New Zealand, 2008 — Part 2
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Golden Bay and Farewell Cape
Takaka Hill, from a cycling guide: a half mile
vertical gain in six or seven miles, and that's the easy side!
On Monday, March 10, we left Rose's and
climbed Takaka Hill. It turned out not to be as hard as we'd expected
— just long. The views were marvelous, and there were some high
clouds, keeping it cool enough for climbing.
 View from 400 metres — half way to the top of Takaka Hill |
 Part way down the far side — Golden Bay barely visible, upper right |
Into the valley below Takaka Hill; road to village
winds to right
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At the village of Takaka, we checked into a backpackers, Kiwiana, and it was so nice that we almost stayed two nights. However, we finally decided to push on Tuesday morning to Farewell Cape, the northernmost part of the South Island.
Passing Collingwood on the road to Farewell Cape |
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We rode out to the Information Center/Cafe at Farewell Spit and took a short walk part way onto the base of the spit. The long spit itself is a protected wildlife refuge, accessible only to those who pay — you guessed it — for an expensive guided tour.
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 Left: just off the road to Farewell Cape Above: On the triangle walk, to the base of Farewell Split and the beach |
On the beach
| The winds at Farewell Cape and Farewell Split come straight off the ocean, and they can be fierce. You can see the sand blowing in this photo. They continued strong the next day. |
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Then we rode back to The Innlet in Pakawau, one of the top rated backpackers in the area. Their regular rooms were full, but they let us have a little cottage — usually $160 — for half rate since there were only two of us. It was ideal, with a good kitchen, cozy living room, downstairs bedroom and lofts, and we stayed two nights.
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Our cottage in the woods
at The Innlet — pretty fancy
for a "backpackers"
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On Wednesday, March 12, we rode back out to Farewell Cape for the day. There were huge flocks of black swans in the bay beside the road. Below is another photo of beach beside the road, on the way from the Innlet to the cape.
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We spent most of the day on a wonderful but difficult walk — the 12-kilometre Hilltop Walk, from Wharariki beach, over Farewell Cape, and back to the base of Farewell Spit. Local tourist literature claimed that we would see some of the most dramatic landscape and seascape in all of New Zealand, and for a change the tourist literature was not exaggerating. It was unforgettable. Which is a good thing because on the way, as we were passing the camera back and forth to take photos of some trees, Wally dropped the camera. It died. So we must remember it in our minds' eyes, and in words.
One of the last photos our camera took in its short life |
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We left the bikes at the Farewell Spit Information Centre/Paddle Crab Cafe and hitched a ride to the beginning of the walk to Wharariki Beach. The weather was clear and sunny, but the wind was fierce. The surf was wild and sand was blowing over the beach. The Hilltop Walk climbed away from the beach and onto high pastures that ended at sheer cliffs overlooking the sea. The hills rolled hundreds of feet up and down, a demanding walk but an incredibly rewarding one. Looking back over the green pastures and high cliffs, with the wind roaring, the sea far below, mountains in the distance ... words fail. We'll try to remember even without photos. The only downside of the day — besides the broken camera — was that Barbara's knee gave her some trouble on the last part of the demanding walk. It had been a couple of years since she had serious pain when walking downhill, but the problem reappeared because of the rigours of this walk.
We were somewhat sad to leave the Innlet and the Farewell Cape area on Thursday, but we had a dinner date near Pohara, a few kilometres from Takaka, with another Servas family whom we were eager to meet. We checked into possibly our favorite Backpackers yet, The Nook in Pohara, and then headed for Derrry and Helen Kingston's, a few kilometres farther, beyond Ligar Bay. Helen is a recently retired doctor. Derry has been a cartograper/agronomist, but he is now a walker (a "Heaphy Trek Facilitator") whom local folks call "the Kingston Flyer." Typically, he will drop campers at one end of the Heaphy Track, shuttle their cars to the far end, and then walk home over the track. It's a coast-to-coast hike that normally takes four or five days. Derry does it in less than two — hence the nickname. And he is 62. (The real Kingston Flyer is a steam train that still runs, as a tourist attraction, here in New Zealand.)
Derry and Helen had lived in Rhodesia and Malawi, which was one of the reasons we were eager to meet them. It was fun talking over our days in Africa, but it was hard to take our minds off the extraordinary view from their home — low afternoon light glinting off distant Ligar Bay and illuminating the leaves and fronds of the trees and ferns that nearly surrounded their beautiful, hillside home. It was an extraordinary evening with great people.
We stayed another night at The Nook so that we could spend a good part of Friday on Tata Beach, a terrific swimming place that Derry recommended. We also walked in The Grove, a short trail but one of amazing diversity, with trees growing in a limestone grotto above huge rocks, their roots descending over rock faces and through chimneys to reach the ground.
In the evening, we had a chance to talk with Stephanie and Des, owners of The Nook. They are both intrepid travelers who bought this backpackers as a step toward settling down. Des is a lover of old British motorcycles, and they have ridden across North America and from New Orleans to Argentina. Most recently, Des and his son Steven, with another friend, wrote a book about their motorcycle trip from China, through Mongolia, and all the way to somewhere in Europe. We forget the exact route, but the book is entitled "The Last Hurrah," and we'll try to find it when we get home. Des is a wonderful guy and a great conversationalist.
On Saturday, March 15, we rode back over Takaka Hill. This was the steeper side, so again we feared it would be terribly difficult. In fact it was onlyt a little slower than the first climb, but the day was very hot. We stopped for real fruit ice cream somewhere near the bottom and made it back to Rose's in Kaiteriteri in plenty of time for a swim.
Sunday, March 16, we set out from Rose's for Nelson. We rode through Lower and Upper Moutere. It's a beautiful area of rolling hills, but unfortunately there are areas where lumber companies have raped the forests, and we could see not signs of replanting. The most interesting stop along the way — of which we have no photos — was at the Riverside Community. Founded by conscientious objectors during World War II, this rural commune has endured for over 60 years. A good deal of the community's income comes from orchards and organic gardents, but they also operate an exceedingly attractive cafe. We bought a book about the history of the community, in lieu of photos.
We didn't quite make it to Nelson. There was a good deal of traffic around Richmond, only 50 kilometres or so along the way, and we decided to stop for the night at a rather nice camping ground that was part of a country club catering mostly to retired folks. In the morning, we aimed to blast through Nelson and get well on the way toward Havelock and Picton. However we were delayed again. First, we made a bunch of telephone calls in an effort to find someone who might repair the camera. It was hopeless, but we did learn about a shop only a few blocks away in Richmond where we bought a used Olympus for a good price. That took a while. Then, entering Nelson, a small part failed on Wally's bike. It wasn't a big deal, but by the time we found a hardware store in Nelson with the needed bolt, it was getting too late to go farther, so we stopped again — after an amazing 15 kilometres!
But now we have a camera, so photos will keep appearing as we continue from Nelson east across the northen end of South Island, toward Havelock, Marlborough Sounds, and Picton.