Blenheim, Kahurangi NP, Golden Bay, Tasman Bay

January 28 - February 3, 2010     Blenheim, Nelson, & Kahurangi NP

These 7 days were spent in the north of the South Island.  The day before, we got off the ferry from Wellington at the little port town of Picton, which we had visited as a port call on our cruise way back on December 15.  We drove on to Blenheim, the center of the Marlborough wine district.  We stayed in Blenheim for two nights to enjoy the food and wine, and then headed west up the Wairau River valley.  The view was amazing - the river, the grape vines, hops plantations, fruit trees, and other crops, the mountains in the distance, and the clouds in the sky.  Only occasionally was the view ruined by one particularly garish American tourist in a bright red shirt.

Here is an example of a grape vineyard.  The valley floor was covered with them.

Crossing the Wairau River:

Here are hops.  I had never actually seen the crop.  These are trussed up vertically.

South of the city of Nelson is Nelson Lakes National Park.  Here are some views of Lake Rotoiti, one of the two principal lakes in the park.  Interestingly, there is also a Lake Rotoiti in the North Island.  "Roto" means lake and "iti" means number 1.  Next to the North Island Lake Rotoiti is Lake Rotorua, which means "Lake Number Two" in the Mauri language.  Here is Nelson Lakes NP in the South Island, the other big lake is Lake Rotoroa.  Notice the difference?  It's one of dialect.  The South Island Maori dialect had several differences in pronunciation, one of which apparently is "roa" vs "rua" for "number two".

On Friday evening, January 29, we settled in for a 5-day stay at the Kahurangi Brown Trout B&B on the  banks of the Motueka River on the eastern edge of Kahurangi National Park, the second-largest national park in New Zealand.  (You'll have to look at a good map to find this small stream that runs to the Tasman Bay at the town of Motueka).  The proprietors are a Californian (David) who left the US right after graduating from college in the mid-1970's, and Heather, who is either from Australia or New Zealand, I think, judging from accent.  David has had a career as a builder and building contractor.  They built this lovely house 27 years ago, raised 3 kids, and then converted some of the rooms to use as the B&B.  We used this place as a launching pad to explore the National Park and the coastal region of Golden Bay (towns of Collingwood, Takaka, Golden Bay) and the Tasman Bay (Nelson, Motueka).  This region is very important historically.  It was one of the principal settlement areas for the Maori, and hence saw a lot of interaction with the pakeha (Europeans) 1840-1880, both favorable and hostile.

Speaking of relations between pakeha and Maori, allow me to digress.  It occurred to me that the end of armed conflict with the Maori in New Zealand was about the same time as the end of the American Indian wars.  The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 set the stage for British governance of the whole country.  Pakeha offenses, arrogance, and different cultural understandings of ownership of land and resources led to violent conflict, especially in the 1860's.  After about 1880 the Maori  were on a path of full integration into the civilization of the British empire - so much so that by 1920 it became a concern that the Maori language and culture would become extinct altogether.  In America, the Sioux Wars (Custer, Little Big Horn) were 1875-1878, and by about 1890 the Indian wars were essentially over.  The outcome for the Maori was considerably better than for the Amerinds, in my estimation.

Now back to Kahurangi NP.  On Saturday, January 30, we hiked about 9 km (up & back) on the trail to Mt. Arthur.  After a harrowing 5 km drive up a steep gravel road to the trailhead, we hiked for almost 3 hours uphill.  The trail was pretty good, though challenging for a couple of elderly tourists like us.  The developed trail ended at a hut just below treeline, and then a post-marked path continued up into the alpine zone and on to the summit of Mt. Arthur.  We hiked perhaps 500 m on up this path so Paula could admire (and photograph) the alpine wildflowers.  The hike back down to the car only took about 1.5 hours.  Gravity is funny that way!

Here is a view from the alpine zone.

Here is Paula standing next to the pile of rocks that Tyler collected and wanted to bring home.

The next day we drove over to Nelson.  They have a spectacular tidal area, which we observed at low tide.  Note the boat.  The tidal flat is so large that one can't even see the water from the road when the tide is out.

From there we drove out to Cable Bay at the mouth of the Wakapuaka River.  It was late afternoon, and a very stiff wind was blowing out to sea from the hills. 

Cable Bay is divided into two sections by a narrow spit of beach that stretches all the way across the mouth of the bay.  I never could see where or how the water equilibrates between the seaward section and the inland part.

Cable Bay is were the first oceanic cable from Australia came ashore in 1876, finally giving NZ more rapid communication with the rest of the Empire - albeit amazingly expensive!  Telegrams from New Zealand to Australia were 9/6 for the first 10 words plus 10d PER WORD for each word thereafter.  To London and Europe it was 10/6 per word to cover Australia-to-England plus another 9/9 per 10 words for the NZ-to-Australia leg.  In the old British currency system, d was the abbreviation for shilling: 20 shillings per pound, 12 pence to the shilling.  Hence 9/6 means 9 shillings 6 pence.  So that's essentially one pound per word to London!  And that was back when a pound was a lot of money.

In my next posting I'll cover our trip down the west coast of the South Island to Westport, up into the Southern Alps to Arthur's Pass, and then on down the coast to Hokitika, the pounamu (nephrite jade) capital of New Zealand, and maybe the world.