The bus moving up the West Coast of the South Island only goes twice a week during the winter months meaning that we had to stay slightly longer than is probably needed in Punakaiki, an isolated town with a local population of around 50! Still, we checked into a comfortable hostel right on the beach (the only hostel actually in Punakaiki!) and were upgraded free of charge as the hostel was almost empty...one of the perks of travelling in the quieter winter months. The Pancake Rocks and Blowholes are the most famous attraction here and are best seen at high tide, when the Blowholes are most active. As high tide was in the afternoon, we went for a long walk along one of the trails before making our way over to the Pancake Rocks. The walk was lovely and the weather couldn't have been better! After a quick stop for lunch we wandered over to the Pancake Rocks and enjoyed the show the blowholes put on for us before heading back to the hostel. We had a relaxing time in Punakaiki although could have left a day or so earlier than we did.
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| Sunset outside our hostel |
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| The Pancake Rocks |
Blowhole!
Carrying on with our journey up the West Coast we headed up to Richmond and were kindly put up for a couple of nights by Denis and Pat, friends of Sue. We were treated to a fantastic home cooked dinner and were able to leave some of our bags there while we headed out to Tasman for our stay in 'The Boot'. Poppy had found this B&B before we left but we never actually thought we would end up staying here, however, we were treated to a night here thanks to a very generous mummy Jones and John! We checked in early so as to make the most of our stay and quickly got comfortable in front of the warm open fire! We had a very relaxed morning before making use of the bikes available to cycle to nearby Mapua for a lovely lunch overlooking the harbour, before cycling back to enjoy a very cosy evening in front of the fire. The next morning we woke up eager to enjoy the breakfast that was included in the stay...I opted for a full fry up and Poppy treated herself to pancakes with maple sugar, butter, lemon and sugar. Safe to say we were not disappointed and both felt very full up (I'm embarrassed to say my fry up defeated me!). As no one had booked to stay that night we were able to spend almost another full day enjoying our time in 'The Boot' before having to pack up our things and make our way to the bus stop to head back to Richmond. We were sad to leave but both felt refreshed from a couple of days of luxury away from the usual nights in hostels! Arriving back in Richmond, we were picked up by Denis and Pat who kindly put us up again for the night and then dropped us over in Nelson for our bus to Picton the following morning.
Cosy log fire in 'The Boot'!
Lunch at Mapua
Picton itself isn't the most exciting of places and doesn't offer much other than the ferry over to the North Island. However, it is located very close to the Marlborough wine region in New Zealand and we decided to book onto a half day wine tasting tour. The region tended to specialise in Sauvignon Blanc and all of the cellar doors we visited had a house bottle of Sauvignon Blanc although we did also taste some other varieties of wine such as Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Reisling and Pinot Noir. Our first stop was a the Cloudy Bay cellar door, one of the only ones that I actually recognised, and we really enjoyed the Sauvignon Blanc as well as a vintage bottle of Pelorous. Annoyingly this being our first stop we were reluctant to buy anything just in case we found anything better later on and ended up having to return here at the end of our tour! We visited around six different cellar doors in total (as well as a brewery and a fudge shop!), tasting around five to six different wines at each...safe to say we felt a little tipsy by the end of the afternoon! Feeling pleased that we had done everything we wanted in the South Island, we were ready to catch the ferry up to the North Island and see what that had to offer.
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