Once more into the saddle

This time it is Shirley minus the mechanic, as sadly Chris has decided to sit out another attempt on LeJog.  Personally I reckon the idea of two weeks in solitary spendour at home was too attractive to resist, but whatever the reason I am going to have to deal with my own punctures ☹️.
Watch this space - I meet the group next Saturday.

Last full day in New Zealand

We booked our transport for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing last night, so we were ready to go at 7.30am and by 8.00am we were setting off on the track. This is a 20km linear walk across the Tongariro volcanic area and the suggested time you will take is around 7 - 8 hours. To be honest this is a much over-hyped walk, both in terms of difficulty and the supposed spectacular scenery. Some good views (or would be if weather permitted) but a lot of rather dull and repetitive stuff as well. My main gripe however was the number of people, all being dumped out of buses within a short period of time and then forming a frustrating crocodile of bodies that moved at a snails pace along the track, which was quite narrow and difficult to overtake on.  Because of the numbers and the quite terrifying lack of kit / fitness / common sense on display, the route is marked with poles along its entire length and most of it is on made up firm packed track, held in place with chicken netting etc. You certainly didn't feel you were in a wilderness area.

I hated the crowds and the fact that after you managed to pass a selection of the real duffers you only had to stop for a photo and they all went past again.........We were so far ahead of schedule (our bus wasn't picking us up until 3.45pm at the other end) that we decided to do a side trip to climb Mount Tongariro. Unfortunately a promising start to the day weather wise declined into low cloud and cold, although it kept trying to clear up - unsuccessfully!  We did part of the climb, getting over a couple of intermediate tops, but it got worse and we decided that since we couldn't see the mountain we were trying to climb, never mind the views from the top, we might as well abandon. Our top height for the day was around 6,000ft and we were glad the wind wasn't any worse as the forecast had been minus 7 on the top with windchill, but was nearer to zero or a degree or two positive.  

When we descended from the red crater to the emerald lakes I was transported back to A level chemistry and the smell of rotten eggs from the fume cupboard. We had hit the plateau where there are active steam vents, which accounted for why the cloud seemed so much worse in certain areas!. From there we climbed again to skirt the Blue Lake and then started a long and slightly dull two and a half hour descent to the finish. We should have had fine views over Lake Taupo and the surrounding area but with the low cloud everything just looked a uniform grey. In summary the weather didn't, on this occasion, stop us from doing what we planned to do - but I wouldn't recommend a special trip to do it unless you like to walk in a lot of company.

As expected loads of people arrived at the finish long before their return transport turned up and apart from a couple of primitive toilets and a small shelter (roof and back wall) there was absolutely nothing there.  Our bus arrived on time and we were back and on our third mug of tea an hour after boarding the bus.  Not much in the way of shopping here so we decided to eat in the hotel cafe - bar tonight. The hotel itself is a fine example of a place that needs basic maintenance done, but charges an extortionate amount due to the popularity of the crossing and the limited accommodation in the area. The only place even slightly smart is the cafe-bar and they actually served half decent meals at a fair price.  We are now in our room, fortified by the last of the wine supplies, trying to finish our packing for the journey home. We haven't bought anything and it all fitted on the way over............?????

Will do our final thoughts from the airport tomorrow, but until then some photos from today

An interim day

Or in other words we spent most of out time moving from Picton (South Island) to National Park (a village in North Island). This involved 3.5 hours on a ferry plus an hour waiting to board and 5 hours in the car driving north. Not a lot to say really!!  The place we are staying has certainly seen (much) better days, but we are here for the sole purpose of tackling the Tongariro Alpine Crossing tomorrow and the hotel provides transport for the linear route, so we are happy enough - although relieved we though to buy food for dinner, breakfast and lunch before we got here!

Some items of modest interest from the drive:

Passing through the town of Bulls we saw a sign - 'Bulls, a town like no udder' (please all groan in unison!), also on a hall it had a sign 'Befriend a Bull' - Bulls relationship club.  

Or how about the bakery - 'Kiss and Bake Up' or the cafe in a Church offering 'Heavenly Coffee'.

My favourite of the day however was Mangaweka International Airport advertising 'Hot Coffee and Cool Plane' - note the use of the singular!!  Quite where it went internationally is anyone's guess - all we could spot was half of an old 1950s plane advertising 'adventures' and a stubble field which might have allowed a couple of kites to take off.  I somehow doubt there will be many A380s landing there in the immediate future.

Anyway hopefully I will be able to bore you all rigid with tales of our expedition tomorrow including photos - for now a few from Picton

Missed Opportunities and other nonsense

So here we are in the cold and wet (sound familiar?), regretting the things we missed over Waitangi weekend (public holiday yesterday).  On Friday we could have gone to the Digital Undergrowth Exhibition (juxtaposing stark slice of life images with graphite drawings). I am completely at a loss as to what this might be.....  Saturday was more promising with the 5th Annual Healthy Bastards Bush Pilot Championships, NZ's premier national short take-off and landing competition (does that mean there are others ??????), or Chris could have gone to Picton Men's Shed 'where men can do what men do best' - the mind boggles.....Sunday would have been a complete surprise to both of us, any ideas on what we would have experienced at 'Kapahaka'  1pm - 3pm?

For those of you who are house proud you might like to consider polishing your concrete floors (I feel as if I have entered a parallel universe!), which will bring them to life apparently - provided you use the Husqvarna Hyper Floor System.  Honestly, how have I lived so long without this knowledge?

As you might have guessed not much of interest happened today. Chris packed the bikes while I filled one of our bags with all the stuff we won't need again. Then this afternoon we walked for about 3 hours in a dry interlude, exploring some of the walking tracks going to Waikawa Bay and Snout Point. Disappointed to find that the ice cream shop had closed early (although perhaps not surprising given the weather) then just as we were within sight of the motel it started to rain heavily again, so we are tucked up with our books and a glass of wine.  No pictures today as the Wifi is just too annoying and in any case we didn't take many - hope to rectify that tomorrow.

Our Bummer Summer

Headline in the Wellington Times!  Today was reasonable, fairly warm with strong winds and 'considerable cloudiness' (a meteorological expression I love). Since the forecast for tomorrow is rain and gales we decided to spend today out and about and pack the bikes tomorrow. We were both feeling a bit sluggish this morning and it took a while to get going but after a leisurely breakfast we had a stroll round Picton and changed our ferry ticket on Wednesday to an earlier sailing, checked the balance on our cash cards and then walked up to the lookout point on Queen Charlotte Drive. Some of the businesses here are interesting - 'Beauty and the Barber' (hairdresser), 'Beyond the Fringe' (ear piercing), 'Creative Marlborough Artisan Works' (cheap tat that isn't cheap) etc.  In fact the whole place is homage to the people who have loads of money and absolutely no sense whatsoever. 

After lunch at our self catering unit we headed back out to walk to Bob's Bay, then on to the Snout Track and back by Harbour View track. You could barely see the harbour, but I guess I am splitting hairs.......We came back via the ice cream parlour, which rather bizarrely appeared to rent out jet skis as a sideline - so that would be a double scoop hokey pokey cone and 2 hours hire of a jet ski please!

The Mechanic has now turned to doing what the mechanic does best and is starting to pack the bikes up. I have just got home to stop by seducing home with a glass of Rabbit Island (he is easily bought). You will be pleased to know we are fully up to date with the Archers, or will be after having yesterday's episode with dinner. The Six Nations rugby and the premier league also feature heavily on the news over here, so no catching up to do when we get home.

No very interesting photos today, but a few above (I have no idea how they got there!)

Read one, get one free........

The rubbish Wifi here refused to post my blog last night and in my frustration I must have forgotten to save it, so I am now trying to recreate. Yesterday was the hottest day so far and there was no wind - which in some ways was a bit disturbing as we have got so used to it. We drove out from our accommodation in Takaka to the start (or end depending on your viewpoint) of the Abel Tasman track. Our maps, like all the maps we have seen here appeared to contradict themselves, so we wasted over an hour walking out to Taupo Point, only to find there was no apparent connection to the rest of the track. The walk involved beach walking and rock scrambling and while very pleasant was not what we had come out for. Retracing our steps we set off on an uphill track to Whariwherangi Beach and Separation Point. The track went along the tops, but set back from the coastline, and we got some welcome shade from the coastal bush we were walking through. You had to look behind you for the best views, but that was a good excuse for a breather!

We were beginning to get a bit worried about not having enough water with us, when we came upon Whariwherangi Hut, a very basic structure for Abel Tasmin trampers, but which did have running water - so we lunched in the shade after inspecting the deserted beach - sadly no shelter so we oouldn't risk having lunch there as even Factor 50, sunblock and a Tilly Hat can only do so much!  With full bottles and watched suspiciously by the resident Weka birds (who refused to elucidate on their workshops) we headed back to Wainu, where the inside of the car was like a furnace.  We had to drive to Picton from there and although in distance terms it isn't too far it took for ever - steep, twisty mountain roads, Sunday drivers out to wander around looking at the scenery and a plethora of overladen camper vans, driven by tourists who seemed incapable of driving above about 20mph.

We finally made it to Picton just before 8.00pm, which was fortunate as the supermarket stays open until 9pm!  We stayed in this place when we came over from the North Island and they have been keeping our bike bags so we knew where everything was (but discovered that the Wifi has not improved). It is now Monday lunchtime and we have been out walking this morning and trying to decide how to fill our time - should we go to King Salmon to 'create the ultimate salmon experience' - I presume this involves fishing but you can never be sure - or possibly go to the optimistically named 'aquarium' to feed an eel or touch a tuatara (although I understand this could be seen as a punishable offence).  

We looked at a couple of wine tasting tours, since we missed doing our own on the bikes, but for the price of 2 of us on a tour we could purchase enough NZ wine to have us both comatose until Christmas - which on the whole sounds like a lot more fun.  You will be pleased to know that the Black Caps, the Black Sticks, the Black Ferns and possibly the Black Panthers, Tuataras etc are all doing reasonably well at their chosen sports, while England's recent collapse in a cricket match somewhere was reported with some glee - although in the interests of balance the NZ news did point out that it was only the second worst performance of all time - NZ went one worse at some time in the distant past.

Photos of yesterday below:

A bit blowy.......

I'll let the photos speak for themselves!  We spent today out at Farewell Spit and adjacent coast line - walking over the cliffs to Cape Farewell, the most northerly point on South Island, then taking a loop walk which involved walking on both sides of the Spit and across it. Although Farewell Spit is 30km long you can only walk 4km along it before you come to barriers and an environmentally sensitive area. It is another 2km or so across and then the return is an additional 6km (by a different route).  It was a sunny day and warm, but the wind was ferocious and slowed up any attempts to walk into it.

For your information, tame eels are eels that have been hand fed (??) and one place boasted that they had been hand feeding eels for 90 years - we have to assume they don't mean they have fed the same eels for 90 years or they would now be the size of killer whales!  I have got no further with the Weka Workshops or the cardboard chaos, but give me time. We are now staying in Takaka, a much bigger place than Collingwood, but where the takeaway fish and chip shop closes at 7.30pm on a Saturday night. 

More tomorrow - enjoy the pics