We were sad to leave Kaikoura this morning! But our journey continues…

We followed the scenic Pacific triangle route as far as Rotheram and then headed to Christchurch. It is a pretty route and the weather today is hot with blue skies and whispy clouds.

We are sitting in a coffee shop in Christchurch and will pick up Grandads card in a minute Louis, how exciting!

Will write more tonight xxxx

We are in Quality Hotel Elms tonight and celebrating Grandads birthday,

Grandad opening his card from Louis xxx

It is VERY hot today got to get up early tomorrow to return car to the hire cars at airport for 8.30am. North Island here we come xxx

I am missing you all very much and worrying about Trevor and Alex for Monday. Just imagine I have my arms round you both to keep your courage up on the sad parts of the day and try to enjoy the happy bits with family and friends. It will all work through ok ..thinking of you xxxxx

 

Well today is our last full day in this area and we headed north along the coast to see our favourite viewing spot of the seals. When we saw the seals, this time the Dolphins came in quite close! I was making a little video of the seals for Lily Louis and Otis (and for Anona and everyone else of course) and so I managed to video the Dolphins too. See I was in the right place at the right time.

We went up as far as the vineyards at Ward and were amazed how many acres of vines there were in every direction over the hill sides.

Back at the motel we are throwing excess baggage away ready for the flight to North island. It’s amazing how much we have to throw out!

here hopefully are the photos of the west coast storm never to be repeated in my lifetime I hope! Xxxx

This is Roaring Billy,normally a little trickle onto a broad dry gravel river bed not a violent river we saw after the storm.

This river was swollen and very fast flowing you wouldn’t stand a chance if you fell in it, again normally it is much smaller and calmer . We thought all the waterfalls we saw ll along the mountains in the gorge were mind-blowingly full and beautiful,

can you see how close the water is to the roads as it finds its way down to the river.

After we took these photos the rain got worse and worse and carried on for another 48 hours. we were pleased to leave Haast to go to Greymouth, but travelled in torrential rain all the way to Greymouth.

We went whale watching with Kaikoura Whale Watching today.

We saw 2 sperm whales seals sea birds, a shark and loads of dolphins.

Look at my photos…..

This is the first sperm whale we saw

 

This is the other one and we had to wait for a while for it to come up from the bottom of the ocean, it was so close to the boat and a giant!!!

Nr the harbour we saw a large pod of dolphins.

we saw many dolphins under and around our boat

Ths is the shark they said it was either a shark or a merlin.

What a fab morning xxxxx

Today was a fun day. We followed the road north up the coast from Kaikauro. The mountains meet the sea all round here and the road and railway track follow the coast. The first turn off the road as so exciting. dolphins were jumping the waves and a whale was off shore’ On the rocks in front of us were many fur seals. The babies were moving so fast over the rocks and the adults were sunbathing. Seals were playing in the water and there was a large rock pool where baby seals were swimming. We got loads of photos to show you one day! The penguins are around there too but again we didn’t see any.

As we travelled along the road we saw seals all along the coast on the rocks and in the sea swimming. There must be plenty of fish out there!

At our second stop just as  was getting out of the car, I looked out to sea and a dolphin jumped right out of the water horizontally, did a twirl and dived back into the sea. Unbelievable!

In the afternoon we travelled back along te beautiful Alpine Pacific Triangle route.

We had time to stop and admire the views …so pretty.

It is our anniversary today. 46 YEARS AGO WE BOTH WENT TO OUR FRIENDS PARTY AND GOT CHATTING, THEN DAD WALKED ME HOME AND WEVE BEEN TOGETHER EVER SINCEXXXX 

We are now at Kaikoura on the beautiful East Coast of south Island and by the south pacific ocean which looks vivid blue.

We left damp drizzly Greymouth and travelled over the Lewis Pass. As you can see from my photos the skies changed from grey to blue and hot with sunshine. THANK GOODNESS to be away from that rain. I’ll never complain about UK rain again we don’t understand what rain is!!!!!

The pass was picturesque, like being in the Alps and Austria. My photos don’t do it justice. There were forests and rivers in beautiful valleys, hairpin bends and steep drops. The roads were safe and because we had no rain we could relax and enjoy all the prettiness.

We went over  limestone outcrops and rock formations. The road followed the gold trail passing thermal springs and through gorges.We were on  the Alpine Pacific Triangle route.

We saw birds of prey and saw pukeko birds vivid 2 tone blue with a red head and beak. One bird had 2 tiny chicks with her…so sweet

Love to you all xxxx

 

We had rain all the way North to just before Greymouth. At times it was torrential and we had to drive very carefully. Most of the time it was a heavy down pour. We’ve never seen so much rain nonstop, I wonder how many inches have fallen?

but we are safely here and on the 5 th floor of a hotel . Wifi and all amenities , in a town and back to normality and …the sun is shining….

We are breaking our journey here and go across the island to north of Christ Church tomorrow. We stay there until 24 Feb and then to hotel at airport ready to fly to the north island on the 25 Feb for 2 weeks.

missing you all but looking forward to the rest of our trip love mum xxxx

Hi this is the first day we have had attrocious weather. It rained most of the night and this morning everywhere was grey damp and poor visibility. We decided to brave the rain this morning and go down the coast southwards 30 miles to where the roads end!

The rain ceased at times and otherwise drizzled. The road runs parallel to the sea with sandunes and rainforest each side. The 3 rivers we crossed on long narrow one lane wooden bridges were very wide and fast flowing, bringing loads of silt and gravel down to the sea. They each had a sand bar right across them as they met the sea. Down the estuaries there were swing devices for catching whitebait in long nets.

As we got to the end of the road at Jackson Bay we both felt the road would soon be washed into the sea. The waves were crashing on the beaches up to the road and the hills coming down to the road were almost vertical and looked like they often had landslides. It was a very spooky road. It is a conservation area all along the coast for penguins and kiwis. There were signs all along warning of keeping clear of penguins crossing, needless to say we didn’t see any!

Jackson Bay is a scruffy place with shacks and caravans and workmen on the road.

It was an experience! We turned around and came back to the visitors centre at Haast

The visitor centre is very interesting and explains about the sandunes creation the pioneers who settled here the Maori and about this World Heritage area with the rain forest and mountains.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant and I had whitebait salad. It was ok but the whitebait was bland and tasteless!The salad was nice😂

Lets go inland and see the waterfalls we said…..but then the rain came in and we gave up and came back to our motel. The rain is torrential now and almost horizontal but it has a warm wind with it.

I will read my book and listen to music.

The sheep in the next field look sad😳😳

Well what an eventful night! The thunderstorm started about 5pm and lasted until about 3am! The lady at our motel said she had never seen anything like the lightening before . First the TV went off no signal so we went out for dinner …the wifi was down!

We hadn’t been back in the motel and the power went. Fortunately we had our iPads for music and light and we had a torch.

The rain was persistent and at 4.30am it was so loud on the roof I felt scared.

THURSDAY

it has been raining 24 hours. We stayed in our room all morning as the deluge continued. This afternoon we travelled inland along the gorge as the rain was not so bad. We are so pleased we did as there were waterfalls everywhere plunging down the sheer mountain sides!

just wait till you see the swollen rivers and the waterfalls. As soon as I can have access to good wifi I will send them. They were unbelievable!

We have a long journey north tomorrow to Greymouth hope it stops raining by then and will post this blog whenever I find an opportunity. We are in a very remote area xxxxx

 

Hi Matthew and Blandine
We have found a wifi connection that works! We are both ok and heading north to Greymouth at the moment. The weather is terrible at present it has been raining since Tuesday consistent and torrential with power cuts to and wifi down. Thunder and lightening. On the plus side the waterfalls and swollen rivers are amazing. We are ok and sort of enjoying the weather. It is set to improve by Sunday and we are very careful when driving through it.
Hope your moving plans are going well . Let us know how you are. Love you very much mum and dad xxxxxx for Louis

We are not able to have much wifi use so I will add photos next week when we are in such remote areas

 

“This is The South West New Zealand World Heritage Area with some of NZs most unique scenery and wildlife.”  They have crested and little blue penguins, rainforests rivers glaciers and sea, the Tasmin Sea. Wow let’s explore !?Xxx

Tuesday 16 Feb today last night in bed all you heard was the roaring of the sea and the wind and it was pitch black! It rained most of the evening and through the night. We set off in rain with grey clouds ( after finding the rest of NZ has 30c and sunshine).

It did eventually stop and we headed north on the glacier route. We stopped at ship creek and knights point view. From here you look down a hundred feet to a bay where there are fur seals and sea lions and penguins.

We then passed lake Moeraki and then the road goes inland up to lake Paringa Just after the Paringa river we stopped at a salmon farm for brunch. By now it was sunny and the tops of the mountains were visible.

From Haast Junction to Fox glacier it is 120 kms. We stopped on the way along the coastline. The beach is totally natural, grey sharp sand,shells, pebbles, and all along as far as the eye can see were tons of washed up roots and tree stumps and logs. No civilisation in sight. It must have been exactly like this when captain Cook reached the shores of New Zealand!

At Fox Glacier you see where the glacier ended in 1780s,much further along the road… then 1935, then it is a half hour walk to where it has receded to nowadays.

the sides of the valleys are a sheer vertical drop and a fast cold light grey rivers gushes through directly fed by the glacier.

I did walk so far but chickened out of the steep climb up. Grandad did it though!

n.

We have seen yet other picturesque parts to NewZealand today!

We had already enjoyed travelling along to Wanaka , Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea on Friday, seeing the vineyards and beautiful lake scenery. This time we travelled straight through without stopping until we reached Makarora.

We stopped at the Blue Pools. It was a 30 minute walk through rainforest and the sand flies enjoyed biting me all round my ankles😩😩

The pools are reached by  2 wired suspension bridges that sway as the people walk across them! Then there were board walks through the forest too.

Young people were jumping off the bridges into the pools below…scary!

Next we travelled through a long steep awesome gorge  Makarora Gorge. It runs through Haast Pass. We crossed the Gates of Haast over Thunder Creek. mount Brewster towered hundreds of feet above. We both thought Haast Pass road was even better than the fjord land.

We are now in a rain forest by the Tasmin Sea, at Erewhon Beach Motel. The beach is just over the road through sand dunes and it’s pouring with rain and 18c so colder.

We are in a very isolated area and when Grandad asked the lady at the hotel where the nearest car wash is, she creased up with laughter…..about 80 miles away in 2 different directions!

The town of Haast is 2 miles away and has a couple of restaurants and takeaways so we will be ok for 4 nights here.

Hope everyone is well and ok love you all Xxxx