French Pass - last post from South Island

So here I am sitting on a jetty in Picton waiting to catch the ferry. Spent the last few days exploring French Pass in the Marlborough Sounds. Really slow differcult winding road all the way there (and back!) but made it with no drama. The wind didn't happen for decent flying but I got airbourne for a few sorties along the roadside slopes. About the same height as the Kaimai Ranges so pretty cold but very light winds.

Here's some pics - first up is Elaine Bay where I stayed a night next to a couple from Te Puke!

Next up is looking south down Squally Bay into Crosilles Harbour - mussel farms are in every part of the Sounds that I saw, grouped along the foreshore of the bays and inlets - there must be hundreds of them and after a while you realise they are a blight on the landscape (or is that seascape?)

And here's a shot looking down to Cissy Bay and the road leading to Bulwer. Beautiful views and magnificent country - mostly native bush but a lot of pine forests and some pasture too.

 This one is taken from French Pass road looking down Current Basin towards D'Urville Island...

And here's proof that it is a windy spot - this is how the trees grow...

So my South Island odyssey in nearly over. I've found very few flying sites - for various reasons - but after 4 months away on my tod it's time to get back up country for winter.

Nelson and a stop for breath

I've been in Nelson for more than a week now - stopping to catch my breath. Here's a shot overlooking the city I got after a steep walk to this vantage point from the Maitai Valley.

Whilst I was too-tooing about town, I came across this sign at Tahunanui Beach. Oh, please, tell me it's not true.....

Whilst I did spend two nights up the Maitai Valley at a nice cheap camp, I have been staying at Best Island the last few days and it looks like this each evening....

Nelson is a cool place - has a nice feel about it - not too big, not too small. I've been using the Richmond library for the last few days to post potential saleable photos up to a website - my last attempt at stock photography. But Nelson is a place I could live in - has this breakwater called Boulder Bank where this lighthouse is located.

Brightwater Flying

Met up with the Nelson RC flying guys and went two days to their preferred site - bit pathetic really - not very high, maybe 30m and affected by trees, but i did get some flying done. Here's a selection of pics mostly of their planes....

And a shot of the guys sitting in their deck chairs. They obviously preferred a site with easy access rather than one which was good to fly.

Kaiteriteri - Marahau

Kaiteriteri was a huge disappointment - yes it might have the nice golden coloured sands, but it has just been sacrificed to the plastic, tourist nonsense that makes the place a complete farce. I couldn't stay for more than a few minutes without feeling like a vomit. For the record....

But.... after leaving Kaiteriteri, the coastal road takes you to a magical unspoilt inland estuary where you can take pictures like this....

I know which place I'd rather see. And at the end of the road is Marahau - the gateway (well that's what they call it) into Able Tasman park. I tiny little hamlet where the water taxi service is based. A beautiful place.

Tata Beach - Wainui - Haywards Hole

Tata Beach was my first sight of the famed golden sandy beaches and yes it certainly looks spectacular. I got there very early in the morning with nobody around.

From here I headed further east to Wainui Falls. I lovely walk up to the falls through nikau palms and bush. This area was where the Nelson floods of maybe a year ago hit hard and lots of slips and flooded stream plains. The road around the coast to Wainui was peppered with one-lane sections where the road has fallen away. The falls were not particularly high but worth a look.

Got a pretty good shot of the inevitable rainbow that always seems to be at waterfalls....

This swingbridge would have to go down as one of the scariest I've been on. Not high, but only thin little metal treads holding the wirenetting on the walking deck, so I also got a shot looking down at my handsome legs to prove I was here.

Then back round to Takaka and back up the hill. This would be the longest slow hill trip in NZ. I timed it at 15mins continuously in 3rd gear (well, back to 2nd once or twice). At the top I turned down Canaan Road out to Haywards Hole. This road is too narrow for campervans and I nearly regretted this, having to pass two vehicles in awkward places. Haywards Hole is a spectacular chasm in limestone country where water used to flow into. The streams are now all underground, but you walk down the old streambed and then come upon this amazing site. Very dangerous place too.

That last shot is of one of the mysterious black ponds alongside the track. A weird place - not just the Hole or black ponds but the whole fluted, tumbled Karst landscape is unusual.

Pohara

Back to Takaka and on the way I stopped at Collingwood. On the beach was this driftwood teepee, which seem to feature on lots of beachs around the South Island.

Onto Pohara - a lovely little beachy place but with small deepwater port too. This was the original location of Golden Bay cementworks (now at Westport) and the old silos are still up on the limestone cliffs....

There's also this precariously placed house in a cleft in the rocks.... yikes

I was parked up along with a bunch of fellow NZMCA vans at the Pohara Boat Club.

And at sunset, I got some pics around the boat marina...

Cape Farewell - Wharariki Beach

Well Franky summed up this area perfectly when she said "awesome place". It just has something unusual at every turn and walking up Pillar Point to get a pic of the lighthouse was a great place on a rather poor day weatherwise. There are concrete foundations that were for a radar station in the Second World War. The lighthouse itself is no great shakes but I give it a 5 for trying to preserve "the look".

From up there you can look west to Cape Farewell....

Or east to the Farewell Spit. Being a windy day you can see the sandblasting going on in this pic - well I can anyway (heh heh). As with much of the birdy places these days, DOC won't let you into this area (the Spit) without a permit.

Just around the corner a mile or so from here is Wharariki Beach - now this place is special too, not least for the sand dunes. Also has caves and seastack/er um, islands with holes in them. Was really windy but alas, no slopes suited to flying. They either faced the wrong way or were turbulated by ground in front. So I just indulged in some photography...

And then at the end of the day, back at the Park Over Property is was staying at I got a sunset that I couldn't resist....

Motueka

Not a lot happening the past few days, made it to Murchison where I stayed at NZMCA pop right in town (ok, its only a small town) which was very handy to the ice-cream shop! Been really hot down here.
From there I found a nice cool spot just below the Hope Saddle on the way to Motueka. Cool it was, woke up in the morning absoluetly freezing. The journey down the valley into Motueka was one of the nicest drives I've had so far - orchards growing apples pears and .... hops. Here I finally get to see what hops look like on the vines and up close.

In Motueka I stayed at the RSA pop and it was so hot I actually went in and had a beer - my first for ages. I tried to find a flying site and  following the Soaring.co.nz thread I headed down to Kina Beach Rd 8km east of the town. No luck, the cliff was totally unsuitable to fly (Don't know how Dave Pope got much of a fly here). As I left Motueka and climbed up over the Takaka Hill (very long slow climb in my beast) I looked back and got these shots of the area.

And this one is for Ralph to show how hopelessly overhung with trees that flying site was...

I was going to try and get to see Haywards Hole, a 180m deep sinkhole in the Karst landscape, but the road was too narrow for campervans (they have signs advising this) so I had to abort. Might be able to hitch a ride there on the way back.
And last up, I found a men's toilet along the coast in Golden Bay with this on the wall...