Golden Bay area, NZ, 25 Feb 09
The following day, it was bright sunshine when we woke up which made us feel so much better. We were getting so depressed with the rain, Janet said that it's the one thing that may put her off coming back here, i.e. when it rains, it just looks and feels too much like England. Rain is definitely a lot more likely in NZ than it is in most of Australia. Well, NZ is very very green, and usually 'green' and 'rain' go together, let's face it...
To make up for the fast pace of yesterday we decided to just drive at leisure down to Golden Bay and go to Farewell Spit in particular, a bird sanctuary that has worldwide recognition as over 100 different species of birds gather there at some times of the year.
We set off at 10am and I must say that the drive to Collingwood and beyond, from Marahau (our base) was spectacular. I know I have been a bit negative about NZ in my last few posts, but this was quite something. VERY pretty indeed... every corner was a 'calendar shot'. It didn't just look like the Lake District but more like the very best of the Lake District. The light was just right and the road took us really high up before we came down towards the other coastline (the road was a little bit too twisty for our liking too, hard work for the driver).
We stopped at Takaka village for a break, only one main street but it was really quaint and we quite enjoyed strolling there. Very arty type of place too, beautiful coffee shops designed with flair. But by the time we left, the dreaded drizzle had returned, yet again. By then it was really starting to upset us. Our next 'must see' stop, Pupu Springs, was one of my 'top 3' items on my NZ list. I really wanted to see this in perfect light -- the reason is that Pupu is the largest spring in the whole of Australasia and that it has the purest water in the world. The water colour, on a good day, is just an incredible blue... but when we set off and got to the Pupu car park, it looked so grey that we decided to come back later rather than waste time trekking 30mins to the spring pool.
But for a while the weather kept getting worse so we even stopped at Collingwood, in an internet cafe, and I updated my blog for 30 mins as we were hoping that the weather might clear a bit by then. No such luck. We decided to press on regardless, and got to Farewell Spit for 2pm. We first had a quick bite to eat at the only coffee shop in that area (something with 'crab' in the name). They even had French waiters there, in the middle of nowhere... odd (for me). By the time we got the said coffee shop though, the weather had started to improve, thankfully. The journey there, was, yet again, as beautiful as the destination. I could have asked Janet to stop the car every 10 minutes, really... lots of beautiful wild flowers too - trees covered in orange, red, etc. On one particular stretch we followed the coast line on her right, but there was this lush countryside on my left, with many sheep and hills (like cone shapes, very distinguistive hills) and beautiful fern trees... it was just idyllic. With a few dinosaurs, it could have looked pretty exotic too. NZ is very high on the 'prettiness' factor, granted. I felt that this was probably was one of the most gorgeous places I'd seen in NZ so far. Well worth the effort to drive up there.
We decided against walking on the actual Farewell Spit though as we could see from the top of the hill (where the coffee shop stood) that it wasn't packed with birds early afternoon. Instead we opted for a couple of recommended drives and hikes that our host at the Ocean View Chalets had suggested. The first one, 'Cape Farewell' wasn't anything special, but we only 'wasted' 10 mins there and back. The second one, Pitcher's Point, was totally delightful. It took you across a hill top, with stupendous views for miles on end and eventually led you to a perfect beach with white sand dunes, a stunning crystal clear stream fringed by many palm trees and fern trees AND, most special of all, to a 'seal pup nursery' :) This was the unexpected treat and Janet, who had walked ahead (at my suggestion as I wanted to take many photos since I was quite impressed by the scenery) had got talking to a guy who mentioned that he'd been here the day before and seen seal pups. As she's so crazy for seals this was the most memorable moment of the holiday so far for her - Janet heaven.
When I got there, she waved at me to come down and then I understood why she looked so excited... there were 4 seal pups swimming in a small water hole (water that had got trapped when the tide receeded) and they were having a real fun time chasing each other and hopping in and out of the water as they do (dolphin style) or gliding gracefully under water. It was quite a sweet experience. They were totally unphased by the dozen tourists taking photos though everybody was quite respectful and didn't try to run after them or anything like that.
I told Janet she should go knee deep in the water though in case they come closer and they did. One came to smell her feet and when she put her hand in the water one even came to smell it and it felt like a kiss :) This is one moment that she will treasure forever... As a lady said 'you could get your 'swim with the seals experience there and then and save $115'... indeed. And this is what frustrated me the most actually... we both had all our snorkelling gear in the car boot, but not with us at this moment in time, to walk back to the car would have taken at least 40 mins there and back, so: not an option, and I couldn't strip and swim naked with them (I think I would have done if it wasn't for the fear of shocking people and/or getting fined for doing so !)... but I would have wanted my mask to be able to watch them dance in the water. That kind of frustration, for me, almost spoilt the moment because I had so loved swimming with seals in the Galapagos, it had been my highlight there... and so to stay put on the shore was just sooo painful.... As a consolation prize I got a few good shots of one seal posing on the rocks, looking straight at me. We hadn't seen much wildlife at all in NZ so this was extra special.
We had actually planned to just go for a short stroll on the beach and leave by 4pm but this was such an unexpected delight and these little pups looked SO carefree playing, that we stood there well over an hour watching them. They were mesmerising. Then two more, that no one had seen before as they were hidden in a kind of rock crevasse, came out too and joined the others - six pups all in all, wow. Two adult seals, who must have been the baby-sitters, were kind of watching from a distance I'm told, but I never saw them.
At 5pm I had to remind Janet that, reluctanctly, we'd need to make a move if we wanted to get back to Marahau before night time, especially as I also wanted to see Pupu in daylight and we had to allow an hour or so for this.
It was beautifully warm and sunny on the beach but didn't seem to be quite as glorious inland unfortunately (we could see the dark clouds in the distance). There were some lovely shots that I had wanted to take on the way to Farewell Spit, that we had put off 'until later, in case the weather clears' but you still couldn't take them 2nd time round if you wanted to do the scenery justice. We tried our best but our cameras struggled. Had it been a bright day, I could have taken enough shots for a 24 month calendar in one hour, easily.
When we got to Pupu, the weather was even worse at 5:40pm than it had been at 1:30pm. We got out of the car anyway, with umbrella, waterproof poncho, raincoat and boots... we hiked to the spring (lovely walkboards -- another good thing about NZ is that their tracks are really good quality) but the water just looked grey but for a hint of blue in the middle. Totally disappointing... totally gutting too. But at least I'd seen it so could cross it off my list. It was still a pleasant little walk and I even saw what seemed to resemble the back of a wallaby hopping away in the bush. Same colour, same tail, same maneurism... but not really wallaby territory I'd have thought. They enjoy plains more than bushes. You can't really hop around in a bush. There are 6 species of wallabies that have been imported to NZ and 4 adopted quite well... I can't think of what else it'd have been.
The great thing about NZ is that there are NO snakes here at all... no crocs, no box jelly fish, no real nasties basically and all the people that we have met have been SO nice that we do feel quite safe here. The most annoying thing you will find here to make up for this total lack of wildlife danger, are sand-flies !
We then drove on pretty much without stopping so that we'd be back at Marahau before dark. Dark here is at about 8.40pm late Feb. We knew that the road ahead would be full of twists and turns with steep cliff on one side and we really didn't want to drive it at night. As it happens, as the weather was so dull, there were very low clouds and of course, when it came to driving up and up and up into the hills, we did find ourselves in the clouds so it slowed us right down. Poor Janet, it must have been exhausting driving and as I can't drive, we can't even go 50/50.
We had dinner in the other restaurant, a kind of lovely pub (but not pub in the English sense really, only civilised people there, no one loud or drunk) overlooking a kind of meadow / wetland area. At dusk it looked quite serene.
Janet was starting to feel a bit under the weather at this point (we'd been too cold two days in a row and I wear 2-3 layers every day but she was only wearing shorts) so we had an early night. Well, she did. I stayed up till 11pm to review all my photos and delete the ones I didn't like any more as two of my memory cards were full. I deleted 200 photos that I no longer wanted and felt it'd been time well spent.
I have started to do a 'botanical' project, aiming to try and photograph as many types of flowers as I can... They also have a few beautiful birds here but that's a lot harder to capture on film. The one bird that seems to be easier to see than the famous kiwi and that may be unique to NZ as well is the pukeko. All blue, the size of a small chicken, red beak and it's a bird that ornates a lot of NZ crafts -- coasters, plates, etc. Its chicks are a little ball of blue fluff on top of long red sticks and make a funny sight we've been told. But we've only seen the adult version so far -- quite a few of them actually.
The following day, it was bright sunshine when we woke up which made us feel so much better. We were getting so depressed with the rain, Janet said that it's the one thing that may put her off coming back here, i.e. when it rains, it just looks and feels too much like England. Rain is definitely a lot more likely in NZ than it is in most of Australia. Well, NZ is very very green, and usually 'green' and 'rain' go together, let's face it...
To make up for the fast pace of yesterday we decided to just drive at leisure down to Golden Bay and go to Farewell Spit in particular, a bird sanctuary that has worldwide recognition as over 100 different species of birds gather there at some times of the year.
We set off at 10am and I must say that the drive to Collingwood and beyond, from Marahau (our base) was spectacular. I know I have been a bit negative about NZ in my last few posts, but this was quite something. VERY pretty indeed... every corner was a 'calendar shot'. It didn't just look like the Lake District but more like the very best of the Lake District. The light was just right and the road took us really high up before we came down towards the other coastline (the road was a little bit too twisty for our liking too, hard work for the driver).
We stopped at Takaka village for a break, only one main street but it was really quaint and we quite enjoyed strolling there. Very arty type of place too, beautiful coffee shops designed with flair. But by the time we left, the dreaded drizzle had returned, yet again. By then it was really starting to upset us. Our next 'must see' stop, Pupu Springs, was one of my 'top 3' items on my NZ list. I really wanted to see this in perfect light -- the reason is that Pupu is the largest spring in the whole of Australasia and that it has the purest water in the world. The water colour, on a good day, is just an incredible blue... but when we set off and got to the Pupu car park, it looked so grey that we decided to come back later rather than waste time trekking 30mins to the spring pool.
But for a while the weather kept getting worse so we even stopped at Collingwood, in an internet cafe, and I updated my blog for 30 mins as we were hoping that the weather might clear a bit by then. No such luck. We decided to press on regardless, and got to Farewell Spit for 2pm. We first had a quick bite to eat at the only coffee shop in that area (something with 'crab' in the name). They even had French waiters there, in the middle of nowhere... odd (for me). By the time we got the said coffee shop though, the weather had started to improve, thankfully. The journey there, was, yet again, as beautiful as the destination. I could have asked Janet to stop the car every 10 minutes, really... lots of beautiful wild flowers too - trees covered in orange, red, etc. On one particular stretch we followed the coast line on her right, but there was this lush countryside on my left, with many sheep and hills (like cone shapes, very distinguistive hills) and beautiful fern trees... it was just idyllic. With a few dinosaurs, it could have looked pretty exotic too. NZ is very high on the 'prettiness' factor, granted. I felt that this was probably was one of the most gorgeous places I'd seen in NZ so far. Well worth the effort to drive up there.
We decided against walking on the actual Farewell Spit though as we could see from the top of the hill (where the coffee shop stood) that it wasn't packed with birds early afternoon. Instead we opted for a couple of recommended drives and hikes that our host at the Ocean View Chalets had suggested. The first one, 'Cape Farewell' wasn't anything special, but we only 'wasted' 10 mins there and back. The second one, Pitcher's Point, was totally delightful. It took you across a hill top, with stupendous views for miles on end and eventually led you to a perfect beach with white sand dunes, a stunning crystal clear stream fringed by many palm trees and fern trees AND, most special of all, to a 'seal pup nursery' :) This was the unexpected treat and Janet, who had walked ahead (at my suggestion as I wanted to take many photos since I was quite impressed by the scenery) had got talking to a guy who mentioned that he'd been here the day before and seen seal pups. As she's so crazy for seals this was the most memorable moment of the holiday so far for her - Janet heaven.
When I got there, she waved at me to come down and then I understood why she looked so excited... there were 4 seal pups swimming in a small water hole (water that had got trapped when the tide receeded) and they were having a real fun time chasing each other and hopping in and out of the water as they do (dolphin style) or gliding gracefully under water. It was quite a sweet experience. They were totally unphased by the dozen tourists taking photos though everybody was quite respectful and didn't try to run after them or anything like that.
I told Janet she should go knee deep in the water though in case they come closer and they did. One came to smell her feet and when she put her hand in the water one even came to smell it and it felt like a kiss :) This is one moment that she will treasure forever... As a lady said 'you could get your 'swim with the seals experience there and then and save $115'... indeed. And this is what frustrated me the most actually... we both had all our snorkelling gear in the car boot, but not with us at this moment in time, to walk back to the car would have taken at least 40 mins there and back, so: not an option, and I couldn't strip and swim naked with them (I think I would have done if it wasn't for the fear of shocking people and/or getting fined for doing so !)... but I would have wanted my mask to be able to watch them dance in the water. That kind of frustration, for me, almost spoilt the moment because I had so loved swimming with seals in the Galapagos, it had been my highlight there... and so to stay put on the shore was just sooo painful.... As a consolation prize I got a few good shots of one seal posing on the rocks, looking straight at me. We hadn't seen much wildlife at all in NZ so this was extra special.
We had actually planned to just go for a short stroll on the beach and leave by 4pm but this was such an unexpected delight and these little pups looked SO carefree playing, that we stood there well over an hour watching them. They were mesmerising. Then two more, that no one had seen before as they were hidden in a kind of rock crevasse, came out too and joined the others - six pups all in all, wow. Two adult seals, who must have been the baby-sitters, were kind of watching from a distance I'm told, but I never saw them.
At 5pm I had to remind Janet that, reluctanctly, we'd need to make a move if we wanted to get back to Marahau before night time, especially as I also wanted to see Pupu in daylight and we had to allow an hour or so for this.
It was beautifully warm and sunny on the beach but didn't seem to be quite as glorious inland unfortunately (we could see the dark clouds in the distance). There were some lovely shots that I had wanted to take on the way to Farewell Spit, that we had put off 'until later, in case the weather clears' but you still couldn't take them 2nd time round if you wanted to do the scenery justice. We tried our best but our cameras struggled. Had it been a bright day, I could have taken enough shots for a 24 month calendar in one hour, easily.
When we got to Pupu, the weather was even worse at 5:40pm than it had been at 1:30pm. We got out of the car anyway, with umbrella, waterproof poncho, raincoat and boots... we hiked to the spring (lovely walkboards -- another good thing about NZ is that their tracks are really good quality) but the water just looked grey but for a hint of blue in the middle. Totally disappointing... totally gutting too. But at least I'd seen it so could cross it off my list. It was still a pleasant little walk and I even saw what seemed to resemble the back of a wallaby hopping away in the bush. Same colour, same tail, same maneurism... but not really wallaby territory I'd have thought. They enjoy plains more than bushes. You can't really hop around in a bush. There are 6 species of wallabies that have been imported to NZ and 4 adopted quite well... I can't think of what else it'd have been.
The great thing about NZ is that there are NO snakes here at all... no crocs, no box jelly fish, no real nasties basically and all the people that we have met have been SO nice that we do feel quite safe here. The most annoying thing you will find here to make up for this total lack of wildlife danger, are sand-flies !
We then drove on pretty much without stopping so that we'd be back at Marahau before dark. Dark here is at about 8.40pm late Feb. We knew that the road ahead would be full of twists and turns with steep cliff on one side and we really didn't want to drive it at night. As it happens, as the weather was so dull, there were very low clouds and of course, when it came to driving up and up and up into the hills, we did find ourselves in the clouds so it slowed us right down. Poor Janet, it must have been exhausting driving and as I can't drive, we can't even go 50/50.
We had dinner in the other restaurant, a kind of lovely pub (but not pub in the English sense really, only civilised people there, no one loud or drunk) overlooking a kind of meadow / wetland area. At dusk it looked quite serene.
Janet was starting to feel a bit under the weather at this point (we'd been too cold two days in a row and I wear 2-3 layers every day but she was only wearing shorts) so we had an early night. Well, she did. I stayed up till 11pm to review all my photos and delete the ones I didn't like any more as two of my memory cards were full. I deleted 200 photos that I no longer wanted and felt it'd been time well spent.
I have started to do a 'botanical' project, aiming to try and photograph as many types of flowers as I can... They also have a few beautiful birds here but that's a lot harder to capture on film. The one bird that seems to be easier to see than the famous kiwi and that may be unique to NZ as well is the pukeko. All blue, the size of a small chicken, red beak and it's a bird that ornates a lot of NZ crafts -- coasters, plates, etc. Its chicks are a little ball of blue fluff on top of long red sticks and make a funny sight we've been told. But we've only seen the adult version so far -- quite a few of them actually.
posted by Sylvie at 5:56 AM
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