Tao 8: South Island 1 – Golden Bay

The ferry terminal on the South Island is in the town of Picton.  We drove out of the vehicle bay of the ferry into a beautiful sunny day.  We did not spend time in Picton, and instead headed west toward Nelson.  The section of road between Picton and the town of Havelock is Queen Charlotte Drive.  It’s a winding two lane highway into the mountains and overlooking the bays below.  Outside of major cities and their vicinity areas, all of the highways in New Zealand that we have seen are just two lane roads.  To pass another car you have to wait for clear line of sight and hit the gas pedal hard. Our Camry manages this OK, but I do hope for more horse power sometimes.

There are also many one-lane bridges where you have to yield to cars already started crossing.  We saw similar bridges in Hawaii also.  In places where traffic is light this is no problem.  With more cars on the road though, this could be a headache.  That, I guess, is why we rarely see this driving on both coasts of the US.

The town of Havelock, beside its interesting name, held a pleasant surprise for us. Havelock, we have learned from signs along the highway, is the Green Mussel Capital of the World! Yeah!! We headed directly into a road side restaurant called Mussel Pot to put this claim to test.

Tracy happily waiting for food

Grilled mussels in olive oil and garlic sauce

Garlic bread hot off the oven

These mussels are BIG

Outside of Mussel Pot

After a delicious meal with the biggest, juiciest mussels we ever had, we have reached our verdict. Havelock IS the Green Mussel Capital of the World.  I don’t know if you believe it, but I do 

Next stop is Takaka.  It’s kind of a tourist hub in the Golden Bay area of the South Island. I booked our lodging here with a place called Eatery on the Rock.  The owner Chris and Pat were originally from UK.  They came to New Zealand more than 20 years ago and loved here, so they settled down.  Chris is a chef.  They bought a piece of property with lots of limestone rock formations and built a restaurant and 4 cabins, hence the name Eatery on the Rock. We loved the place and vowed to try Chris’s cooking before we leave.

On the road to Takaka

Early next day we drove to Tata Beach for our Sea Kayak orientation.  Tony, the owner of Golden Bay Kayaks, greeted us here.  First he accessed our sea Kayaking experience, which is sadly lacking.  We’ve done Kayaking twice, both times with a sit-on-top type, not the real Kayaks, and never in the ocean.  Then he suggested our itinerary for the next two days based on his assessment.  After that we went through the safety instructions and equipment training.  Finally we are to take our kayaks for a spin in the ocean.

These kayaks have a rudder which you control with your feet.  They are also much heavier than the sit-on-top type.  You sit deeper in it so a splash guard is also needed to prevent water from entering the seating area.  Basically you wear the splash guard like an apron.  When sitting down, you stretch the neoprene splash guard to cover the entire seating area.  This way you are kind of “connected” to the kayak.  So a critical section of the safety instruction is how to get out if the kayak capsizes.

After repeating what to do, Tony asked us to intentionally flip the kayak over.  It’s not as easy as one might think. These kayaks are quite stable.  After several tries, we managed to flip it over, release the guard when upside down in the water, push ourselves out of the kayak, then correct the kayak and climb back in.  We were tired after all that effort.  Luckily that’s all we need to do today.

In the afternoon we joined a trip with Farewell Spit Eco Tours. Farewell Spit is a long stretch of sand bar at the northern tip of the South Island.  It’s a natural reserve where only Department of Conservation authorized vehicles can enter.

Scallops pie we got from a local cafe while waiting for the tour

This is our bus

Cape Farewell is the northern most point of the South Island

Blue sky over wetland

Lots of float wood accumulated here when the tides come

Rocky shores at Fossil Point

 

Many of the rocks here contain fossils of ancient shellfishes

Orange cliff at Fossil Point

Crystal clear water around an interesting rock

Sea weeds

These two oyster catchers "own" this pool of water, they will defend it against other birds, sometimes even people, but not our bus

A fur seal soaking in the sun

The lighthouse was much closer to the ocean a hundred years ago, the sandbar grew quite a bit over the years

Weathered whale skeleton on display close to the lighthouse

Wind is blowing sand toward the tip of the spit, thus enlarging it

Patterns on the sand dunes

Close up of the sand pattern

Our driver, who is also our guide, is very knowledgeable about the history of the spit and how it came to be.  He had some fascinating stories to tell and the bus trip was never boring.  He told us about the 1991 stranding of over 300 whales on Farewell Spit.  Hundreds of people came from all over New Zealand to help keeping the whales alive until high tide. The whale skin would dry and crack if out of water and exposed under the sun.  So people put cloth on the whales and continuously pour water over it to keep them cool and wet. At the end most of the whales were saved.  It’s easy to feel the sense of proud when he talks about this.

Toward the end of the trip, we get to have some fun on the sand dunes.  For Tracy, posing with the sun in her back on a sand dune seemed to offer the most fun.

One guy in our group slides upside down from a sand dune

shell half buried in gray sand

Day ends with a beautiful view

Next morning we got to Tony’s place before 6:30. Shortly after we were out on the sea.  We were staying in the northern most section of the Abel Tasman NP.  There were few people there in Spring.  We saw only one other Kayak out of our two days there. When we land on a beach, most of the times we have it to ourselves.  It is both beautiful and tranquil.

First landing

Tracy beach combing

Another beach

Spiny starfish, can you count how many legs?

We camped in our tent after the first day of Kayaking.  Met a couple of students from the States.  Their dinner is fresh mussels caught from the sea.  Looks mighty tempting. Too bad we don’t have a cooking stove, the mussels are plentiful out here.  We also saw this guy scavenging close to the camp site.

The second day of our Kayaking, we finished early, planning to celebrate Tracy’s birthday with a steak dinner at Eatery on the Rock. Upon arriving we were disappointed to learn that the restaurant was closed that day.  Chris, the ever devout Rugby fan, drove to Nelson to watch the game (NZ vs Australia) with his buddies.  Bummer!  Poor Tracy. We had to make do with supermarket food for her birthday.  I did treat her to a good dinner the next day though.

Talking about supermarkets, there are several things that are pretty cheap in New Zealand. The country’s big on cattle and sheep farming, so beef, lamb, and dairy products are quite affordable.  We sometimes see discounted ready-made lamb chops for $2.  Kiwi fruits are cheap too.  They are $2 a kilo. That’s like 80c a pound. Very nice! We use the kiwis as vitamin supplements for our instant noodles.