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.

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.

10th February 2025 at 07:48 - Damian

10th February 2025 at 07:46 - Damian

9th February 2025 at 18:39 - Damian

Castlepoint. Fantastic geology and uncharacteristic warm sea breezes.

9th February 2025 at 12:39 - Damian

Homemade (vanmade?) Boston pizza in Woodville.

9th February 2025 at 06:38 - Damian

8th February 2025 at 20:06 - Damian

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

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.

8th February 2025 at 07:51 - Damian

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

27th December 2024 at 06:29 - Damian

Preparing to cross on the ferry to Wellington we stayed nearby to Picton at the Whatamango DOC campsite 20 minutes further into the Sounds past Waikawa.

We were buffeted by strong winds all night and had no internet so didn't get the alerts from Bluebridge that the sailing was cancelled. We've since visited the terminal and rebooked for a 0230 sailing tomorrow morning.

Looks like a day in Picton and perhaps a bit of planning for when we return in mid-February with the kayak.

22nd December 2024 at 13:35 - Damian

Winding down for Christmas in Rangiora hanging with family and friends, eating and drinking too much as expected.

Today we walked from Waikuku Beach down to Pegasus for lunch and back. 11km. In the futile hope that some of the calories will be cancelled out.

19th December 2024 at 18:50 - Damian

Today's excursion was a short bike ride (16km return) down the water race section of the Wilderness Trail from Lake Kaniere. It's a nice gentle ride mostly through bush.

After that, lunch in Hokitika (if you're passing through check out the Hokitika Sandwich Company - very tasty), a bit of admin and a drive up to Arthur's Pass Village.

Tomorrow we're back on North Canterbury in the run up to Christmas before skedaddling back to Auckland.

18th December 2024 at 12:53 - Damian

Last night we parked up at Lake Brunner and this morning cycled a section of the Wilderness Trail from Kumara toward Milltown (40km return). The trail was one of the nicer ones we've cycled and we're considering doing another section of it tomorrow before heading to Arthur's Pass.