To North Island

Lewis Pass Reflecting Lake

In improving weather we made our way back across the northern end of South Island, finding some beautiful locations to camp, and meeting some interesting people en route. After two days sheltering in a small chalet while it rained for 48 hours we headed towards the Lewis Pass, one of the more northerly passes across the main spine of mountains which runs the length of South Island. This area is a mining area with old coal and gold mines. Some early arrivals at a campsite at the end of a 15km dirt road turned out to be current day gold prospectors.


Lake Tennyson Campsite

Lake Tennyson

Despite the area being a National Park the public are allowed to pan for gold in the streams as long as they only use hand tools. Three men arrived and we chatted for a while before they set off up stream to their preferred site. One seemed to live full time at the site, and the other two come up most weekends and sometimes mid week to try their luck. By all accounts they claim to find a reasonable amount - real characters. After visiting a nearby ghost gold mining town we stayed in Reefton, the first town in New Zealand to have mains electricity.
Whilst the Lewis Pass is not as high or spectacular as Arthurs Pass it provided a beautiful view of the snow covered mountains in the reflecting lake. the town of Hanmer is famed for its hot springs, but until we arrived did not realise there were miles of accessible dirt roads leading off into the mountains behind.

Recent snowfall had coated the mountains but we drove up in beautiful sunshine and spent the following three days climbing some of the easier peaks including Mount Isabelle, and camping by the most beautiful and remote Lake Tennyson. Such a peaceful and awe inspiring location.



View from Mount Isabelle

Kaikora - where the mountians meet the sea

Raised coast at Kaikora

Kaikora on the eastern coast is a haven for wildlife as it sits on a small bay between snow covered mountains and the sea and an ocean trench runs very close to the coast here. In 2016 they suffered a large earthquake which cut off the town by road for a month due to huge landslides along the coast, and also raised the shoreline by around 5m over a 110 km length. Quite awesome.

Wandering Albatross

Dusky Dolphin

Having missed the albatross on Otago peninsula we took a boat trip out to the ocean trench and had fabulous views of some of the larger ocean going sea birds including the magnificent wandering albatross with a wing span of over 3 metres. The boat captain even spotted a pod of dusky dolpin and made a detour for us to get closer. The dolphin were leaping high out of the water in what is apparently a mating ritual, but quite spectacular.
From Kaikora we made our way north to the Marlborough Sounds where we relaxed for a few days enjoying the remote and inaccessible deeply indented coastline. This relatively small area is so indented it contains around 20% of the whole coastline of New Zealand.

Marlborough Sounds

North coast beach

With only a few weeks till we leave we sadly left South Island and crossed back to the North Island on a  beautiful calm afternoon, enjoying the long cruise from Picton through the tree covered sounds.

 

Leaving South Island