New Zealand « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Last Hike in the South

by KC2RIY, on March 9th, 2011 (A Cappella, Inspiration Lady, New Zealand)

After our previously mentioned lie in we roused ourselved and drove into town to meet the A Cappellas and Inspiration Ladies. We chatted in a small cafe for an hour or so before Ed and Cornelia had to leave for the ferry. We wandered the high street with Jackie and Gary before finalizing our plans for the evening and parting ways.

Helen and I picked up a small lunch before driving a short way south of town to a walk which offered good views of the town from a hill overlooking the area.

From the look out we carried on getting down to the main road east of town. Once we’d made our way back to the car we headed back to our room to read for the afternoon.

At 6pm Gary and Jackie joined us on the balcony of our room. We’d agreed on an takeaway and made our choices from the menu we’d collected earlier. Gary and I went to collect the food leaving Helen and Jackie to sort out where to eat. When we returned we found they’d set up down below in the garden which was a great idea.

Another Canadian couple ended up joining us and we had a good time – it almost felt like times back on the boat.

We don’t have a great deal to do today before our 1:10pm ferry so there will be no rush to leave our room. We’re thinking of staying in the Wellington area tonight to give us a chance to see the city but this is still not set in stone.

Waikawa

by KC2RIY, on March 8th, 2011 (Inspiration Lady, New Zealand)

Before leaving Blenheim we booked ourselves onto the 1:10pm Thursday ferry to Wellington. The drive from Blenheim to Picton was took a fraction of the time compared to most of our recent travels – mainly because a mere 26km separated the two towns. On the way we decided to look at the Backpacker accommodations in the area from our BBH guide. There were a few rated in the 90%+ range and we picked the Buccaneer Lodge to look at first. For $75 a night it offered us a large en suite room with a balcony overlooking the marina at Waikawa. We didn’t bother looking elsewhere.

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Better still we were able to check in there an then. Having done that we strolled down to the marina wondering if this was where Inspiration Lady was berthed. As it turned out, Gary and Jackie saw us as they were leaving in their car, called out to us, turned around and stopped to chat for a while. We caught up some, learned of their favourite fish and chip shop and agreed to go out for a curry Wednesday evening (even though we’re also meeting them for lunch). They were off to Blenheim so we parted company.

We decided we wanted to hike the nearby peninsular so returned to the lodge to pick up apples and water. We drove to a car park on the ridge and set off towards the end of the peninsular (called The Snout) via the Queen Charlotte Lookout. It was a fine hike with great views of the sounds. There was a lot of ups and downs which kept our hearts going but we were never out of breath. There and back the hike took nearly three hours so we retired back to our room to shower and read and have a facebook chat with one of the boys.

During the day we also booked dock space in Whangarei from Thursday 17th. That gives us almost a week to make our way back across the north island. We’ve no idea where to go yet.

Around 5pm we drove into Picton to pick up some fish and chips (we couldn’t resist) which we brought back to our lodge and ate on the balcony. There we met our temporary neighbour, Paul, and ended up chatting into the evening.

Today we are planning to meet the A Cappellas and Inspirations Ladies at 10:30am for a brunch. Ed and Cornelia are on today’s 1:10pm ferry, hence the time. We were going to walk into Picton but have opted for a lie in. It’s allowed.

White’s Bay

by KC2RIY, on March 7th, 2011 (A Cappella, New Zealand)

Monday morning was taken up with having the car oil and filters changed. While waiting for the work to be done I visited the information site to gather information on local hikes. They punted me to the Department of Conservation site in nearby Renwick.

Shortly before lunch we headed off to Renwick. While looking for the DOC office we found an Old English Pub which we liked better than restaurants in Blenheim, choosing it for our meet up with Ed and Cornelia in the evening. The lady in the DOC office recommended a short hike on the coast NNE of Blenheim near White’s Bay.

We took her advice and headed over to the coast. We ate our lunch in the car before taking off on the hike. It was quite pleasant offering us some pretty good views of the coast. We left the camera in the car so there will be no pictures of this day.

We headed back to our cabin for a rest before getting in contact with Ed and Cornelia from A Capella to arrange the evening’s meet up. We met at the pub at 7pm and did the usual chatting about where we’d been, what our plans are, what we’d heard about other cruisers, etc. While together we made a call to Gary and Jackie from Inspiration Lady who are still in Picton to arrange a group meet up on Wednesday.

Today we’re off to Picton ourselves and will be booking our ferry ride this morning.

Another part of our sailing preparation is I’ve started looking at the detailed weather forecasts and models for the trip to Fiji. I’ve always looked about 2 months ahead with weather regions to build up familiarity with the regions to which we’re heading. We have of course spent a lot of time looking at this passage when preparing to come south. So already it’s the same old free way of high’s and lows barreling over from west to east through which we’ll ultimately have to thread a path. One aspect which is already apparent (obvious really) is that an ideal reach will involve winds with a southerly component. And that means it will be cold.

Escaping Winter

by KC2RIY, on March 6th, 2011 (New Zealand)

We spent the evening doing a bit of research on Fiji. We’ve refined our plans for this year to more or less spend 6 months hanging around Fiji. After reading the info we had I’ve begun to get a bit excited. We haven’t formed much of a plan bar checking in at Savusavu or Levuka in preference to Savu. We’ll head west at some point before heading back east again before heading back to NZ. We have to cover north and south in all that. Not much of a plan yet. We figure we’ll learn a hell of a lot more once we arrive and get talking to the cruising community there so we may not get much more specific than this for now.

Temperatures that were 30C during the day plunged to 5C overnight. It was cooooold. It was only in the morning that we remembered we had a heater in the cabin. On the upside we had a night of close bonding.

We checked out and headed out of Hanmer Springs. It was then we noticed the mountains we’d enjoyed the previous day were now dusted with snow. On the one hand it was pretty. On the other it was winter. Time to get out of dodge.

Reaching Kaikoura on the coast was not sufficient to escape winter as the mountains there had a similar, in fact lower, coating of snow. We pushed north.

On the coastal road we stopped at a very nice restaurant called “The Store” for a bite to eat. Upon reaching Blenheim we first checked out a backpackers but unlike the many we’ve recently enjoyed we found this one a bit crowded. We picked a cabin at the nearby Top 10 and settled in.

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In the afternoon we had a wander around town. We visited the local Countdown and kicked up another phase of our cruise out of NZ. The stores here are forever discounting certain wines for a few weeks before moving onto other brands to discount. Being cheapskates we only go for the cheaper wines so these discounted wines are tempting. However, not all are to our liking. So…. We’ve decided to sample a cheap one each day and if we like it, load up. Today we bought about 20 bottles of wine. We’ve six months to stock up for so the process has just begun.

After eating dinner which was an almost disaster involving a lot of melted plastic (we got away with it) we headed out to watch the movie Black Swan. As I type I’m still trembling. It was that intense. It was a fantastically made movie and Natalie Portman well deserved her Oscar for an amazing if not disturbing performance.

Tomorrow we have to have the oil changed in the car as we’ve almost done the kilometers recommended between changes. I’m sure we’ll do something else too but not sure what. In the evening we’re hoping to meet Ed and Cornelia from A Cappella who we know are heading into town tomorrow.

Almost Mount Isobel

by KC2RIY, on March 5th, 2011 (New Zealand)

No rush getting up this morning. After overnight rain the day looked promising. By 10am we were at the Waterfall/Mount Isobel trail head (up McIntyre Road) and on our way up.

The foliage around us was much greener and lush than that we’ve got used to further south. The change had been apparent on the drive north yesterday but it came home as we got into the forest and hiked through it.

The trail started as a gentle climb but became steeper and steeper. We passed by the side trail to the waterfall in good time and pressed on upwards. We’re definitely fitter than when we started this visit to NZ but our heart rates were up on this one and our legs felt it.

The trail we were on would eventually reach Mount Isobel and it was in our mind to get there. As soon as we reached the ridge at the top of our ascent we were pummeled by strong winds. Although it was a warm day the wind chilled us. It almost blew off Helen’s sunglasses.

We therefore abandoned the last leg of the hike satisfied with the stunning views we had already experienced. We could see all the way over the valley in which Hanmer Springs sits and over the mountains on the far side. We descended a short way to get out of the wind and find some shade from the sun to eat our lunch.

Continuing on down was tricky due to the steepness of the trail but we made it down to the waterfall without incident. We had a brief rest there before continuing on down back to the car.

It was still early afternoon so we stopped off at a combination maze/mini golf attraction. You’ve probably guessed I like mazes and we were in need of a mini golf rematch since Helen’s last hole victory last week. We had fun there.

After that we headed back to our cabin to rest. Within an hour the weather turned cold and wet. We’d timed it well.

This’ll be it for Hanmer Springs. Tomorrow we’re heading on up to Blenheim for a few days and then onto Picton.

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Last Hike in the South

Waikawa

White’s Bay

Escaping Winter

Almost Mount Isobel