became torrential I braved the outside one more time to get some smoked eel & blue cod from another tent on the other side of the venue. I also bought a couple of pottles of Bluff Oysters to take home. And it was just as well I did because that was the last of the food to be had. As I was making a dash across the tarseal to our tent the full force of the storm hit. The whitebait tent was blown to smithereens, metal tables & plastic chairs hurtled past me, the band gear on the stage tumbled over the edge or was blown into the back of the canvas. People were being knocked over, others were clutching children or food & other gear off their stands. The port-a-loos that weren’t tied to the fence danced off down the tarseal. Chaos reigned.

I managed to fight my way through the now solid body of people sheltering from the weather in our marquee & back to our table where I found the others looking very worried & concerned. The huge marquee was straining under the force of the wind, the metal support frame lifting, then banging & crashing down, the noise was deafening as the canvas strained against the gale force wind. After about 20 minutes and just as splits started opening up on the roof and walls of the marquee the call went out to evacuate via the far end of the tent. A wave of people started moving in an orderly fashion towards the opening at the end and into the full force of a ferocious storm.

Organisers & volunteers  were desperately trying to hold down other tents and gear, the fence had been opened up so we could get back to the carpark but it was a tough battle walking against the horizontal head wind. Many people were having to take shelter behind buildings & vehicles as they just couldn’t walk against the wind & stinging rain. David had to hold tight to one of my girlfriends (she is tiny) for fear she would be blown away. The sea spray was being whipped up across Bluff harbour with the fishing fleet jumping & bucking against their ropes. Thank God we had the car otherwise we’d have had to wait for the buses to arrive from town and there would have been a huge queue & no shelter.

And then to cap off the dramatic end to the Bluff Oyster Festival, we were stuck in our car for nearly two hours in a traffic jam on the one and only road out of Bluff. The storm had blown power lines onto a passing vehicle and stopped traffic dead in its tracks in both directions.

Finally we arrived home safe & sound & with a lull in the storm. Then at around 9pm with thunder & lightning crashing & flashing directly above us the heavens opened up & dumped more hail than I’ve seen in my lifetime on top of us. It was amazing, it just kept coming, thick & fast covering everything in sight. I want to say it was snow but it was definitely hail, the solid little balls of ice finding their way down my neck and coating my head while I was out taking photos. In my slippers. You’ve got to seize the opportunity you know, the hail might have stopped while I was looking for my gumboots.

Some of these photos were taken with a longer exposure hence the brightness, I should have got my tripod out and steadied the camera more but I was in a hurry. Mind you it was very eerie outside after the hail stopped, the white was reflected back into the sky and it was very bright outside, like dull daylight instead of the black night it had been earlier.

This one has a low point of view; I'm sheltering under the nose of the van! :)

This post shows you what we woke up to this morning, ice, slush & now mud everywhere. Poor Doug (our camp ground host); his busiest weekend of the year obliterated by the worst weekend of weather he has ever experienced. And still the storm rages outside 24hrs on, we have had horrendous winds, rain & hail on and off all day with snow predicted this evening. Our diesel heaters are working over time & we’re toasty warm tucked up inside our cosy home on wheels. And at least we have power and no need to move for a week or more. Life on the road is certainly bringing with it a wide range of experiences.

Hillview Camp Site, Ahuriri Flats, Catlins

Since leaving the DOC camp beside the Catlins River, we have been parked up down the back paddock of the Hillview Camp for the last six nights, thoroughly relaxing & enjoying ourselves in this superb South Otago weather! It has been great to see for a change, that the North Island has had wet weather while we've been sunbaking down here in the south of the South Island. Waitangi Day was a pearler!

Hillview is located on the main road through to Kaka Point & the Nugget Point Lighthouse so is very handy for us to explore the top of the Catlins. Although we have been taking it a little more easy this time, chilling for most of the day and then heading our late afternoon for a quick tour.

Hillview hosts, Kevin & Sue are a wonderful down-to-earth couple who make everyone that arrives down their drive very welcome, and, without fail, every night a few dozen young travelling foreign tourists arrive in their sleeper vans & tents having heard through various means; travel websites & word of mouth, that the Hillview is the place to stay in the Catlins.

Early morning fog settles on the hill behind the camp.

The $5 pp a night & free internet (even though it's rather slow once everyone arrives) are obvious attractions; shower, power & phone/battery charges are extra. It's also the jovial & loud banter that Kevin engages them all in from the moment of arrival that must make them feel very comfortable and I have no doubt this is why Hillview Camp tops the Rankers & Tripadvisor ratings. Last night a French couple arrived while we were having drinks on the back deck to exclaim in broken English that they had been waiting 5 weeks for this moment. Pizzas & fish & chips are also on offer & in hot demand; there are no shops or take-aways out in the countryside.

Not long after we set up camp, we were ushered into the vegetable patch & then onto the tunnel house to gather produce. Kevin is as wacky as they come, a larger-than-life affable Pom, he has the same corny sense of humour that David has and they have had some great sessions winding each other up. One afternoon Kevin even carted David off down to the Owaka Pub for an hour (along with two Austrians that had arrived early), something David hasn't done for many years. David has also been helping out with filling the water tank (& wouldn't you know it, it's a Devan tank) from a supply down the road. A good few days of rain are needed at the moment to cope with the constant demand from the campers.

Not long after I had gathered the vegetables, Kevin gave us a shout across the paddock to come up to the house for a BBQ with friends; paua fritters & venison were on the menu. We didn't need to think about the invite for too long and we had a very enjoyable evening. Especially as the other guy was English too!

For my overseas readers, paua is NZ abalone, a highly sort after shellfish that has a large black muscular foot inside a beautiful shell with irridescent shades of blue, green, purple and pink. Once shucked, & to cook the foot, it must either be minced for fritters or thinly sliced & quickly cooked otherwise it can be very tough. It's an acquired taste but if you like seafood you're bound to love paua. We were given the leftover fritters to take home (Leftover? Who has leftover paua fritters!)

Each morning the camp empties out and we have the place to ourselves until the evening influx start to arrive.

Most campers set up in the top paddock to be close to the toilets & showers but a few position themselves around the outskirts of our paddock. There have been a few cold dewy mornings & the odd cool evening breeze this past week & we feel for them all tucked up in their "tin-cans" & tents when they have to get up and on the go before 10am while we're tucked up in our van with the heater running.

The family also have a menagerie of  animals on their small lifestyle block; pet sheep, horses, cattle, cats, chooks & ducks that are all ready to greet you. The campers, especially children & foreigners are keen to take photos and say hello to the animals. Kevin also has a few too many projects on the go, including this partly converted bus which one day may be backpackers accommodation. For the time being it remains a one horse power bus!

This morning I did something I haven't done for many years, saddled Scooter up and had a ride around the paddock. It was great to know I still haven't lost my skills, especially when she decided to do a bit of pig rooting, and I realised she was an ex-trotter, their trotting gait is definitely uncomfortable to ride to.

"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!

Pink Ponds & the Salt Shaker

We didn’t move too far south after leaving Blenheim, just 45 kms down the road and passing through the fast expanding vineyards of the Awatere Valley on the way. No matter which direction  you looked on the road out of Blenheim it is evident that grapes are providing the Marlborough district with a very profitable income, there are many grand wineries & homes along the way. We will no doubt spend a bit more time in the area checking the wineries, their cellar doors & restaurants out when we are back this way later in the year.

In the end we had three nights at the Blenheim’s Top10 Holiday Park, each morning deciding to stay one more night. We’ve met quite a few people who spend time on the road & sing the virtues of  freedom camping; about the minimal costs associated with it, the excitement of finding the next overnight “spot” etc, and even though our membership with the NZMCA gives us access to hundreds of “park over properties” & “low cost parking” options we fully intend to take regular advantage of the many camping grounds & holiday parks dotted around New Zealand. Aside from the fact that many are in great locations with superb grounds & facilities we want to be able to hook up to the power, access the internet, have a shower without keeping track of our water use, do the laundry, wash the ute & do other chores, or even to just chill for a couple of days. We’ve a long time on the road ahead of us & this will also give us more of a balance in our new lifestyle.

There are a few places along the way, on this journey south to Invercargill, that I have earmarked for a visit. We will be back this way in time but possibly in a different season & some of the phenomenon’s only happen at certain times of the year & the rather alien looking salt flats at Lake Grassmere is one of them. This is where the bulk of NZ’s salt comes from, last summer over 88,000 tonnes of salt was harvested. The seawater is pumped into deep holding pens & then into the shallow crystallisation ponds & allowed to evaporate leaving great expanses of salt behind to be gathered & processed. At the end of the lake are the gorgeous coloured crystallisation ponds, the colour is caused by green algae bloom that changes to pink in the high salt concentration and the colour is usually very intense in spring & early summer.

Initially after stopping on the main highway I could see that I couldn’t get up close to the ponds from the road and while you could see the terraces of pink, I wanted to get right up beside them. So this morning I parked up beside the main rail line and walked down the rail line and over a bridge to the ponds. Being a Sunday there was no one around and I managed to shoot quite a few photos. Quite a few, now that’s an understatement if ever I heard one. Way, way too many to process. I keep saying it, I just need to learn to shoot less otherwise I’m going to be spending an awful lot of time indoors! But the setting was fantastic and the ponds really quite fascinating and one click lead to another and another and……….you get the picture. Well actually you get a few! You don't think I'm going to go to all that effort & let you get away with just a couple do you? :)

Beside Lake Grassmere and overlooking Clifford Bay are Marfells Beach & the DOC campground which is where we are now staying. There’s something about the seaside that gets your senses singing & it’s been a few months now since we’ve heard the waves crashing just below our bedroom window & smelt the sea in the air (I don’t count Mt Maunganui in this as we were set back off the beach a little & the waves you could only hear during the storm(s) or in the small hours after the city noise had died down). This place reminds us of Port Jackson, way up there at the top of the Coromandel. Beautiful curved crescent of white sand & blue water & nobody about (well nearly).

At the approach of low tide a steady convoy of wet-suited people on noisy quad bikes made their way past our campsite along the beach and under the white limestone bluffs of Clifford Bay & around the point and further on. We walked to the point, aptly named Mussel Point as it turns out, & that was as far as my feet would take me which was just as well as we would have missed this spectacular view of the Cape Campbell Lighthouse. 

 

The bikes and their occupants disappeared into the haze heading for the reef just off the cape where by the look of their bins and bags on their return they got enough paua (NZ abalone) & crayfish(lobster) to feed themselves & an army. David failed to work his charm this time, the people he did speak too were quite secretive & wary of giving too much information away. I would think that poaching is very much alive & well in all parts of NZ.

The foreign couple in a van staying next door to us walked to the lighthouse and were rewarded with two large paua by one of the divers. They weren’t too sure what to do with them so I gave them some tips & when I next looked out they were beating the hell out of the poor things. Later one of them said to me, we didn’t know when to stop, the centre is still tough! They sliced it thinly & stir-fried it quickly in butter & were quite impressed that it didn’t taste like leather.

At the point we were also rewarded. As the tide dropped away the exposed rocks revealed a bounty of huge green lip mussels which David gathered and we had for dinner cooked using my “world famous in NZ” recipe. We passed some onto the couple to have with their paua; I think they were more impressed with the broth that came with them (garlic, ginger, sweet chilli, lemon zest, spring onions & wine) which they added the paua too as well.

                                                                                                              "Just don't collect any mussels on the left there David"

David found this swarm of flies that were settled in a shady recess in the rock, the weren't your usual flies as you can see from the close up. We wondered what they are doing and why they're doing it there, when we disturbed them they stirred and flew in a big mass only to resettle when we moved back. I need to Google or ask my bug man photographer friend or perhaps some one out there can solve the mystery.... ETA- mystery solved by my Dad, they are Brine Flies, they live most of their life under water hatching out when the water warms in early summer but only lasting a few days as flies, just long enough to mate & lay eggs on the water surface. I guess the saltiness of lake Grassmere is an ideal habitat for them.

There are some beautiful rock formations at the base of the limestone cliffs on the way around the bay.

The tracks are from the quad bikes

We could also see some of the scars from the recent earthquake. On August 16^th this year (it’s now Nov 24th) a magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck the region with the epicentre being directly under Lake Grassmere, several severe aftershocks struck during the next few hours. There was major damage in and around Seddon and out here at Marfells Beach where some of the limestone cliffs collapsed. The campground was closed as the only road into it was blocked by slips and cracks opening in the road. The quake was also one of the strongest to hit Wellington city, directly across Cook Strait from here, in recent time & shut the city down for a couple of days. 

The road in the middle was tarseal before the quake & is the last tight bend before reaching the beach & the campground.

And to celebrate this, my 100th blog post I'm going to leave you with some fluffy ducklings that were in the stream beside the Top10 campground back in Blenheim.

New Chums Beach- is it worthy of it's place in the world?

Voted by The Observer back in 2006 as one of the top 20 beaches in the world, we, of course, had to make the pilgrimage across to New Chums Beach to check it out for ourselves. The beginning of the walk is only a couple of hundred metres down the road from where we are staying. The walk is just 30 minutes long & involves crossing a stream and then scrabbling over boulders & rocks that line the end of the beach. Then its up & over a ridge & down onto New Chums Beach.  I like their tag line “Getting there is half the experience”, yeah right! That’s PR speak for “It’s a rough but well worn track not maintained by the local council”

Luckily there was a bit of a smooth path through the rocks once you got up near the bank and then when we got onto the track it certainly was very well worn, with hundreds of tree roots protruding in between the packed dirt. We passed a steady stream of people coming back from the beach, it’s obviously a very popular place.

 

Before long we came to the top of the saddle & glimpsed white sand & aqua blue through the huge pohutukawa trees.

 

Off to the right I spotted a track heading up to what looked like a look-out so off I scrambled. It got steadily steeper & steeper and in the end I was climbing up the rock face grabbing tree roots for hand holds. But it was worth it for the view that awaited me at the top. I could see down both side of the ridge to Whangapoua Beach & New Chums.

The getting down had me worried as I only had my jandals on which was a bit silly but I didn’t want sand getting in & annoying me if I'd worn my open walking shoes. I took my time, one step at a time, sliding down a couple of sections on my butt and holding flax & aerial roots to steady myself.
 

Up there, that's where I went & that is looking straight down!

The remainder of the track ran through some beautiful bush lined with dozens of Nikau Palms, then we were out onto the white sand beach fringed with large overhanging pohutukawa that provided some welcome shade while we had our lunch. Even though we’d passed a few people there was hardly anyone there, a couple of families fishing & a few couples sunbathing.

It really is a beautiful beach, very tranquil and pristine and well worthy of it’s placing in the world’s top 20 beaches.

New Chums Beach

On the way back we stopped to check out the mussel nursery, thousands upon thousands of tiny mussels packed tightly onto dozens of the rocks at the start of the walk. They must get squeezed off as they grow and then float out to the bigger & deeper rocks & re-attach themselves.

 

I also stopped to watch a Variable Oystercatcher feeding around the rocks. It had managed to find a large green lipped mussel & was trying to prise it open with it's long bill which reminded me of chop sticks. It pushed & probed & poked then it picked it up & carted it off to a pool and dropped it in there. I'm sure it was hoping that the mussel would breathe & then it could quickly poke it's beak in & prise it open. It didn't have any luck.

 

Tomorrow we head of to Whitianga, it was a short but delightful stay at Whangapoua.