Christmas Holidays - Part II

So, after Christmas Day - Matt's standard 'well that's Christmas over then' really did feel appropriate here. We'd got the Christmassy bit out of the way - now we could focus on the summer holiday part of the trip!

After leaving Abel Tasman we headed inland via the Nelson Lakes National Park, Murchison and the longest Swingbridge in New Zealand over to the wild West Coast of the South Island, to our next destination - Punakaiki.

Miniature waterfall spotted on a short walk
in Nelson Lakes National Park - what a cool effect

The longest swingbridge - spot Matt!

Beautiful sunset over those wild west coast waves

Punakaiki is famous for its pancake rocks - stacks of rocks out to sea, which unsurprisingly look a lot like stacks of pancakes. We thought they were pretty awesome, as well as the walk we did through National Park no. 4 of the trip so far, Paparoa National Park.

Lots of pancake like rocks

We decided that four National Parks just wasn't enough, so we soon headed off to our next stop - Arthur's Pass National Park. Arthur's Pass village itself is the highest settlement in New Zealand, which meant quite a steep road to get to it. Carrie took the challenge with aplomb and we soon found ourselves up at c.900m, parked up for free in a Department of Conservation campsite ready for some real Kiwi tramping (hiking).

The next morning we headed straight to the DoC info centre to be told that the hike we had planned was not advisable given the weather conditions - but luckily, being in NZ you don't need to go far to find some different weather, so we drove on another ten minutes along the pass to a highly recommended alternative walk and found ourselves (after a lot of uphill) with some views to die for!

Matt looking ever so slightly camp
whilst displaying NZ for us!

Even higher (c.1800m) we got some great panoramas (and a bit chilly).

A little bit less camp than the other Cope

Displaying a sandwich AND New Zealand

All that walking got us a bit hot and bothered (after we'd come down off the blowy top of the mountain) so we parked up for a second night on the pass at another free DoC site. By now, I was feeling like we needed showers (generally lacking in free sites!) so we came up with the brilliant plan of swimming the alpine lake, then soaping down, followed by a water bottle spray shower. Lovely.

Matt pretending its not that cold

Before settling down for a bit of evening reading...

Yes, there's a chance I packed too many library books!

The next day, the Tiki Tour continued as we came down from the mountain to the Canterbury plains, and Christchurch. As many readers will know, Christchurch was hit by two devastating earthquakes in 2010/11, with the second earthquake in February 2011 killing 185 people, and levelling much of the historic and prosperous city centre.

We decided that visiting should be a priority as we had heard a lot about the positive work that was underway to rebuild the city, under such difficult circumstances.

First stop - the botanical gardens for some very English rose sniffing...

The most delicious smelling rose ever - fact

After some deliberation, we then decided to take the museum run Red Zone Tour which took us around the central city, and into still cordoned off areas, to learn more about what had happened, and what was planned for the future.

185 chairs for 185 lives lost

The tour was incredibly interesting and worthwhile - having grown up in a country without the threat of earthquakes, volcanoes and extreme weather it was sobering to see what nature can do. But inspiring to see how a community can work together to come back. Good luck Christchurch!

Matt saying good luck from atop a penny
farthing (it had been too long off the bike)
in the museum!

Onwards, and to a short pit stop in Amberley for the night, accompanied by beer tasting and chip/wedges eating.

The pale ale was the best

The following day, we continued up the East Coast to Kaikoura - home of whales, dolphins, seals and albatross. Having parked up at the campsite, we strolled down to the beach to see what was going on. Only to see a school of dolphins (do they come in a school??) having a play in the sea just a few metres from the beach. We were all ready to get in the sea with them, but were informed that the strong undertow might make our playing a little more dangerous (not being quite such able swimmers as the dolphins). So we enjoyed watching our amphibious friends instead.

Real dolphins watching!

The rest of the day was spent walking the Kaikoura peninsula - a beautiful hike with the backdrop of mountains and the sea all the way round.

A cheeky pint half way round helped things along too!

Ahhhh - lovely

Our day in Kaikoura also happened to be 31st December. So we had a fantastic evening of a Matt special barbeque, a bottle of sparkling wine and some beers in the local pub to see in the new year.

Definitely not vegetarian

A bit sore headed the next morning we didn't make it far up the coast to our next stop, for some freedom camping on the beach. We spotted some seals, Matt tried to fish for crayfish (fail) and a lot of chilling out!

An elegant profile (for a seal)

Gorgeous sunset over the rocks

Suitably refreshed we continued on up the East Coast, with a plan to do a gorge walk which we had heard was worth getting off the beaten track for, between Kaikoura and Blenheim. Of course getting off the beaten track in NZ, really does mean there will be a lack of a beaten track read gravel road). So after 10km of driving on this...

... we arrived at the trailhead. It was definitely worth it! A beautiful walk along (and in) the river we reached a narrow deserted gorge - beautiful.

Walking in the river was a lot easier than rock hopping!

I was up to my chest at this point!

And onwards to Blenheim... For those who haven't heard of Blenheim itself, you might have heard of the Marlborough region...  I was once told by an Australian colleague that if you're ever in doubt of what wine to order, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc would always be a good bet. I have lived by that advice for many a London meal/pub visit so was a teensy bit excited to finally make it to the Marlborough region itself. I wasn't disappointed!

Having left our serious racing bikes in Auckland we thought best to pool our combined leg strength for a day of wine tasting by hiring a tandem. Never people to do things by halves, having got ourselves saddled up we started the day at 9.45 (15 minutes before cellar opening) and commenced an epic adventure of visiting 9 vineyards, and sampling a total of 48 different wines. Needless to say, a great day was had by all (us included).

This was about half way through.
A little merry.

Team Cope doing laps of the campsite at the end of the day

Definitely no sore heads the next day (no, really) we finished off our South Island sojourn with a night in another DoC site, this time at a beautiful Marlborough Sounds bay, just a few kilometres from the ferry at Picton. Swimming, reading and mussel catching confirmed how much we had fallen in love with the South Island, and how much we can't wait to return!

Of course, we haven't forgotten how much we love the North Island too, so we fitted in a return to the site we stayed at en route to Wellington on our down to the South, in Tongariro National Park, home of Mount Doom, Mount Tongariro and Mount Ruapehu.

Matt considering casting his ring into Mt Doom...

Sad that the holiday is over, but what a holiday
(so we're still smiling!)