0043. NZ Part 3. East Coast up to Picton

0043.   NZ Part 3.  East Coast up to Picton.   26th Jan - 2nd Feb.

Otira Hotel sign

Leaving Brunner Mine in the rain, we set off down to Moana, on the shore of Lake Brunner.  The weather did not improve, and we were starting to wonder if our sunny days were gone.   Moana in fact has a station right beside the lake, so we visited that in our effort to stay as close to the rail route between Christchurch and Greymouth as we could.    We persevered in the rain, joining the main highway again near Jacksons, and then heading on to Otira.   Still raining.  In the middle of nowhere, as we started to climb into Arthur's Pass, we spotted a big hotel beside the road, but were past it so quickly we had to do a U turn to go back and investigate.   Thanks goodness we did.   It was a treasure.

The bar - but no room for drinking

Lester, who runs the Otira hotel, appears to be an inveterate hoarder.   And I mean HOARDER. The
writing on the sign outside says it all "Voted as the most interesting Hotel in New Zealand".   Hmmm.  You can see that the outside is interesting enough, with a horse and cart on the verandah.   But inside it is insane ! There is a bar in one room, but no space to lean on it; there are chairs, but the have no space to sit on them; there are so many signs on the walls it is hard to read them all; and the toilet is just a work of art - original too !   If you look at all the photos I think

The painted toilet

you might understand.   There were no other "guests" in the dining room when we arrived, so we got chatting to Lester.  Outside he showed us a drill bit, and when I was able to tell him the size, the manufacturer (Hughes Tool Company

Gandalf & Smaug

- And link it to Howard Hughes) and how it worked, he was fascinated.  I'm not sure where he got it from, but from then on the discussion was as interesting as it was long - I think we discussed just about everything !!  Outside he even had a large model of Gandalf and Smaug the dragon from Lord of the Rings, while an old Morris 8 and a driftwood horse (amongst other treasures) were also outside !  An amazing place, and an amazing character.  A fascinating hour or two spent with Lester. 

Rock shield over road

It was then on through the rain and into Arthur's Pass. There were a couple of rock / water shields over the road in one steep section, with this road originally cut through between Christchurch and the goldfields on the west coast in 1865. Further up the pass we came to a lookout over an enormous viaduct (opened in 1999) climbing up the valley, above the

Otira Viaduct, Arthur's Pass

river, and then we arrived in the small township of Arthur's Pass, with the largest building being the railway station. That was interesting - I never saw the railway up in the Pass ?  Right beside the station was an old turntable for the engines, and a DoC campsite, which, with our prepaid membership, was free for us.  By now it was 4 pm on a cold and damp evening, so after checking in with the Rangers, we decided to camp right there beside the railway station.  Once settled, we went for a walk round to a metal railway bridge - And found a train

Train coming out of tunnel

tunnel disappearing into the mountain of the Pass.  The train doesn't go over the top - Which in my opinion is the best part, scenery wise !  How long is the tunnel ?    On checking in the Ranger's office, it turns out the tunnel is some 8.5 kms long and started back near Otira, where the Hotel was.  At 4.26 pm, as we stood beside the bridge out of the tunnel, the train heading back to Christchurch suddenly appeared, with all the passengers waving to us - And I suddenly realised, the drive over the Pass was much better than the train which went under the best bit !! Started in 1907, with the breakthrough in 1918, it was opened in 1923, and has a gradient of 1 in 33,

The old turntable 

requiring extra engines for the journey from west to east, which then unhitch in Arthur's Pass station and return back down to Otira (near the Hotel) to aid the next train through the steep tunnel.  (The amazing fact is that in those days without gps etc, when the two team digging from each end met in the middle, they were only 19 mm out laterally and 29 mm vertically.  At the time of opening it was the longest rail tunnel in the British Empire !).   This provides an interesting story of the build    https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-records/otira-tunnel/

Sunshine the next day !

I now felt happy that we had driven and not caught the train !!  I would love to go through the tunnel one day, but this time I was happy to have driven over the top.    After a wet night beside the railway station, the next morning dawned bright and sunny !   So once we had breakfasted and packed up, we decided to drive back over the Pass to the Otira Hotel for a coffee, so we could see the amazing Pass in the sunshine.  Amazing to see the difference, and when we got to the Hotel, Lester was busy serving breakfasts to guests who had stayed in his amazing hotel overnight.  What a difference a day makes !

As we dropped out of the Pass in the sunshine, we slowly came out into the open (glaciated ?) valley

Otira viaduct in the sunshine

that leads into a Tussockland NP, and on through wide open grazing country to Lake Pearson, where we stopped for a break beside the road.  Then it was on down through Craigieburn NP, and ancient Maori caves and drawings near the Broken River, until eventually we started to come into civilisation, and we would around though farmland.  We then drive S of Christchurch to the Banks Peninsula where were were to meet up with Peter and Kim that we had met on the Milford Track walk. We didn't have a clue what to expect, and then suddenly we came round a corner and there was this blue blue lagoon Totally unexpected, and awe inspiring.  We carried on to a campsite we knew of, and ended up with a

Akaroa Harbour

view over the inlet - Akaroa Harbour,  What a beautiful sight !  We knew nothing about this place previously, and found that it was actually formed by two separate volcanoes several million years ago, with Akaroa Bay being one of the original craters.  There is some interesting history there with a lot of the town streets having French names, along with a Patisserie and Boulangerie ! It turns out that in its past whaling history, the French decided Akaroa would make a good harbour for servicing the ships, and despite the British claim, a small French community were allowed to set up in Akaroa.  The rest, as they say, is history !   But worth reading about..... .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banks_Peninsula

Christchurch tram

The next day we spent in Christchurch, exploring by tram and on foot, and learning about their terrible 2011 earthquake.  More than 10 years on, the city still bears many of the scars, with many empty blocks where buildings once stood, and several more still standing, but unusable. The cathedral itself, right in the centre of the city, is a prime example of the

Destroyed cathedral

devastation caused by this very shallow earthquake.   A sobering, yet fascinating day.   On the way home we stopped in Little River to check out a couple of their shops, and found "Silostay" - Accomodation built from grain silos !   A fascinating idea, and obviously very popular as they were booked out that night.  So we stopped in a bar there and had a beer !

Once back in Akaroa, we went round to Kim and Peter's house, and, together with grandson Ben, enjoyed a very pleasant evening eating home made pizza and drinking some excellent wine before heading back to our camp site just down the road.  Hopefully we will catch up with Kim and Peter before too long as they are due to come to Queensland for a seminar.  We look forward to it as we really enjoyed their company.    The next morning dawned grey and gloomy, but we went into the

French signs in Akaroa

town to explore a bit and buy some supplies and fuel before we headed north towards Kaikoura.  We lunched at an historic country horse track at Hurunui, before we found a delightful open campsite at Balmoral Recreation Reserve near Culverdon.  The next morning it was a scenic drive through the hills to Kaikoura, which is an amazing little place !  After admiring an old VW Kombi towing a trailer (from Queensland !) we wandered out onto the rocks and saw seals, and then during a picnic lunch a snorkelled came in with a couple of good-sized crayfish in his

Beside the beach in Clarence   

bag !  And after lunch we found a trailer selling seafood - Bugger, we should have come down this road before we had our lunch !!  We then headed north up the coast towards Blenheim, passing Maori landmarks and statues, until we suddenly spied a great camp site right on the waters edge at Clarence - So we went in and set up, right beside the beach that was covered in not just driftwood, but even huts made out of driftwood.  One looked VERY similar to Eeyore's house in AA Milne's books about Pooh !  An excellent night beside the sea, and then we continued north up the east coast the next morning.  

At Blenheim we turned west, out through the Wairau Valley, headed towards St Arnaud, travelling

Foil surfer on Lake Rotiti

through a lot of vineyards as we travelled through the Marlborough wine growing region, eventually coming to the scenic Kerr Bay, on Lake Rotoiti.  We watched the locals enjoying the area before heading north again until we came back to the coast near Collingwood, up in the Abel Tasman National Park. This is supposed to be very scenic, but unfortunately it was now raining quite hard and was pretty miserable, so after a quick wander around Collingwood we headed back towards Nelson, stopping for a very yummy ice cream in Riwaka before finding a

Cable Bay camp

great little campsite at Cable Bay.  Still raining, so a bit of a wet evening, but we were now in easy reach of the ferry terminal in Picton, where we had to be by noon the next day in order to catch our ferry to the N Island.  It was a great little campsite, although I notice as we head further north, the campsite prices seem to be increasing - Maybe that's why so many people tend to free-camp ?  Another wet night meant we stayed in the van, cooked, and played cards.

Next morning the weather was still a bit grim - but we breakfasted and were just about to set off to Picton when I got an email from the ferry company - Due to delays, our 12 noon ferry was delayed till 5 pm.  Bugger - This not only meant we

Landslip on road !

had all day to get to Picton, but also that we would probably not get top Wellington till after dark - Not something I relished, trying to find a campsite in the dark, or driving in a busy city.  Still, c'est la vie, and not much we can do about it, so we headed off anyway.  First we went down to the end of the road and the small beach down between the mainland and the little island, but not much there - Just a pebble beach.  Then we came back and headed along the 15 kms or so of small road that led back to the main road to Picton.  There were several large landslips on the small road, and with only one lane available past the slips, several sets of temporary traffic lights were set up to direct traffic past them.   It

Diving dog !

wouldn't take much to close this road - In fact, later we heard that the local council is considering closing the road, which would be a bit hard for the residents as there are a lot of houses on this road.    Even once we got to the main road, there were still several sets of lights to direct traffic around a couple of major slips - The unstable land around here is a major problem in wet weather, something they get plenty of.  

After an hour or so of driving we arrived in Havelock and followed the

Looking down Pelorus Sound

road down to the harbour where we found an enormous marina full of yachts and motor boats - Boating is obviously a big thing around here.  We saw one large catamaran on dry land that was undergoing repairs and thought it might be ideal for my friend Jamie in Queensland !!   (Later....Apparently not !). We then went into the little town centre of Havelock, but there wasn't a great deal of interest for us, so after a photo beside the green mussel (apparently famous round here), we moved on towards Picton.  This was a delightful scenic drive along the coast, with bay after bay unfolding beside us as we drove along.  In Okiwa Bay we saw a lady walking a dog down onto a jetty, so we stopped to watch - The lady through a big stick into the water and the dog did an enormous running jump into the water to retrieve it.  He was obviously having lots of fun as the lady went on to throw the stick several times, and each time the dog leapt out into the water, having a great time ! We passed several more big land slips on the road - this really is a major problem round here - I have never seen so many land slips in such a small area.  Obviously pretty unstable ground round here.  

Enormous timber export yard

Eventually, around noon and almost in Picton, we came to Shakespeare Bay and there was the most enormous timber yard - This is obviously where all the timber we have seen on the trucks is delivered to, apparently for export to paper mills in Korea, India, and China.  It turns out that Shakespeare Bay is ideal for big ships as it has 15 m draught even at low tide, which is the deepest export berth in New Zealand, while the land side has road and rail access, as well as shipping.  This is a major export port for the wood industry.   After looking over the facility from up above, we drove the short distance into Picton, stopping above the port to check the wharves - No ferry for us yet !! 

Fish & Chips in Picton

Driving into Picton, we went for a walk around town where there are some lovely old buildings, beforeending up in the Moa Restaurant for a delicious Fish & Chip lunch, with a couple of local hazy beers to help it go down.  Excellent lunch.  Still with time on our hands, we then went to Picton's award winning local bakery which is essentially European in flavour, but with a strong Dutch component.   Coffee and a desert bun after our lunch just hit the spot, following

Queen Charlotte Sound

which we drove down into the port area where people were starting to queue up for the ferry - even though it hadn't arrived yet !   Not much else to do. It was about 6 pm by the time our ferry had arrived and unloaded, and we started to move towards the ship - finally, and it was about 7 pm by the time we cast off from the dock and headed out into the picturesque Queen Charlotte Sound and out into the Cook Strait, finally on our way to Wellington and the North Island. 

Rest of the photos can be found here :-  https://photos.app.goo.gl/bFv99AGqKyJJwSbZ8