Jack & Lucy

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

31 March - 7 April

Our next stop was Anatoki Salmon Farm and Bencarri Farm Park. We had to get up early to watch the farm animals wander down from their night home to the farm park at 8.30. Jack and Lucy loved the Farm Park and we spent a couple of hours petting and feeding the animals – alpacas, donkeys, a deer, a disgustingly goobey Texan Bullhorn cow, a scary pig that we threw the feed to as its mouth looked too scary and all the usual farm animals.

Then we headed down the river to feed the eels raw mince kebabs…

Our salmon fishing was short-lived as the kids were kind of past it by then. Given that the lake had only been stocked with littlies a week before, I don’t think we missed out on too much and the smoked salmon we purchased from the shop was pretty good anyhow!

Time for us to head further south, and after a few stops to meet some rellies, remove a rock from between 2 rear tyres and to pick up wheels for the boat, we arrived at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes. This is a stunning place - a glacial lake surrounded by mountains with plentiful birdlife. We spent a few days there and had fun fishing on the lake, walking through the forest and doing everything possible to avoid the sandflies!

The ducks seemed peaceful enough but were aggresive once we started feeding them. Jack had the right idea...

And the easter bunny found us too!

On our way to the next lake, we stopped at Kawatiri Junction for a short walk starting from an old railway station. The highlights were an old bridge (“old Knapford bridge”), a tunnel to nowhere and a hidden cave – of course Jack was very excited about it all! Lucy was more taken by the little robin that followed us partway and the yellow flowers (that she has taken to collecting).

The next lake was Lake Rotoroa. Again a beautiful setting but here the sandflies were even worse. The weather has cooled down a bit though so clothing took care of any bites. Once again we spent the time walking and boating/fishing – yeah it is a pretty good life! Oh I should probably mention here that no fish were caught – the locals told Mike that fishing was “hard” at the moment but I am not sure how “fishing’ and “hard” go together!

The sandflies become too much to bear so we headed off to Westport, via a night in Murchison. Poor Lucy has caught a tummy bug and has been very subdued over the last 3 days so we have kept things pretty quiet lately.

Buller Swingbridge

Cape Foulwind

Timeout takes on a different meaning...

Sunday, March 28, 2010

27 - 30 March

On our way from Totaranui to Takaka we stopped for a walk to Wainui Falls. It was a pretty walk through lush native bush but the highlight for Jack and Lucy was the suspension bridge over the rocky river below...

…and walking through the puddles!

We made it back to Takaka in time for a chocolate gelato ice-cream. We had prepped Jack that it may just be fruity ice-creams as we were heading to real fruit ice-cream shop but “they have chocolate” I heard Jack ecstatically scream from across the road while I was sitting in D waiting for Lucy to wake!

Then we parked up at Pupu springs – the clearest spring water in the world – for the night. A nice walk around the springs before dinner helped finish off the kids for the day!!

From Pupu, we headed further north. Collingwood was our first stop, for a play at the playground (Trevor lives at Collingwood!) and fluffies to warm us all up. Today the wind came out in full force and it was pretty cold. I think the thermals may come out soon.

After Collingwood we drove to Puponga – as close to Farewell Spit as cars are allowed. Then down yet another unsealed road to the start of a very very windy walk to Wharariki beach. Thankfully the beach was beautiful and there were lots of seals and their pups frolicking in the waves and on the rocks.

After a night stop at another beachside spot, we headed to Patarau River. It was a very scenic drive through Whanganui Inlet and across numerous causeways, despite it being another unsealed road – yes D really needs a good clean! This afternoon the kids had great fun running about on the beach and trying not to slip on the rocks! Both in bed fast asleep by 7pm…Jack currently snoring, sounding a bit like the mother seal, he’s going to make a fine catch one day!

16 - 26 March

From French Pass we headed on to Nelson and stayed there for 6 days. We visited the WOW and classic car museum - Jack loved hearing what the various clothes were made of and both kids enjoyed sitting in the fancy car (yes Claire doing update so no idea what kind of car it was - other than red!).

Mike spent a day at the local motordrome as our water heater died on us. After nine frustrating hours and trying all sorts of bits and bobs, including a new board couriered overnight from Wgtn, he finally ended up getting to the bottom of the issue.

That day the kids and I spent the morning at the local zoo - Auckland zoo it is not! Regardless the kids loved it and they both regularly recount stories about Poppy the deer with the soft tongue who loved eating snap crackle pop from their hands, the sick otter who got sick from standing in bird poo (from the zoo keeper that one not me!), and Ricki the sick monkey who was kept in a cage with a chicken.

Then we spent the afternoon at the beach, and needless to say the kids were drenched by the time we got back to the campsite. Thankfully it was such a sunny and warm day that they had showers and sun-dried (seeing as D was still with Mike at the repair shop!)

We stayed at a camping ground in Tahunanui, just out of the city, and near the beach. We really lucked in there as Jack met his soul mate - a 5 yr old boy called Liam who is as train mad - possibly even more if that is possible - as Jack. They spent the weekend attached at the train tracks. If you are reading this Liam - Jack says hi and hopes to bump into you again on our way back south! We also managed to fit in a visit to a model train exhibition and a ride on the local mini steam trains. Yes, Jack was in heaven that weekend.

After collecting our new camera (another overnight courier) we finally left Nelson on the 22nd (Monday) and headed up to Golden Bay. We stopped at Kaiteriteri for lunch. A beautiful beach and an even more appealing playground for the kids saw us hang out there for the afternoon.

We then headed to Takaka for the night via the Takaka Hill Rd - which would be a spectacular drive in a 2 seater... The POP we stayed at had resident sheep, dogs and cows which entertained Jack & Lucy the following morning.

Hawkes lookout on the Takaka Hill Rd

We stocked up that morning before heading over the hill to Totaranui. The DOC campground there caters for 1000 people over summer, though we had both camping ground and beaches pretty much to ourselves. We made some good use of the boat during the fine weather and started exploring the vans boundaries during our only bad weather day to date.

Our little camp site at Totaranui...