Our travels

15th February 2025 at 14:14 - Damian

Marlborough Sounds kayak. Day 1 of 4.

Early start from Whatamango DOC campsite with glassy waters. Tide was out so a long trek with the trolley to get to the water.

The Interislander passed us just before we crossed the channel. They move a lot faster than us so timing is important.

It only took 3 hours to paddle 20km to Blumine Island.

So far the mornings have been calm and the wind picks up in the afternoon which suits our natural schedule.

So many jellyfish! Had to stop paddling so as not to break them.

Our route from Whatamango to Blumine Island. 20km.

The Interislander crossing in front of us.

14th February 2025 at 13:17 - Damian

We have a new winner; Rays Place in Havelock. $6 for "two scoops".

"Two scoops"

14th February 2025 at 12:19 - Damian

Stingray

13th February 2025 at 17:46 - Damian

Yesterday we paddled over to Lochmara Lodge. A 16km round trip. Glassy water on the way over in the morning but the wind picked up and it was a choppy (though thankfully tailwind) return in the afternoon.

Today we started earlier and did a 9km loop around The Grove and Anakiwa hugging the coastline. Saw a few beautiful stingrays including one that was having a good old time munching on something right on the shoreline of the camp. Lots of jellyfish, too.

Lunch at Lochmara.

View over Lochmara Bay from the Lodge

Glassy water near Anakiwa this morning.

Anakiwa and a couple of the Outward Bound boats.

13th February 2025 at 17:38 - Damian

Smooth sailing on Bluebridge on Tuesday.

We met up with George and Emily for toasted sandwiches in Picton before moving on to our DOC campsite in Momorangi where they joined us for the night.

It's a pretty decent campsite with hot showers for $1 and good access to a sheltered part of Queen Charlotte Sound.

We're here for three nights and taking the opportunity to poke around a bit in the kayak with a couple of easy day trips.

Our spot at Momorangi DOC campground

George and Emily joined us for dinner. They did fried potatoes, we did mushroom burgers and pastel de natas. They tried to head out Kenepuru Drive the following day but it was closed so they're heading south.

Our camping spot is up the hill a bit. Next time we'll book closer to the waterfront.

10th February 2025 at 11:03 - Damian

New favourite bakery: The Clareville Bakery near Carterton. We got an Angus Steak Cheese and Jalapeno each as well as a ciabatta.

Half-nibbled Angus steak, cheese and jalapeno pie

Cabinet food

Pastries

Breads

10th February 2025 at 07:48 - Damian

Castlepoint

10th February 2025 at 07:46 - Damian

Castle Rock looking north

Castle Rock looking south

9th February 2025 at 18:39 - Damian

Castlepoint. Fantastic geology and uncharacteristic warm sea breezes.

Looking back over the lighthouse and cove from the point.

Kekeno (NZ fur seal)

Nice clean little surf breaks. Not too many surfers. We went for a swim.

9th February 2025 at 12:39 - Damian

Homemade (vanmade?) Boston pizza in Woodville.

9th February 2025 at 06:38 - Damian

Sunrise in Haumoana.

8th February 2025 at 20:06 - Damian

Castlepoint sounds nice for tomorrow. I always wanted to go there for the surf in another life.

One of the 100 day walks is in Castlepoint. Looks lovely.

8th February 2025 at 16:48 - Damian

Pretty cruisey drive to Hastings today. We were booked in for self-containment recertification here but had time to kill so visited the historic Otatara Pā site which was pretty interesting.

Post recertification (which went smoothly) we've come back to the Clifton Road Reserve where we first stayed back in 2021. It's a great location right on the beach alongside a cycleway with access to wineries and into Hastings town.

The beach at Clifton Road Reserve.

View of the historic Pā site.

A locust.

8th February 2025 at 07:51 - Damian

Lake Taupō nice and calm after last night's storm.

This is as close as we'll get as far as swimming goes today. It would be nice to be more adventurous.

7th February 2025 at 19:48 - Damian

We packed up and left for the South Island (Part The Two - Kayak Edition) this morning.

On the way we stopped in Ngāruawāhia to walk the summit track to Hakarimata which was nice and shady on a sweltering day with incredible views over the Waikato from the top.

We ran into a tropical thunderstorm approaching Taupō just as we were arriving at the Whakaipō DOC camp. The dirt roads turned to rivers and people camped here were dealing with collapsed awnings and wet tents.

Tomorrow Hastings.

The view from the tower at the top of the summit. Ngāruawāhia and the Waikato in the distance.

1359 steps to the summit (plus a few for the tower at the end). We've lost a lot of our walking fitness in the last couple of months!

A recent purchase which we'll use to act as a checklist whenever we're passing an interesting walk. 100 of them.

4th February 2025 at 12:58 - Damian

We're off South again on Friday for two months.

This time we've removed the bike rack and loaded the kayak with the intention of spending a bit of time on the water in the Marlborough Sounds and Abel Tasman areas.

On our previous jaunt we were able to go three months off-grid but having the kayak mounted like this will stop the solar panels from functioning even with just the ends in shade. When parked we have the option to tilt the kayak up as well as lower it fully down.

The van with the kayak mounted on the roof. The kayak shades the ends of the solar panels which effectively makes them useless.

Edit to add a pic of the van with the kayak mechanism in the intermediate "up" stage before lowering down. This should suffice to get solar. It's a difference between 12W and 300-400W.

7th January 2025 at 14:38 - Damian

We've started planning for kayaking in the top of the South next month. Got these LINZ topo maps printed up on durable/waterproof A3 from Warehouse Stationery as a fallback in case my usual electronic solutions don't work. They came out pretty sweet.

Printed topo maps of the Marlborough Sounds and Tasman area.

5th January 2025 at 14:46 - Damian

Summary of costs for our 3.5 month South Island road trip. Compared to our recent trip to the USA this was a LOT cheaper per day (at $137/day vs $550/day when flights are accounted for).

And I have to say I much preferred this trip. There's still so much to see of Aotearoa.

See the USA summary for comparison: https://mastodon.nz/@peterson/112990247284582855

Breakdown of costs for posterity: Total spent for 105 days was $14.390. Averaged $137 per day. Food/Drink $10.5k, Diesel/RUCs $2.0k, Accommodation/LPG/Other $1.9k

5th January 2025 at 14:19 - Damian

The numbers for December's final leg of the campervan trip for posterity:

3580km total averaging 9.1L diesel / 100km = $799 = $25.80/day (incl RUCs).

Accommodation = $145 = $4.68/day.

LPG = 80g/day = $0.34/day.

Food = $2982 = $96.20/day.

Total = $127/day.

We traveled more, used much less LPG (due to warmer weather) and ate about the same.

https://travel.peterson.nz/nz.html

Map of our route for December. 3580km.

28th December 2024 at 17:57 - Damian

We're finally back home in Auckland. The garden has been taken over by weeds and will need a bit of love and attention over the next couple of weeks.

It's been a fantastic three-and-a-half month road trip and we've seen a lot more of the South Island than we'd hoped to.

Here's our GPX tracks of the last four years of poking around NZ. It's starting to look like the shape of the country.

In the next day or so I'll crunch all the numbers for the trip.

https://travel.peterson.nz/nz.html

Our GPX tracks from the last four years. It's starting to look a lot like the shape of New Zealand.

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