We had been looking forward to this trip for a while now, and have been beavering away with preparations – emptying cupboards and restocking, Bruce categorising what was in the boot, and sorting out home and gardens for our plan of being away for almost three months. This time we have only the briefest of itineraries – we plan to make it up as we go along, and we also plan to take time to “smell the roses” instead of rushing from place to place.
We left home on the 29th January, and headed for our friends Dianne and Gary’s place in Taupo. We were well looked after by them and thoroughly enjoyed our catch up, but the next morning we were on the road again and heading for Wanganui to our friend Jenny’s place. We planned to be there 2 nights catching up with her and again we were well looked after. Two days later we were headed for Paraparaumu to catch up with more friends, Helen and Brendon. They also looked after us very well, and it is so lovely that all our friends love the dogs as well and they also get spoilt.
We were booked to cross Cook Strait on the 3rd February at 1.30pm, so we made sure we left Paraparaumu in plenty of time to get in the right line so that the motorhome would be parked beneath decks. We did not want the dogs getting too hot on the 4.5 hour trip. At the ferry we caught up with the group from the NZMCA Hauraki Coromandel area, and our friends Marilyn and Dennis who we planned to travel part of the way with. There were lots of motorhomes, of all shapes and sizes, on the boat, but this time there were no smelly stock trucks. 
The crossing was a bit rocky at times but certainly not as bad as it could have been had the forecasted gale force winds eventuated.
Once we disembarked we headed for our first stop in the South Island – the Damfam vineyard. We stayed here two years ago and liked it then, so had no hesitation in re-visiting. They set aside a field on the banks of the Wairau River for motorhomes. There was no traffic noise, but unfortunately for Hunter, there was the regular booming of bird scarers in a nearby vineyard. He quivered and shook whenever we sat outside, so staying here more than one night was clearly not going to be good for him – precious soul that he is. We enjoyed the beautiful sunset and the peaceful night before heading off again the next day.
The next morning we decided to explore the Wairau Bar before heading off to Ward Beach which was to be our next stop. The road out to the bar was mostly sealed, but narrow. However, cars passing us were very considerate in that they pulled right over to let us past. At the end of the road was a big lagoon, where the river meets the sea. One of the locals told us that a ferry used to come all the way up the river to service Blenheim and the remains of that boat are still in Blenheim. The coastline was pretty rugged, and the surf looked pretty mean. Oscar wanted to take a swim but we would not allow that as we thought we might never see him again! The shoreline was thick with pebbles and rocks smoothed off by the sea. It made walking on it hard work, so we did not venture far from the van.
After lunch we back tracked down the narrow road and headed for Blenheim and beyond. We had a delightful journey along the coast finding a few treasures along the way such as St Oswalds Church.
The church is longer used as it was damaged in the earthquake and there is not the money to repair it.
We also called in to have a look at the Saltworks. Water (presumably sea water) fills the lakes and is left to evaporate. The remaining salt is them scooped up and processed. It looks pretty filthy at that stage and not something you would want to put in your mouth.
We finally arrived at our destination for the night. The camp site was on a private farm, right next to the rugged coast. The weather was fine but windy, so much so that when a gust came through we had to stop walking and turn our backs to it. It was pretty wild. All the landscape around is predominantly limestone, so the cliffs are white, as are the rocky outcrops in the sea.
Although we were not enjoying the wind, the forecast was for it to settle during the night so we bunkered down. We were just relaxing inside the motorhome when the evening was pierced by the sound of bagpipes – now that we did not expect. Our piper played us a few songs, despite almost being blown away at one stage, and all of us parked there seemed to enjoy it. We resolved to move on the next day though to somewhere a bit more sheltered.
Away From Home NZ 