The west coast of New Zealand is known for its beauty. Rugged mountains coming down to the rough and tumble Tasman Sea.
The campground was right next to the beach and you could hear the crash of the powerful waves. The Tasman Sea hitting the west coast of New Zealand is know for it's ferocity. We watched wave after wave and couldn't help but wonder, doesn't it ever get tired?
Just across the street from the campground is a beautiful walk along a river. It was lined with my favorites - Tree Ferns.
Jim always holds the door open for me!
The next morning, it was just a short drive to the visitor center for what they call Pancake Rocks. It was a fabulous walk along a half-mile path. A very popular place, lots of people, but because the path was a one-way loop, you didn't feel crowded. Excellent stop.
There are a lot of one way Bridges in New Zealand. You will see a sign telling you whether you have the right of way, or the other side. If you have the right of way, go ahead,
The blue sign at the left of this photo is the indicator about who has the right-of-way on a one-lane bridge. In this case, we do - the white arrow on the left lane. (remember? we're driving on the left here in New Zealand!)
If you don't have the right-of-way, then you need to see if there is anyone coming the other way before you cross. If the bridge is situated such that you can't see the other side, there are lights to tell you whether you can go or not. Just green or red.
Here is a photo of a one way bridge where we are waiting on our side (on the left) for the oncoming truck to go by. There was a light just to our left that was red, letting us know to wait.
In the narrow, winding road that goes thru the mountains to the Tasman Sea in the North of the South island, we encountered a new feature, overhanging cliffs (see the area in Google Maps). In this photo, the road is 2 way, we have to hug the rock on the left so that oncoming traffic can drive without falling off the cliff to the river on the right.
Just past that curve, there was another where the road narrowed to one lane and we could not see around the corner. It wasn't a actually a bridge, but it operated by the same rules. There was a light pole on our side to tell us to go - green- or to stay - red. Just one little problem - they were out of order. There was a black bag over the top of the pole where the lights should be.
What to do?
It was a Monday afternoon on this country road in the wilderness area of the south island of New Zealand, so if we don't see anyone coming, it's probably ok to go. Jim starts driving towards the blind curve on this one lane with a rock wall to his left and a cliff to his right. Oops, here come some cars. He hasn't gotten too far .. he puts the 21 foot long, 8 ft wide, motorhome into reverse and backs up to where he started. The cars pass by and the road looks clear again - we can't see anyone coming.
With no lights to tell us what to do, Jim cautiously inches forward. Still no one coming. Just as he turns the corner - beyond the point of no return - we see someone coming. Not just anyone. A truck. A 2-trailer cattle truck full of cattle! OMG. Jim moves as far to the left as he possibly can. I reach out and bring the side-view mirror in (it's on a hinge) to take about 12 inches off of our width and he gets as close to the rock wall as possible without scraping the side of the RV. The cattle truck comes to a stop beside us, then backs up a little in order to get a better angle on his drive. Inch by inch the truck crawls past as we suck in our breath. As the rear of the truck reaches Jim, he brings in his side view mirror and drives forward, just squeezing past. We made it.
I didn't think to take a picture (actually, I don't think I was even breathing!) until the danger was over and we were squeezing thru - out the other side. This is the tail end of the cattle truck that had us sandwiched in against the cliff to our left.
Who is Bulger?
One of the things we like to do when we're RVing is listen to books on tape. Sometimes we don't even bother with audible, and I just read it out loud. I had been doing that with this crazy book called "Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey."
No, it doesn't have anything to do with the President's son Baron, but that odd coincidence is how the book is gaining some popularity today. It was actually written as a children's story in 1893 by Ingersoll Lockwood. I got the Kindle version on my phone on a whim and started reading it out loud to Jim and Melinda. To our surprise, we quite liked it, so I continued reading. It is about a young man (Little Baron Trump) and his dog (Bulger) on a fantastic adventure to the underworld - a world within a world. I had just read the portion about how the young Baron had found the "Giants well" which provided an entrance to the underworld. Boy and dog successfully let themselves down using ropes. The problem is he only has one length of rope, and many lengths to travel:
Know, then, that that was the smallest of my troubles; for, as any sailor will tell you, you only need to tie your line in what is known as a “fool’s knot,” to one end of which you make fast a mere cord. The moment you have reached the bottom, a sharp tug at the cord unties the fool’s knot, and your tackle falls down after you. My method was to lower Bulger down first, and then let myself down after him. In this way we proceeded from parapet to parapet, until at last we stood upon the very edge of the vast well ...
By this point in the book, we are realizing how important, and wonderful is his dog, but it gets better! After descending to what they thought was the bottom, they reach a very narrow opening known as "Polyphemus' Funnel" and the pipe was too narrow for the little Baron's body. He let Bulger down first, then bound his own arms tight to his body, greased himself up and slid into the funnel pipe. He had to twist his body like a screw to continue downward movement, but still came to a halt before coming out the other end.
...
I was at the point of swooning when I heard Bulger utter a loud yelp, and the next instant there was such a strong tug at my ankles that I sent forth a groan, but that tug saved me! It was Bulger who had leaped into the air, and catching the rope in his teeth had dragged his little master out of the pipe of Polyphemus’ Funnel! We all fell into the same heap, Bulger, I, and the weight, fully ten feet, and very serious might have been the consequences for me had my fall not been broken by my striking on the pile of my clothing placed directly under the opening; and, dear friends, if you talked until the crack o’ doom you could not make me believe that my four-footed brother hadn’t placed those clothes there to catch me. They weren’t thrown higgledy-piggledy into a heap either, but were laid one upon the other, the heaviest at the bottom.
It was shortly after reading this section of the book that we had the experience between the rock and the cattle truck. Do you think that Bulger was with us? Did Bulger pull us through and save us?.
Melinda's introduction to New Zealand was many years ago when her husband, Laird, took a sabbatical from his college professor job to study indigenous cultures in New Zealand. They spent 6 months traveling and met lots of people - one of whom was Makere (pronounced MA-ku-ray). Makere is an elder of the Waitaha people - considered to be the earliest arrivals to Aotearoa (New Zealand) and generally included in the term Māori, referring to the native peoples of the country. Melinda has visited Makere in New Zealand many times and Makere has traveled to the US and visited Melinda as well. They are old friends.
When we planned this trip, we certainly hoped that we would get to meet her, and we were thrilled it worked out. Especially when we learned that she lives on Golden Bay, right next to Abel Tasman National Park! That was one of the few places Jim and I had on our must-see list. We were able to park the RV right in front of the Marae (kind of a Maori community center) where Makere lives and she was the best tour guide we could imagine! She even arranged a Pōwhiri, the welcoming ceremony in the tradition of the Māori/Waitaha. We felt really special when a dozen or more Māori of all ages from the Marae gathered to greet us. First was a reception line where we touched noses with each person. It's called "hongi" and it is the traditional greeting of the Māori. Then there were some short speeches from the elders. Jim performed the role of our elder! Then more singing after which, keeping with the tradition of hospitality,we were invited to share dinner (kai) with them.
After dinner, we went with the group to hike to a sacred waterfall, while Melinda and Makere stayed behind to catch up with each other. Luckily, it wasn't as strenuous a hike as the last waterfall we visited, since we didn't have too much time before dark. It was a gorgeous walk to an adventures-in-paradise worthy waterfall.
I didn't think it could get any better than that, but the next day, Makere took us to a sacred spring... This is the biggest, clearest spring I think I have ever seen - and I've seen some big, clear springs!
All the while that Makere was driving us around, showing us sacred places and all the beauty of her home, she was telling us her stories, stories of her ancestors, their history and their mythology. I was so entranced, I asked if any of this was written down - and she gave me her book: Whispers of Waitaha - Traditions of a Nation!
While Makere was telling us this special story, I tried to capture some of her voice. Here is the result. If you watch it, you will hear part of the Waitaha story of creation - how the ancient ones came over in dual-hulled canoes called Waka. When the 2 Waka were broken by storms, 7 whales came to the rescue and the Waka then formed the islands now known as New Zealand.
But wait, there's more ...
After taking us to a great place for lunch, she let us have a little nap, then drove us in the other direction over a mountain on a dirt road to a secluded beach called Totaranui. Just a few months ago, when Prince Harry and Meghan visited New Zealand, this was one of the places they were taken, and Makere was there to greet them. Now she's taking us there. Are we special or what?! Well, Melinda anyway.
There's lots more to see and do in the area, but we had to hit the road and get the RV back to Christchurch in 2 days time. Here's Makere reviewing the map with Melinda and setting up our itinerary of things to see between Golden Bay and Christchurch.
Kia Ora and Thank You Makere! It was a beautiful and memorable visit, we hope you can visit Florida and let us return the favor someday.
When we made the arrangements for renting the motorhome in New Zealand, we decided that we wanted to do some travel in both the north and the south. That meant picking up the motorhome in Auckland and dropping it off in Christchurch. We could make the reservations for the ferry oursleves, but I was happy to let the motorhome rental place (Wilderness) do that for us. I is high season here in New Zealand, and things get booked up. they know what to do. So, they told us to be there no later than 4pm on the 15th of February. We only had an hour drive. We thought we may explore Wellington a bit, but there really wasn't enough time to do that comfortably, so we just found a place to park, and used the Internet to get some work done until time to drive onto the ferry.
Since we were so early for boarding the ferry, we got front row seats!
It was about a 3 hour ride. We had exceptionally nice weather - it was a very smooth crossing with beautiful views.
Since it would be dark by the time we got off the ferry, we booked an RV park in Picton for the night. It was only a few minutes drive from the ferry terminal so there was no worries about making their 10pm deadline. We could get a good night's sleep and ready for the trek to Abel Tasman Nat'l Park and Melinda's friend Makere, the next day.
Some days just work! We found the one semi-straight road in New Zealand and had a very nice road trip thru the southern half of the north island.
We didn't know exactly where we were going, but we needed to be in Wellington to board the South Island ferry the next day at 5pm, so we wanted to be close to Wellington. I used the CamperMate app and found an RV park called Paekakariki Holiday Park. It was about an hour from the ferry terminal. It was right on the beach. AND, it was right where Google Maps said it was, so navigating there worked just fine!
We loved the grassy sites with hedges on either side for privacy.
Paekakariki Holiday Park, nightly fee = $12/person, or $36
But, the best part is that it was a short walk, thru a park to the beach. This beach is on the west coast of New Zealand - the Tasman Sea - it was beautiful, we had a great sunset, and it was Valentine's Day!
