From Thunderbirds to Stingrays

Wednesday March 2nd

Every holiday has at least one stressful segment, and this morning was ours. We got up nice and early and departed the camp site on time, and then sat in the Lower Hutt-to-Wellington rush hour traffic from 7:15 for an hour with our satnav helpfully pointing out our estimated arrival time moving further and further away from the 08:00 stated on our InterIslander tickets as being last check-in time. 

Fortunately they exaggerated and although we were late, we got on fine, and weren't even last to arrive, although we were virtually last to board and consequently also almost last off at the Picton end.

Goodbye Wellington, and North Island.

Around the headland, at the tip of South Island.

The trip itself was fabulous, especially at the South Island end when we sailed past islands and peninsulas of Queen Charlotte Sound, and the scenery was amazing (and pretty close-up at various points). We spent most of the first hour, of the three that the crossing takes, below decks, having a drink and chocolate bar (Dave couldn't resist having one described as a "fistful of awesome"). Concerns over possible seasickness came to nothing, but sea-legs were hard to come by, so we headed back on deck to enjoy the passing vistas.

There was cold wind, but it was lovely and sunny and a great experience, even making the earlier traffic stress a dim distant memory. On arrival we had a long wait to disembark, but once we did, it seemed South Island would continue to provide the delightful dramatic scenery and twisting roads we had come to expect.

The sister ferry, heading in the opposite direction out of Picton.

The top tells you that the sun wasn't necessarily the whole story.

We stopped in the small town of Havelock for lunch, in a little cafe called 'Apples for Charlotte' and both had the amazing pear, walnut and blue cheese salad, before heading to Motueka, and another Top10 holiday park. Along the way, bizarrely, we saw both a little red corvette and a pink cadillac! 

After more stunning scenery and dizzying corners and hills, we arrived and had an interesting chat with the nice Aussie girl on reception. She talked us into booking on the all-day kayaking experience in Abel Tasman, saying it covers the most beautiful bays, visits seals, includes lunch and there's a free pick-up from Top10; most critically she vouched for its suitability for first-time kayakers. Booking meant we extended our stay here for another night, so we planned ahead and organised our whale-watching trip in Kaikoura for Saturday.

We contacted and met up with Ben and Jackie and, following Ben's diversion to Countdown to buy crucial supplies (shampoo!), we went for a lovely Mexican meal at the Golden Bear brewery in Mapua. Jackie was on driving duty (first time in their newly hired car) so couldn't join the rest of us in our various boozy drinks choices. Fortunately, bearing in mind our 8am kayaking pick-up, most of the eating and drinking establishments in Mapua seemed to shut at about 9pm.

(Once again, all parties concerned seem to have glossed over Ben's "high jinx" in the car post-beverages, resulting in Jackie's less-than-amused reaction to suddenly steamed up windows on an unlit country road - Dave)

Thursday March 3rd

Our early morning ride took us and a few others to Kahu Kayaking's base of operations near Abel Tasman National Park (Kahu is maori for hawk). The park is the smallest and most popular National Park in New Zealand, but is strictly not accessible by vehicle, so you have to explore it by either walking or sea. The company we chose offered various combinations of both, but we decided, after some deliberation, on the full days kayaking.

At the base, we were divided into tour types, and our Marine Reserve tour was divided into two - our guide was to be a Maori guy called Keiran. They handed out windproof coats (just for the speedy water-taxi journey out), life jackets and paper bags full of lunch, and let us use their delightful compost loos before bussing us to the water taxi at Marahau. The whole area has really big tidal changes and it was low tide, so the taxi-boat was on the back of a tractor and trailer while we boarded and got driven out to deeper water. We then had a high-speed, exhilarating ride up the coast, dropped off some folk for their 'Swinger's Delight' day (no, not that kind of day, it was walking, crossing on a swing bridge and kayaking), and headed north to be dropped at Onetahuti. There we got our double kayaks, three for our party (plus Keiran in his single). We took off our wind-proofs and life-jackets and pulled on our neoprene 'skirts' which covered our chests and fanned out to seal us into our seats. Then life jackets back on. 

We also each had a dry-bag of thick plastic in which we put anything we wanted to keep dry (like cameras), and each kayak had a dry hold for our lunches, spare clothes, shoes etc. We also had a network of elastic rope in front of each seat to keep things we wanted handy - water bottles and sun cream mainly.

After a quick "you paddle like this", "back seat driver", "front person looks good", "left pedal turns left" lesson, we were off. Our group was Dave and I (Dave at the back), a nice German couple (Peter and Angela), and Kelly - a nice Californian girl - who was partnered with a Parisian guy with a waterproof camera called Patrick. 

First we headed up the bay in the shallows and saw a dozen or so stingrays. Keiran thought they were Eagle rays and they were (luckily as it was shallow and we were really close) quite small, only about 2-3 ft across. They were very easily visible in the clear waters and didn't seem phased by swimming round and under our kayaks. Very nice.

We then headed further north to Shag Harbour where a colony of fur seals live, often with pups at this time of year. They were hard to spot, being the same colour as many of the rocks they were lazing on, and quite few and far between, but we did see some including a couple of young pups and one adult in the water (although it didn't come particularly close to us sadly). We then turned south, enjoying our guides stories and being out at sea, as well as laughing at Patrick failing to paddle most of the time as he took photos and left Kelly to do all the work!

South past Tonga Island (Tonga being Maori for turtle), and the Tonga arches where the rock had been dissolved away to leave 3 or 4 big archways that can be kayaked through at higher tides. We carried on past Mosquito Bay (no mosquitoes) and stopped for an hour for our lunches in Bark Bay (I think). Patrick had forgotten to pick his up so had to share snacks others had brought along, but we all got amazing coffee, cappuccinos or mochaccinos as Keiran had a mobile Starbucks set in his kayak - seriously! Our paper bag picnics held a beef, cheese and salad cob, muffin, cookie and an apple - very nice, and eaten in a real slice of paradise. We had time to photograph, wander and swim.

Guide Kieran gives Kelly a welcome break from her gallic pal. 

Not a bad spot for a picnic.

We togged up again and paddled south past Sandfly Bay (no sandflies), and heard the story of old man Medland who built a house on an island he didn't own and which, 200 years ago, was incorporated into the National Park - he had to leave so put dynamite down his toilet and blew the whole house up. Only the loo seat remains on the island, but he has a beach (Medland's Beach) named after him.

At one point we went inland to a really beautiful backwater area where a river met the sea; a few photos were taken from kayak to kayak at this point, as we were all quite close. 

Patrick didn't rush to re-start paddling but he and Kelly caught us up a while later, and we watched Keiran do a cool trick of pulling fresh water from the sea. To start he had us all race towards a buoy in the bay (we won, 1-0 to the English), and then he showed us a pipe attached to the buoy which continuously pumps out fresh water from a clifftop spring. The pipework had been paid for by some local boat-owners to prevent them having to go ashore when they want fresh water. Brilliant!


Despite wind and waves we had a marvellous time, although Patrick's constant avoidance of paddling in order to take pictures was beginning to get on everyone's nerves; poor Kelly.
We passed a stand of Manuka trees (from whence the honey...) and an area renowned for being a habitat of the rare native pigeons (but didn't see any) and then had the wonderful fun of turning our kayaks into first a raft (by each holding onto the one next to us) and then, with the addition of a large square of fabric and some complicated instructions, a sailing boat. It was great fun moving the corners of the sail around to catch the wind and blow us to shore at great speed.

After loading everything (including the kayaks) back on our water-taxi, we headed to Marahua, arriving back around 4pm. Dave found a shop on site which, although it didn't have keyrings (something I may have a few of), did have brilliant orange Kahu t-shirts. Back at Top10, we heard Ben and Jackie were still in town, so we met up again for a couple of beers and nattering.

What a brilliant day, improved on by neither of us waking up crippled with pain from the unusual day of exercise.

For Ben and Jackie's blog of their trip, and the intersection of the two, read here. 

Link to Dave's New Zealand photo galleries (work in progress)

Last days on North Island

Monday February 29th - Leap day

Having established that we and the van were intact after the gales of the night before, we headed back to State Highway 2 and the road south towards Wellington where we had a couple of days available before our pre-booked ferry transfer across to South Island.

I think this was Dave's favourite road so far (I think you might be right - Dave), following the contours of the lovely countryside, right and left, up and down and with mile upon mile of amazing scenery (see the banner header for this blog). We stopped only once, near the top of  an amazing canyon, presumably volcanic in origin and signposted as the site of the Rimutaka Crossing memorial - a WWI march re-enacted in 2015. We also took a few videos of the drive (At some point I may try stitching a load of these together into some sort of funky speeded-up road movie. Maybe. - Dave).

It was only 80-odd km to Wellington, and Dave programmed the satnav to take us straight to the Weta Cave, which is on the Miramar peninsular. Of course, clever though they are, satnavs can't help you find somewhere to park*, and the Cave has no more than about a dozen spaces outside - all full. 

*(In fact they can be pretty flaky the rest of the time too, it seems. I lost count of the number of times "in three hundred metres, turn right" turned out to mean "in three hundred metres, keep going the way you're going, and for God's sake DON'T turn left", or similar. That why I still can't be doing with them at home - Dave)

The main road into Wellington

We found somewhere up the hill a good way and walked down to  be confronted by the three trolls from the Hobbit films; no doubting this was the place then. Luckily it was daylight, so the trolls were no trouble.

We booked for the Weta workshop tour (the next one was 1pm), and because we had time to spare, also booked onto the 11:45 Thunderbirds set tour. Weta are involved in the newest Thunderbirds Are Go TV series and after taking a few pictures of the wonderful trolls and a monitor lizard model (which Dave thought was from King Kong), we got a minibus trip to the nearby Thunderbirds lot. 

The tour was excellent; our small group was taken round a large warehouse by Kimmie, one of the Weta team, and initially shown some models and memorabilia from the original series (Weta boss Richard Taylor is a massive fan/collector, and apparently took Sylvia Anderson to the premier of the first Lord of the Rings film as his wife was too pregnant to attend). We got to see the sets they made for the series, there are varying sized versions of the iconic sets including Tracey Island, classic styled rocket launching sites and the updated Lady Penelope's home. These are used as the set on which the animated/computer generated characters are placed. Plenty of homage is paid to the original series (again Richard Taylor's influence I'm sure), and it's all made from everyday things which are donated or found lying around. Favourite items are sprues (the plastic frames which hold pieces out of normal model kits), mixtures of other unrelated models used to create new things, and previously used/made items remodelled and recycled. They had great boxes full of donated household goods and toys and will doubtless make good use of them in some way. 

The highlight, however, was the lemon-squeezer, sited in the Thunderbird 1 launch bay, to replicate that in the original series. Because the sets are so much bigger in the new show, the team had to mould and create an oversized lemon squeezer to fit the bill. 

No photos, naturally, but plenty of fun and informative.

The Weta workshop tour started just behind the reception/shop and our guide was one of the Weta painters, Mark. His job, when he's not on the tour-guide rota, is creating effects of texture and various substances on, mostly, plastic. This includes making things look old and worn, as well as making plastic look like all sorts of things including steel, gold, wood and rock. He talked us through some of the modelling processes and some of the hows and whys of the film business, including some insights into the use of body-scanners to make costumes for people who can't pop to New Zealand regularly for fittings, and how many stunt men it takes to make some stars' characters look good on film. 

Apparently Weta are branching away from just working on films, and now do things with museum exhibits (more later), charity events, sculptures  and anything else where modelling is useful. They have also started a video game section, which our guide was very happy about.

There were lots of amazing and familiar things on show, including some from Lords of the Rings, District 9, Chappie, and the Halo computer-game series - to name a few. The area of the tour is a small fraction of the whole site, which is full of people working hard. In the last bit of the tour we got to see a sculptor working on models for a future board-game based on the David Bowie film Labyrinth - he had made these on spec and sent them to a company in UK who he'd heard were considering this. We also got to see a lady painstakingly adding 'hairs' to a piece of silicon skin.

This was a fascinating glimpse into what they do, although much of it was familiar to me from my (admittedly many) hours of watching the Lord of the Rings DVD extras. 

We bought a few souvenirs (I was quite restrained, having already picked up my fair share of Hobbity bits), and then headed off to the centre of town to the next big draw and must-do on everyone's list for a visit to Wellington, according to all the guidebooks -  the Te Papa museum.

We parked up (easier than you might imagine as the whole country is geared up for the campervan-based tourist), and, having missed lunchtime, had a beer and massive bowl of wedges at Mac's on the quay. The museum is free and we took our time going round the Gallipoli exhibition - complete with massive and very impressive models by Weta (the human figures probably being close to 12' tall) - and lots of interactive displays with audio and well-made dioramas. A very good and moving depiction of the futility of war, especially in the WWI era, told through the personal stories of a few of those unlucky enough to be involved. We planned to come back the next day, after only having a short time to look at their giant squid and accompanying 3-D film.

March 1st, St David's Day

Instead of heading straight back to the museum, or to another of our considered options, Wellington Zoo, we decided to visit Zealandia, an eco-sanctuary and birdlife park about 5km from our campsite at Lower Hutt, and it was amazing. We spent about 4 hours wandering round re-established forest, other various habitat types and feeding areas. We saw loads of fabulous and rare native New Zealand birds including Takahe, Saddlebacks, Kaka parrots and a Tuatara lizard. There were also lots of more common native birds, Tui, bellbirds, NZ robins and whiteheads, pied shags and several duck species including scoup, Brown Teal and Paradise Shelducks. 

This is an amazing place with a brilliant plan to help allow the re-establishment of native birds in a massive area protected from local predators such as stoats, rats and dogs by serious fencing. There were longer walks further into the woods above the lovely lake (for another time), and a wonderful ethical café.

Kaka

A Saddleback (they are fast moving, and rarely sit still)

Whiteheads

A male California Quail...

...and his family

Takahe

A Tuatara

After lunch there, we returned to Te Papa and paid $15 to go into their Dreamworks exhibition. This was a series of models, drawings, pictures and interactive videos from all the Dreamworks films over the last 15 or more years - photography allowed (see the bottom of this blog update) J

We spent another couple of hours in various rooms - NZ photography since the 1880s was an excellent social history of the country and people, stuff about volcanoes and earthquakes featured heavily, and there was plenty about past and present natural history - all presented cleverly and in such a marvellous space its brilliant reputation entirely justified in my opinion. 

The coffee shop was worth a visit, and we also made a trip to Bush City - the attached but outside space which had a fake glowworm cave and funky suspension bridge. This is certainly somewhere which would deserve repeated visits, even if you lived locally, a lovely atmosphere and let's face it, free.

Because it was also in the 'must do' things for Wellington, we thought we should take in the Botanic Gardens via the cable car. We arrived late though, so ended up taking the cable car (which anyone who's been to Cairngorm would know is actually a funicular) down to Lambton Quay, had a brief walk round, and then headed back up. It had been a long day, so the Botanic Gardens is now on our list for a future trip.

Looking forward to tomorrow; we have a trip on the most scenic ferry in the world, and are aiming to meet up with our friends Ben and Jackie for tea and a couple of beers. Early alarm set.

Link to Dave's New Zealand photo galleries (work in progress)

Shrek - sketch design

Shrek - concept art

Shrek - model

Shrek - early design sketch

Kung-Fu Panda - early sketch

Monsters vs Aliens

From Rotorua to Napier

Saturday February 27th

Got up bright and early despite the fact that Dave had gone out late doing star photos in the low light pollution sky near the Blue Lake. We had breakfast and left the campsite for Te Puia, one of the local geothermal centres. Deciding against the guided tour, we used the enormous map to take ourselves round all the bubbling mud pools, dormant craters, boiling water and geysers. We waited around to see the Pohutu geyser do it's rather impressive thing with jets of steam at least 15m high for a good few minutes. Nice.

The Pohutu Geyser

The cafe was closed and we bypassed the main local craft and cultural areas in order to be on our way, having decided to drop into whatever took our fancy next along the road.

Weirdly, the next place that did, just a short drive down the highway was Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. We grabbed a bite (and Dave tried the Spearmint milkshake) and headed out for the 30 minute (shortest) walk round. it was most impressive; some similar mud pools and steamy areas as Te Puia, but a few delightfully colourful pools and one massively stunning area of multi-coloured pools/edges/terraces with a beautiful turquoise pool off to the side with a vivid orange/terracotta edging. The whole place was a bit whiffy after a while, but amazing and very photogenic, as was the brightly sulphur yellow Devil's Bath at the end of the path.

The Artist's Palette

The Champagne Pool

The Devil's Bath

We left Wai-O-Tapu and headed towards Taupo and yet another Top10 holiday park. A quick and easy drive, we stopped briefly on the way to check out Huka Falls where there are walks and opportunities to both cruise and jetboat, though we did none of those on this visit.

Huka Falls

We arrived in Taupo just after 2pm and decided to walk into town to see what was good to do. Bad decision; it was hot and a really long way an we were both struggling badly by the time we reached the river. We were able to book ourselves onto a cruise on Lake Taupo on a replica steamboat for 5pm and sat around watching the lake and the local ducks, black swans, and grebes.

The cruise was lovely with free booze (in seemingly unlimited supply judging by some of our fellow travellers' efforts) and plenty of pizza and then antipasti. The weather wasn't great, though more dull and drizzly than cold and wet, so not great for photos, and the lake itself is rather too big for scenic shots and charming vistas from on-board. The cruise was out to some Maori carvings, although these were strictly traditional only in design, having been done in the 1970s. There was a wonderful massive centrepiece surrounded by smaller symbolic pieces. The actual site was quite out of the way and only reachable by boat, but nearby was a big cliff which was obviously a draw for the local brave kids who were climbing to a range of heights and throwing themselves into the lake.

Apparently one of the stone-workers included an image of his naked girlfriend in this section.

Locals having fun at Lake Taupo

On return to town, we looked for somewhere to eat; our guidebook indicated something a bit special about the local McDonalds but we were saving that for breakfast. We chose a restaurant with space on an outside table (bearing in mind it was 7pm on Saturday) and sadly it started to rain. Luckily we were under a very protective canopy so stayed put. I chose prime beef on a hot stone - the first time I've had a meal delivered with cooking and eating instructions! The idea is that the stone is red hot, the beef is in one piece and you cut bits off and cook them as you  want them. It was gorgeous and seemed fitting on our day of geothermal splendour.

We were tired, and in the persisting rain, decided to get a taxi back to the campsite. I for one was showing a few signs of insufficient suncream application, so an early night was had.

Sunday February 28th

Neither of us was overly-impressed with Taupo as a destination, aside from the lake area - which is very focussed on activities and backpackers, there didn't seem to be a huge amount on offer. We headed out to have breakfast in the quirkiest McCafes around - one with an actual DC10 parked on one side. 

We had a lovely meal (such as you can at McD's - Dave) and used their wi-fi, and then watched a bit of the junior section of the Iron-Man competition which had a few of the roads closed and lots of the locals out early. We didn't see any adult competitors, presumably they'd come later. 

Junior Ironmen

We managed to navigate our way out of town and along the lakeside for a few kilometres, but the lake was about 100km all round, so we decide to head back towards our planned destination for today - Napier. We stopped off at a sailing club to take some photos of the lake from somewhere other than the town.

Lake Taupo. As seen from somewhere other than the town. 

We reached Napier around 1:30pm and found parking on the seafront. We walked into town, and it was just lovely, truly the Art Deco centre I had been led to believe. The tops of almost all the shops, as well as most of the town centre's important buildings - the cinema/theatre, public office, Daily Telegraph building - were all immaculate if understated Art Deco style. Throughout the town there were a few nice statues and sculptures and some lovely lettering on signs as well as embossed/tiled on pavements; altogether a real treat, with lots of photographs taken (see bottom of page).

Napier

We had a lovely late lunch, stopping in a cafe called Ujaz for salad and a falafel wrap. It was pushing 30 degrees, a bit too hot for us really, so we walked back to the van, stuck the A/C on and drove off towards Masterton (more than half way to our next major stop, Wellington). As we passed though miles and miles of vineyards, we checked the brochures and picked a DOC site which seemed a good option for an overnight stay. We only needed power to recharge the main battery every other night, and only the microwave and power points would be unavailable, so it wasn't exactly going to be slumming it! There was no reception, just an honesty box for the $12 charge, so we parked up, had tea, took a walk along the river at one end of the site, and settled in for the night surrounded by the Tararua Forest and its noisy bugs. 

With no light pollution, the sky was really dark after a beautiful sunset, but during the night the wind really began to get up and we had a good couple of hours of being shaken about enough to keep us both awake.

An Aside : Birds we have seen so far. 

The first few days were weird; all we saw were birds we commonly see at home - sparrows, pigeons, gulls, mallards - but after a few days we started to see some native birds as well as some we were familiar with from our trip to Australia.

• Tui - biggish black birds also known as parson birds for the white sacs they have round their throats
• Myna - brown and black birds with white wing stripes and a comical walk. not to be mistaken for the 'talking' mynah birds
• Bell birds - like larger versions of greenfinches but with one song which sounds like R2D2
• Australian harriers - lots of these big brown hawks soaring over the roads and fields
• Butcher birds - big crow-like birds but with the stunning black and white colour patches of our magpies
• Flycatchers - saw at least one at on a telegraph wire in Northland
• Black swans - swans. But black.
• Little grebes, maybe - in the estuary at Taupo
• Lots of different types of shags and cormorants 
• Loads of herons, smaller than our grey herons
• Kiwi - it might seem like a cheat, but for a rare nocturnal bird, the only realistic chance of seeing one is in captivity. At Te Puia they had a lovely night-house with two of them; they're bigger than I expected, look furry rather than feathery, are quite quick on their feet and were busy actively rooting around in the bark floor in the infra-red lit enclosure with their massive long beaks (unless you're a QI fan!)
• Weka - probably, near Russell, with it's chicken-like legs and brown feathers
• Pukako - or swamphens are a bit like much bigger moorhens but a mixture of black and blue with a bright red beak. My favourites.
• Oystercatchers - specifically these are called 'variable' oystercatchers which is odd as they are totally black apart from their red beaks and eyes.
• Pied stilts - a pair seen wading near the sailing club we stopped at outside Taupo
• Gannets - during the Bay of Islands cruise, along with Dave's Blue Penguin sighting

Six Sisters, Napier

Art Deco window detail

Art Deco sculpture

Napier theatre

Iconic Daily Telegraph building, Napier

Detail of Daily Telegraph building

Link to Dave's New Zealand photo galleries (work in progress)