IN THE SOUTH ISLAND

Wellington

Harbour

Tugs

Waterlea Racetrack POP Stop















Otira Hotel POP

Lake Pearson



















We got across the Cook Strait after having a couple of days in Wellington which gave us the opportunity to have a day at Te Papa, the national museum. It was an uneventful crossing on the ferry with a night in Picton from where we moved onto Blenheim where we stayed at the Waterlea Raceway.

From there it was onto Westport where it was another night and after a cycle around the town we travelled down further south to Greymouth with a long stopover at the spectacular Punakaiki Blowholes.

After our usual leisurely start to the day we called into Shantytown, a model village of early New Zealand which is just south of Greymouth and from there it was to Hokitika for lunch and where we spent what seemed like heaps of money on buying some road user charges for the truck.

It was then a bit of back tracking to head up the Arthurs Pass as we had recently decided to head over to Christchurch to see "my loves" convalescing brother and also we had never done this very scenic route before. This also gave us the opportunity to wave to Dave & Val in "Chateau Daval" as they headed for Cromwell.

The scenery through here as everywhere was certainly spectacular and we did break the journey by spending the night at Otira where we were completely surrounded by what seemed very large mountains to us northerners. Although it was a nice sunny day when we awoke in the morning it took until 10am for the sun to creep down the mountains and warm our bodies.

Lake Pearson on the Arthurs Pass route which is just one sample of the hundreds of photos of the amazing scenery that we have already encountered in our first week in the South Island.

WIND FARM AND WILD ANIMALS

We did have a distant but good view of the Tararua Wind Farm from Palmerston North and then on our way to Wellington we stopped off at the Mt Bruce Wildlife Sanctuary where we met "Bud" the Takahe and several other species of bird, fish and animal life.

NOT THE MAIN HIGHWAY

Cossy Club

Picture to right is from Stormy Point lookout where you can see a very small vehicle several kilometres down the hill.

Our trip south took us down SH32 on the western side of Lake Taupo eventually ending up in Raetihi where we stayed at the local Cosmopolitan club for the night. It was then onto Tangiwai to look at the results of the recent lahar and from there to the Army Museum where we browsed for a couple of hours before heading for Palmerston North where we parked in the RSA carpark for the night.

FAREWELL FRIENDS & FAMILY

We did a trip up around the North saying bye,bye for now to friends and family. Several meals were shared accompanied by numerous glasses of wine. We did have an unscheduled extra night in Kaitaia when our first attempt at heading South to Whangarei was thwarted by floods. We took this opportunity to take mother for a quick trip out to Ahipara and then had a meal and stayed the night at the local RSA ready for an early start the following day.

It was two nights in Whangarei catching up and bidding farewell and then onto Auckland to finalise the last of those things that needed finalising which included "my love" getting her Class 2 drivers licence before heading to Hamilton to spend a couple of nights with the last of the North Island family before starting off on some serious touring as we head for the ferry in Wellington.

A LITTLE TOUR IN "TOWA"

"Truck Inn Too" had a day in at Traillite getting a few minor things tweaked and changed before we head North and then move down to the South Island.

We took advantage of this by setting off in "Towa" (the car) and visiting Awhitu Regional Park and then driving on out to the recently restored South Head Signal Station. On the way back to Pukekohe we called into Orua Bay, and also Wattle Bay with the last stop being Grahams Beach. Orua easily took the prize of being the best beach.

We then stayed the night onsite in the truck at Traillite as there was still a little more work to do the following day.

UNINVITED BUT WELCOME VISITORS

One still warm sunny recent summers morning there was a faint roaring sound from above and looking skyward there was one very large hot air balloon manouvering above and then completing a successful landing in one of the paddocks on the 10 acre block we are presently residing on.

After a chat to interested onlookers the half dozen or so occupants packed the balloon and basket into the support vehicle that arrived on the property soon after the landing and then were off to a nearby cafe for a champagne breakfast.

Coincidentally this was the same balloon that we had flown in at Easter last year.

TEN ACRES & THREE CATS

We are in the last phase of first part of our "big adventure" as we are now in our last housesit job before we start on our travels around the country in "Truck Inn Too" which if all goes according to plan will have us moving on about mid February.

Our only responsibility here as far as livestock goes is to keep Sox, Bear and Jasper, the three resident cats happy as any of the animals on the lifestyle block are looked after by the people who own the property and live in the prime dwelling whereas we live in the second dwelling and just have to maintain the gardens surrounding it.