So after some great adventures on North Island we caught the Interislander ferry over to South Island. I had billed this as awesome, amazing, Scotland on steroids etc so was hoping it would live up to my hype! We opted for an early start to have plenty of time at the other end and this worked out well as after an amusing magic show on board and epic double fry up, we enjoyed the views sailing into the Marlborough Sounds and had time for a cheeky swim in the Sounds in the sunshine – surely the best way to see the Marlborough Sounds if short on time? Also on a scale from 1 flattish water to 5 sinking boats we were only a 2 so no sick children to worry about! The windy drive west from Picton to Havelock is worth taking as great views of the sounds and most of the traffic seems to go south via Blenheim.
We drove through a busy Nelson with it’s packed beaches and headed on to Marahau and Abel Tasman National Park, this was somewhere I’d remembered fondly from fifteen years ago and could only hope it was as I remembered it and not destroyed by tourism. The campsite was a good start, being right on the entrance to the national park away from the water taxi/kayak mayhem further south and was well equipped with slack line, hammocks, play park, trampoline, etc etc, looked a great place to spend four nights. Abel Tasman truly fulfilled all expectations and more with some excellent paddling and swimming in clear blue waters to golden sand beaches on remote islands, shared only with giant seals and even some caving, climbing and snorkelling for giant fresh mussels thrown in for good measure. The park seems to absorb the tourists no problem, we had space galore to swim, run and paddle. Kayaking definitely more fun than late night running, the hard packed tracks are grim work on ageing joints and knees and I finally set out once the kids were asleep without a head torch so had to run quite a lot back in the dark! Sadly no Mussel Inn this time as they’d run out if mussels! Easily remedied by finding your own at low tide…
Reluctantly we left Abel Tasman and Golden Bay, but as they say you can have too much of a good thing, and headed on westwards towards the wind and wave lashed west coast. This didn’t disappoint as our first stop at Buller Gorge Swingbridge (the longest in NZ) involved torrential rain and pesky sandflies attacking. Despite this the sun came out at times and Ethan loved whizzing across the river on the flying fox…
Second stop after a nightmare 45 minute wrong turn by Dad Chad (my excuse was whole car was asleep and I took a 50:50 guess and got it wrong) was the super scenic Punakaiki pancake rocks. This one, although I’ve been before and is tourist honey pot tastic, is well worth the trip, especially today with the 15ft swell lashing the coast meaning the blowholes were firing well.
Onto Hokitika, home of the wild foods festival and as quirky and eccentric as I’d remembered, stayed a couple of nights in a 70s decor ex psychiatric hospital (!) with stunning views out to sea, it’s own glow worm dell and we just about found somewhere sheltered enough to put the tent up. The tent now sported some very duct taped split poles from Abel Tasman, despite the glorious weather there had been some really windy nights which cheap Warehouse (think Decathlon but cheaper) £125 family tent found a bit too exciting!). Some stunning driftwood covered beaches to explore round here and we attempted surfing although it wasn’t our finest surfing experience the views more than made up for it…
Our final stop on the west coast after a long drive south was supposed to be a glacier walk at Fox Glacier and in retrospect we should have stopped at Franz Josef as every single access road at Fox Glacier was washed out meaning long walks to get anywhere near the ice. Seeing as the sun was shining we had no excuse not to try so we plodded up the boring forest gravel track and eventually reached some okay views of the glacier, which we made instantly better by ignoring the danger signs and venturing out onto the moraine. (Don’t worry Grannies, we did a full risk assessment of the situation!) This gave proper remote glacier feeling and excellent views and we had a fun adventure following the moraine down and finding a secret trail back through the woods. Sadly the good weather ended as quickly as it had started and we got a proper west coast soaking, which required much cajoling of sad children to get back to the van and dry clothes! Finally we finished our west coast experience with an excellent seafood and buffet meal at the atmospheric Hard Antler pub at Haast before heading over the scenic Haast Pass to arrive pretty late in Wanaka. We were treated to plenty of stunning mountain scenery and were looking forward to some mountain adventures to come…
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 