Counting down the endless days till the next holiday was helped by more sunshine and fresh snow to play in at Porters Pass which is rapidly becoming our favourite NZ ski resort, not only because it’s the closest to home at about an hour and a quarters drive, but also because the kids have got the hang of the T-bars and can come all the way to the top of the mountain for long piste descents, while Em or I nip off and explore the excellent backcountry options off the back, another slap up dinner in the Sheffield hotel always makes the day even better! Sunday was also fun as Ethan and Sara took part in the Canterbury schools orienteering championships and both did really well considering they were racing against kids from all ages of primary school! Sadly no courses for adults but coped by doing a fun mini duathlon in the Port Hills instead, nice to mix up the MTB and running when you can’t decide which one to do!
Emily finally joined me in middle age by reaching the great old age of 4-0 and the kids and I had fun planning lots of surprises, presents and cards for her, though the pizza restaurant we’d planned was shut that day and required a hasty substitution! The kids also had some of their artwork feature in a local art exhibition which we managed to check out before heading into the hills again for a very silly race – the Peak to Pub, which starts at 2100m at the top of Mount Hutt ski resort, then descends to the historic Blue Pub in Methven via a downhill ski race, downhill mountain bike down the ski access road and a tricky 12km run through wet and dry stream beds and even an 8m swim across some chilly water near the end! I was very relieved to make it safely down the ski section (wearing shorts and a bike helmet!!) after two spectacular double ski wipe outs in front of me and found the biking much easier despite fearing this section the most. Loose gravel is fine with a wide road as you have a margin for error despite the scary drop offs on the side of the road and I held my own against the downhill full suss brigade. The run was hard work as I haven’t done much running lately but overall pleased with 18th place overall and 6th vet, in fact I was the fastest vet on the ski section so might have to take up ski racing instead and quit all this silly running and biking! A fun and very scenic race but I think once is enough, bit too dangerous for me for most of it, you rely on other people staying out of your way…a lazy day was definitely called for after that one and cycling to Sumner beach delivered it’s usual combo of rocks to climb and sandcastles in the sunshine…
Finally reached the school holidays and Term 3 was no more – with Em working a few days next week, the start was spent closer to home with another beach/biking double this time to Taylors for some fun little waves and Bottle Lake again for an excellent loop round the family circuit – the kids biking, like their skiing, has come on in leaps and bounds since arriving in NZ, the girls now cycle up most little hills despite having no gears and are all fairly fearless on the downhill sections too. Em even managed to squeeze in a morning trip (and cycle there!) to the lovely Corsair Bay near Lyttleton before an afternoon’s work, that’s my girl!
Second daddy day off this year was amazing timing, just when it looked like the ski season was over, the Craigieburn Ranges got 35cm of fresh, light, fluffy powder and sunshine so Duncan, Heather and I headed up to Broken River which I had skied at 15 years earlier and it didn’t disappoint. The access mountain tram (which was goods only 15 years ago) took a while to get working but took us up to the lifts and ticket office and it was time for a rematch with the dreaded nutcracker lifts, I remembered them being hard and they were still pretty tough, for those not familiar you basically have to hold on to a steel cable for dear life, while whizzing up the hill avoiding the pulleys trying to snap your fingers off while trying to flick this silly nutcracker device over the rope to grip onto it, even by the end of the day I was emotionally and physically drained by the experience! Once I even skinned up the hill after three painful wipeouts! More importantly the skiing was great, lots of steep couloirs full up deep powder (must ask Santa for larger skis, mine were lost in the deep stuff!) and a cool mountain (Hamilton Peak) to finish the day with an amazing untracked 700m run back to the car. If Carlsberg did daddy days off then this would be high on the list!
Busy having a little too much fun in the snow I cut it a bit fine (6pm!) for cooking dinner for our guests, as Ed, Kerri and kids were arriving that day from Auckland, but with a bit of help from Jasmine and all hands on deck it all worked out well and it was great to have some guests again in our big house and to show them our local adventures such as Sumner Beach and Mount Pleasant for mini mountain adventures…come visit anytime guys!
Em reached the holidays too finally and with ten days to play with we weren’t sure whether to just wing it or book something up, the forecast on the west coast looked bad for the whole ten days so we adapted the plan slightly and headed north, first stop Kaikoura for some excellent fish and chips and some fun (if a little messy) big wave point break action at Mangas, all the more impressive this time with snow on the big Kaikoura hills. The kids had a lot of fun doing some artwork on the beach and mummy swallowed a lot of water (“nearly drowned” in her words!) but redeemed herself well with some huge waves the next day further up the coast. We stayed at the Kaikoura Holiday Cottages which were a great setup and you could easily spend a week there! Kaikoura also breaks the drive nicely to the Marlborough Sounds and after a morning surf we had a great time at Picton visiting the aquarium, riding the mini steam train and sailing mini sailing boats for a quite ridiculous price of 25cents each!
We spent three nights at Momorangi Bay campsite which is in a great location right on the sounds with easy access to plenty of adventures and you can SUP or swim right from the tent. The first day we ventured onto the Queen Charlotte Track and after finding out the ludicrous prices of water taxis to the start we opted for the scenic drive round via Kenepuru Sound instead, most of the QCT is far too hilly for little people but the last half day section from Te Mahia saddle to Anakiwa is brilliant, about 12km of single track, gentle uphill for first section then a huge long (technical in places) downhill and an undulating finish with great views across the sounds. All in all a very good effort for a 3,5 and 8 year old and they rode it like champions, then daddy nipped back the same way to get the car, the trail rides equally well both ways luckily and I even sneaked in a silly extra peak above the car to get some nice views both ways across the sounds!
Day two was a hot one so a perfect day for getting in the boat, we debated paddling round the sounds but you really need a motor boat to do them justice so we drove west past Havelock to the pretty Pelorus river which was used for a lot of Lord of Rings scenery and boating shots. I hadn’t managed to find much info on the river apart from it was grade 2/3 in places and the approach drive didn’t reveal too much more, but we set of bravely anyway straight into some twisty technical grade 2 rapids through rock gorges which required boat emptying and children calming before continuing! The rest was fine though, lots of fun, any tricky bits had easy bits straight after and you could see good lines from the boat and the only negative was the endless sandflies whenever we stopped. They don’t seem to like me and they nibble slowly at the children but poor Em gets attacked in droves and spent most of lunchtime in the river trying to escape! Lots of wet equipment and wet bottoms to dry out at the take out while Em braved the headwinds and hilly 10km gravel road on her bike to get the car back. (Think I may have got the slightly better bike shuttle option on the QCT track yesterday! 🙂 ) A fun paddle trip and we met two pack rafters coming down who looked like they were enjoying it too, definitely one we’d do again as interesting without being too scary and rapids all the way with very little flat water. All this water had us psyched for more so back to the campsite for late afternoon SUP and swim and plenty of mussels to pick for a tasty dinner with a view….
Sadly leaving the Marlborough Sounds we headed West via a sweaty (still sandflies even in town!) Nelson, stopping to do some shopping (for party dresses!) and excellent mountain biking in the hills just south of town. Not so kid friendly this time but Em and I both did an excellent loop – I opted for Coppermines, Fringed Hill and the super technical Te Ara Koa which gave me a sweaty slog up to 750m followed by an adrenaline filled 30 minutes of technical steep roots, exposed drops and thrills all the way down. Em loved the berms of Coppermine up to Firball and the kids and I braved the Young Codgers track. Bit of a rush fitting in biking on a travel day so we headed on to the delights of Abel Tasman and Golden Bay…
After the windy sealed road of Takaka Hill, we feasted on an excellent fish and chips and play park session in lovely Takaka (home of the climbing mecca that is Paynes Ford, lots of memories of this place), then we headed over the crazy windy gravel road to Totaranui and managed to get the tent up in the fading light, in summer this place is sold out within 15 minutes of booking opening, in spring we were one of three sites taken out of 260! Madness when the weather is this good, but we were soon to get a wake up call, as the signs said water wasn’t drinkable (and we had minimal left) and the camping gas cylinders which looked full both decided to be empty or nearly empty. Could we survive three nights of cold dinners and rationing water?! Luckily we soon found someone to borrow water off and then the ranger revealed that they have to put the signs up and the water is in fact rainwater and fine to drink, yay! Problem two also solved when we discovered fire pits, lots of wood to burn and grills, going full Bear Grylls and cooking dinner over a fire turned out to be a lot of fun and far easier than we’d thought, if it had been rainy or windy it might have been another story, also kept the bugs away but not the pesky Weka which tried their best to steal our food, one even got inside our tent somehow between the sealed outer and the inner and had to be rescued!
Great to be back in Abel Tasman again and after such a busy travel day to get here we opted for the relax round the campsite option, very unlike us and not long after deciding this Em had gone for a 14 mile scenic coastal run and I followed soon after she returned (cheating slightly and biking some of it!) – great running in Abel Tasman as you get lots of hidden beaches and viewpoints and plenty of hills along the way to keep your legs working! The next day was back in the boat and though the see looked a little choppy we went for it anyway and were rewarded with sea caves, seals and private beaches only accessible by boat. Running gets a B+ up here but boating is A++ all the way and is the best way to see Abel Tasman, the nice thing about having an inflatable boat is we can walk sections and boat back, the boat is 20kg (when dry!!) which is just about okay for me to lug around and nice for the kids to walk some of the Abel Tasman track too and not just be paddled everywhere, also meant we could use the wind and tide to our advantage and paddle right back to camp for some sunny afternoon SUP and Canoe races, also safe enough in the tidal estuaries for the kids to paddle themselves around. Sorry so many pics here, it really is scenic in all directions!
So sadly after two great days of adventures it was time to pack up and leave Abel Tasman again, and the weather was about to change too so nice to get to a campsite with hot showers and places to shelter! We have become a bit too soft in recent years and go for the holiday parks when in fact wild camping is what it’s all about, totally off the grid so no smartphone distractions, just stunning scenery and outdoors adventures to entertain us. Heading up towards Golden Bay we first stopped in at the river west of camp to check out the 40 massive eels that live there, Iona’s attempt to feed them some meat ended badly with one of them preferring the taste of her juicy finger to the three day old ham! Next stop was the impressive Wainui waterfall which Ethan and I enjoyed scrambling up to the base of and after lunch in a rainy carpark at Pohara beach we did a little bit of bouldering and coastal traversing. Final stop of the day was a lucky find, the well named Labyrinth rocks are a bit like the forest of Fontainebleau without the climbing, a real maze of tunnels, arches and hiding places to explore, we almost lost Ethan at one point when he went into a tunnel and fell down a hole into a hidden cavern but luckily he found his way out again!
Final campsite of the trip was Collingwood Holiday Park which despite being a great location for exploring Golden Bay and Farewell Spit, was getting battered with very strong Easterly winds but luckily our site had a big tree to put the tent next to, our tent really is looking a bit worse for wear now with three broken poles and quite a few rips! Time for another run and the 10km Puponga Headlands Walk has to be a contender for one of the most scenic 10km runs you can do? It starts with great views along Farewell Spit, then takes you past Pillar Point lighthouse and down to hidden beaches with deep caves and plenty of grumpy seals (who don’t like being woken up!). Cape Farewell (the most northerly point in South Island) has big cliffs and impressive sea arches with waves crashing onto them, and you finish at the pretty white sands of Wharariki Beach which had more seals playing in the streams. Em did the same run in reverse and added in a bit more of Farewell spit and we walked out along the spit a short way to meet her, a surreal place with great views across Golden Bay back towards Abel Tasman. The weather had been deteriorating all day and now to go with the strong winds we had heavy rain too so time to head to the world famous Mussel Inn for a slap up dinner of green lipped mussels, home brew beer and a couple of crowd pleasing songs by Iona and Dad Chad on the piano for old times sake! Still can’t be beaten with it’s warm cosy interior, log fire and friendly bar staff and customers to chat to, glad it lived up to my over the top billing and the whole family loved it, especially with the rain pouring down outside!
Back to the tent for a wild, wet night and we woke to lots of wet sleeping bags and deflated thermarests. The tent was floating on water and luckily it was our last night camping, so I dressed in full waterproofs and tried to wrestle the saturated tent into any kind of bag! Normally you squeeze air out of the tent, this time water was pouring out! With 48 hours of rain to come it was tempting to just head for home but Collingwood is about 7 hours of windy driving from Christchurch so we stuck with plan A to split the drive at Murchison. A quick stop en route at the excellent Kaiteriteri Mountain Bike Park for some great single track adventures for all ages though we really needed a bit more time to do the place justice and after a road closure we took the longer route round via St Arnaud and Nelson Lakes National Park, not so scenic on a rainy day! The Kiwi Holiday Park in Murchison was a perfect birthday surprise for Iona having a petting zoo on site complete with deer, sheep, wallabies and even an emu! Great to not be camping anymore and sleep in a real bed and great to split the long drive too! We had another surprise in store for the kids too, they woke up on Iona’s birthday thinking we may stop at the Maruia Hot Springs (better for adults) for quick rainy dip but we drove straight past and instead took them to the awesome Hanmer Thermal Springs which has great water slides for all ages and far better weather being on the East side of the Southern Alps. A fitting end to the trip and then back home to dry out the impressive mountain of wet clothes, tents, sleeping bags, boats, SUPs etc. All in all a memorable trip and one that showcased some of the best of the top of South Island. Back to work and school with smiles on all our faces and time for a quiet week!
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 
Hi Chad,
Wonderful entertainment! It has taken ages to read it all and view the photos!
What a fabulous time you have all had! Your children are so fortunate to have such adventurous parents who do such wonderful things with them.
Able Tasman is I am sure one of the most beautiful places on Earth…took me back to our adventures there.
I loved Farewell spit and the beach with the seals….magical!
It has been a most wonderful experience reliving it.
Poor Iona being nipped by an eel!
I noticed she was still busy feeding animals later on so it hasn’t spoilt it for her.
What an amazing time you are all having out there. Lots of love
Sally xxx
Sent from my iPad
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Hi Granny Sally, thanks for the nice words again, glad you enjoyed the photos and blog, we did have a great trip and yes Abel Tasman is truly great every time, though we do seem to be extra lucky with the weather every time we go there. Hope all well back home, sorry about the children this morning, they weren’t on their best form!! C x
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Thanks for reminding me about the sandflies otherwise I’d be too jealous for words!!!!
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Ha, I thought the sandflies were fine, they ignore me, Em had a different experience! Don’t worry plenty of wet days too on this trip, but not surprisingly less pictures of that! Hope you guys are well and planning your next NZ adventures…
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