Thursday 22 January Big day - not such big weather, fortunately! Heaps of rain and a bit of a swamp by morning as we walked up to the public toilets - past a lovely hitch-hiking couple who were singing "Tūtira mai ngā iwi” - she was kiwi and teaching this anthemic waiata to her Swiss partner! We met them again later - and we all look odd as we respond with “Hi aue hei!” https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffarcuri/video/7559609349937564958 Nickie and I took a walk down the Black Valley

Wednesday 21 January “Weather warnings” up north and “weather watches” down south - Aotearoa really is the Land of the Long White Cloud (or rather grey cloud). We revisited our itinerary again and decided that we should stick to our original plans to head west, but just hang out in Westport for now rather than the lovely Gentle Annie’s a bit further north. After Russ had completed his office chores, Louis & Nickie had swum, Nickie & I had purchased an op shop treat each and

Tuesday 20 January Russ had a bunch of meetings and online work to get on with in the morning, so Louis got on with some video work while Nickie and I went for a lovely walk - down to Hans Herzog, along the Wairau River and back along Paul’s Lane. Lots of glorious wild flowers along the way! The vineyards were edged with wilding agapanthus in a multitude of shades from white, through lilac to heliotrope - stunning - and wild clematis, wild carrot lacecaps and fennel. Along t

Monday 19 January Woke to find the ginormous tractor still abandoned by the shed, and a bunch of people fiddling with it trying to get it working again! They left and it stayed - oops! Must have done something though as it disappeared later… Chatted online with the Fernandi as they boarded the InterIslander in Wellington, then Louis headed into town for a long swim at the aquatic centre while I pootled around at the vineyard - a spot of admin, caravan housework and a walk ove

Sunday 18 January After a chilly, rainy night the outlook at Kaikōura seemed to have swapped around - with bluer skies to the north and threatening storm clouds offshore to the south. Had a wee morning stroll, met a couple of Jack Russell’s and stole a few herbs from The Pier’s herb garden! Then off to town - Louis for a swim and me to the laundromat. Serendipitously the Liquid Laundromat was right next to the SPCA Op Shop, but no bargains, the store was rather over priced..

Saturday 17 January Trekking north again - deja vue as we hit SH1 to Kaikōura en route to Blenheim to meet the Fernandi on Monday. Quick chat with John from Treehouse Retreat POP then off we trundled in dreary grey weather. Brief pause at Cheviot - couldn't believe it when I saw a Contiki bus - these things were doing the rounds back in 1989 when I first visited NZ on my trip round the world! Also loved the roll call of contributors to the Cheviot toilets murals! Then it wa

Friday 16 January Friday was all about appointments - first up, drop the Pajero off for a service plus addition of a transmission cooler to assist on towing up & over the steeper hills. The dodgy blue boy racer Subaru was waiting for a WOF (could be a lonnnnggg wait!) so we got this two-tone rusty orange Lafesta as a courtesy car instead! Secondly, dental appointment for Louis as some of his tooth fell out when Shadow head butted him on the beach back in December (delayed as

Thursday 15 January Pouring with rain all day so a lovely walk on the beach was out of the question. Instead Louis worked on a video and I took the dark washing to Liquid Laundromat in Kaiapoi and dropped some stuff into the op shop. Very proud of being able to jam all our dark washing and towels into a large washer, and then second guess the "25 minute" timer to get back 29 minutes later with 1 minute to go on the machine! Bumped into Ella at the Sallies while the washing wa

Wednesday 14 January Seems like summer is over already! Woke to slightly fewer sandflies and single digit temperatures - what’s that all about? Packed up and hit the road, SH7 towards the east coast. The mountains were wreathed in clouds and the rivers were running faster as we headed out of the hills and across the northern Canterbury plains. A wee break at Culverden to stretch legs, dump the grey & black water and for Louis to sample the local chicken & mushroom pie. I t

Tuesday 13 January We woke early in our peaceful POP, packed up in a leisurely fashion and late morning we left Mt Arthur view and the little lonely Elddis caravan by the fence and set off for the Lewis Pass, via Murchison. Pausing in Tapawera while Louis emptied the grey & black water, i purchased some gorgeous fresh berries and wondered what the bizarre bush was in front of the Four Square - the "leaves" were like giant pine needles, slightly jointed, with the occasional cr

Monday 12 January Beautiful bright morning - pottered about, said goodbye to Sally, Guy and the adorable Skye as they headed for the West Coast then hopped on our bikes to follow the Great Taste Trail in the opposite direction. Headed over the bridge into the heart of Tapawera first, and was confused to find the Gateway to Kahurangi there - even though it appears to be quite a way from the actual Natonal Park. The waharoa had many intricate carvings with a Māori chief on one

Sunday 11 January After 5 nights at Marble Hills Retreat we’d finally run out of fresh water so we’d packed up the night before and woke early, dressed, brushed teeth with last remaining drops from the tank, made the bed then hit the road over the hill to Motueka by 7.40am. Cool morning temperatures and popping the Pajero in 2WD meant we avoided the transmission over heating issues we experienced 5 days ago on the way in. Dropping down off the hill, with the orchards laid ou

Saturday 10 January It would be rude to spend this long in the Abel Tasman region without trying a bit of the famous walk - Abel Tasman Coastal Track is one of NZ’s 11 Great Walks and is a 60 km trail of golden beaches, forested headlands, and crystal-clear bays. The southern start or end is at Mārahau so after popping to Kaiteriteri for expensive essentials, we packed a picnic and togs and set off around midday from the official waharoa (entrance way) to walk about 3.5km to

Friday 9 January What a day! Started with a cheeky earthquake which shook Banjo at around 8.30am… Louis reckoned it was him stomping about but no, Geonet confirmed it, about 300km north of us at Waverley. We’d booked the 10.45 Coffee Cruise so grabbed our togs etc and dashed over to Kaiteriteri (which was already busy as and no free parking left) to hop on the big old green boat. Skipper Dave takes a max of 15 passengers on a gentle trip out to Split Apple Rock and back, with

Thursday 8 January Cousin Jill had messaged a few days ago to say she was just over the hill in Tākaka so we packed a picnic and tackled the wicked hill. Basically it goes up about 1000m in 10km of steep twisty roads then comes down the other side equally fast with a couple of hairpin bends for good measure. We would love to stay over in Golden Bay but getting Banjo over there would be a nightmare journey. So we took a day trip - up, up, up and then down, down, down! It is

Wednesday 7 January A glorious day dawned so it was only right to make the most of it. Morning trip across the hills to the Riuwaka Resurgence near the base of Tākaka Hill. This is a tapu or sacred spot where the waters that percolate though the limestone caves of the hills come out into the open air and the feed the Riwaka River which runs to the sea near Kaiteriteri. We weren’t the only ones there. We advised the lads who showed up behind us that it was tapu and shouldn’t

Tuesday 6 January Time to move on a wee bit closer to Abel Tasman - so we packed up slowly, chatted with our neighbours then hitched up and headed up to Motueka (NZMCA to dump rubbish and fill with fresh water then dump station to, well, dump) then on to the base of the Takaka Hill where we hung a right across Sandy Bay Hill which proved way steeper and twistier than we anticipated, causing consternation and an overheated transmission. It was all worth it in the end as we rol

Monday 5 January A more casual day today - awoke to beautiful sunshine and took a stroll round the POP and found some funny creatures including a fire extinguisher reindeer, a garden rake heron and a fork face fella lurking in amongst the plants! However laundry and swimming pools were calling us so we had to be good and do our chores back in Richmond (once Apple maps had given us slightly wrong directions to get to the pool and laundromat!). By chance the dodgy directions

Sunday 4 January A glorious sunny day in our quiet wee POP - we had a chill morning then hopped on the bikes around 11ish and cycled down to Mapua again, this time with swim togs and a picnic. We chained up the bikes and hopped onto the boxy little Mapua Ferry for the 5 minute crossing of the estuary to Rabbit Island at high tide. We should have brought our bikes, everyone else did - but we hadn’t done our research! Walked along the forest tracks and then down along the beach

Saturday 3 January Time to move on - we packed up, said goodbye to Luke & thanked him for letting us stay at the vineyard (Yamille was still asleep) and squeezed out of the vineyard, heading northwest towards Nelson and our destination, Mahana. Quick stop at Pelorus Bridge where we claimed to be a bus for parking’s sake, then on through Rai valley, happy to see the traditional Christmas tree by the roadside near Hira, past the signs to Cable Bay where we spent Christmas 2024,