Kim has had several boats in his lifetime.  He has had his current one for a couple of years but we’ve never taken it much further than around an hour from Auckland, let alone on an overnight trip.  It’s something we’ve wanted to do for more than a year but sometimes the weather conditions aren’t […]

I fly at 1145 today from Nelson airport back to Auckland.  The drive and the rental car return process off-airport meant that I had to leave after 0800.  My drive was uneventful.  As I passed Richmond on the outside of Nelson, I topped up the car and then continued to return it to Omega Car […]

The “main event” of my visit to Takaka is Farewell Spit, a long piece of land at the top of South Island.  It was a little hard to coordinate the dates of the daytrip because it has to fit in with the outgoing tide and daylight hours.  Eg. on a certain day, it may start […]

Pupu Springs My plan for the day had been to revisit some of the sights around here, and discover some new ones.  Talking to my hosts, some proved too much to fit into the day.  It was just the driving as some would involve a long walk from the carpark. I invited Simon, an Australian-born […]

Flying off again Today I make a 3 night trip to Golden Bay at the top of New Zealand’s South Island.  By flight from Auckland, Nelson is the gateway to the area for me.  My flight departs at 0945 and with light weekend traffic on the roads, I left home at 0725 and made it […]

Above:  Lake Pukaki on the drive back to Christchurch. The wind last night was worse than the night before.  I had a long night sleep to make up for the interrupted sleep due to the wind and noise. After breakfast, we packed up and said goodbye and thanks to everyone.  We hit the road around […]

Despite the windy conditions, I slept quite well through the night.  I did wake a few times wondering if the tent would blow over or if branches from the tree above would fall on us. Kim and I knocked on Brent’s caravan around 0815 for breakfast and a cuppa.  It was around 1000 when Brent […]

Kim arrived from Auckland at 0925 today.  Despite the bad weather (again), everything went like clockwork.  I picked him up from the airport, went to the supermarket to get some groceries for our camping hosts before going to the car rental agency. We had to add Kim as an additional driver simply by showing his […]