Nearly There - South Island

Tent site amongst the lupins

Railway bridge, Clarence River 

Dead Sperm Whale, north of Clarence

Natural rock arch Wharanui beach

Nicola, Wharanui

Whare, where I spent the night on Cape Campbell Walkway

I have now walked a total of 1680km and only a few days to go until I complete the South Island part of my walk. Picton, where I catch the ferry to the North Island is only 28km away by the direct route, but as usual I will be taking the long way around.

On my final night at the Albatross Backpackers in Kaikoura they had a curry night, very nice too. On Sunday 25th November I was away at 8.30am and walked on the beach past the Whale Watch offices and eventually to Hapuku 14km up the coast. The beach was mostly shingle and I got wet feet crossing the Hapuke River. I saw one lone dolphin, usually they are in pairs. There is a toilet at Hapuku but no running water so I called at a local house to refill my water bottles. My tent site was amongst yellow lupins with a view of snow capped mountains inland. Perfect!

The following day I was away at 7.30am and walked up the beach for 5km before having to walk on SH1 for 9km. The road here was better than south of Kaikoura to walk on with either wide verges or crash barriers. Usually there is just enough room to walk behind the barriers. The railway track mostly runs alongside the road and at one place there was major track work going on replacing the wooden sleepers with concrete ones. I exchanged greetings with some of the workers who I had met at Goose Bay. I walked past two seal colonies where cars were stopped and people watching the seals. As I have seen thousands of seals I didn't stop. I did stop and watch later though, to watch seals diving in and out of the surf like dolphins. I found a camping ground at Waipapa Bay which I didn't know about, so stopped there for the night after 15km for the day. The owner, Cheryl, agreed to sponsor me by not charging for my tent site. There was a good shower and toilet block, the shower was particularly welcome.

Goudie, who was staying in a caravan opposite me works on the railway and told me that replacing the wooden sleepers with concrete ones costs $1.3 million per km! Gordie kindly donated a bottle of sparkling water and pork strips to my dinner that night.

The next morning I had a 5km walk up the beach before once again being forced onto SH1 due to the Clarence River. It was only about a kilometre from the beach to the road but half of this was through a pine forest which took me over an hour to get through. The problem was that the trees had been pruned and all the prunings were on the ground and had to be climbed over. I walked through Clarence and then regained the beach. Some kilometres ahead I could see diggers working close to the beach. I also became aware of a large object and as I got closer I realised it was the dead Sperm Whale I had heard about. I stopped to take photos but had to be careful trying to get a shot from the sea side as the tide was coming in. I could see the railway workers pointing in my direction and I thought maybe they thought I shouldn't be taking photos. However, when I climbed the bank and spoke to them they told me that, as I was taking the photos, a 1m shark was thrashing around in the surf! It had obviously smelt the decaying whale. I saw nothing of interest or any other people for several kilometres in either direction and the whale had come ashore right in front of where these guys were working!

Due to Health & Safety regulations, I was asked to take a wide berth around the diggers but once on the other side I was given a cup of tea and had my water bottle refilled. After another 1.5km I found a great spot to camp just off the beach.

On Wednesday I walked 17km up the beach to Kekerengu. There is a cafe there and I decided to shout myself a big lunch. While discussing the beach ahead with the staff, my waitress told me she lived 10km up the beach at Wharanui in a flat with other cafe staff.  Nicola offered me a bed at the flat and I gratefully accepted. I hung around the cafe reading for the rest of the day and at the end of the shift Nicola drove us to the flat, an old 4 bedroom farm house. I met the other occupants Fiona & John, a pleasant young Irish couple. Before dinner we all walked to the beach so that I would know where to come off the beach the following day.

On Thursday morning Nicola drove me to Seddon so that I could replenish my food supplies. We also dropped my pack at Ward, where I was heading the day after. When Nicola started work I caught a ride with her then walked the 10km back to the flat where I spent a second night. There is an unusual natural rock archway on the beach at Wharanui as well as a couple of seal colonies.

I was away at 7.30am on Friday after saying farewell to Nicola and thanking her for all her kindness.
A 3.5km walk up the beach to the Ure River and I was blown by a strong southerly 11.5km up SH1. My pack and I were reunited at the A1 Motel in Ward where they also have tent sites. The manager Julz agreed to sponsor me by not charging for the tent site. There is a really nice kitchen and lounge area and, as I was the only one staying, I had it all to myself. In the evening I phoned the owners of the Cape Campbell Walkway and was given permission to walk their private track. Sleep didn't come easy that night with trucks rumbling up SH1 all night, the local fire siren going off at 11.30pm and drunks walking and yelling up the road at 2.45am!

A 3km walk on Saturday brought me to the home of Peter and Carol one of the owners of the Cape Campbell walkway. Over a cuppa they gave me directions for the next two days. They farm over 4000 acres and the 6th generation was recently born on the farm. After a gradual climb up a farm track I walked along a ridge alongside fences for 4km. This is all hilly sheep/beef country with good views out to sea. I arrived at The Whare, an old shepherds hut, one of the day shelters on the walkway, where I spent the night.

On Sunday I continued on the walkway to Cape Campbell lighthouse over Rob and Sally's land. The wind was blowing so hard that it actually stopped me in my tracks several times. I had lunch in a sheltered spot under the lighthouse and then walked 6km up the coast to Marfells Beach.   Making my way around a headland I came across 5 people waiting for the tide recede enough to get their 4 wheel farm bikes around. They were quite surprised to see me appear suddenly, as if I'd emerged form the sea. Camped at a DOC campsite that night.

Monday 3rd December saw me away at 7.20am before anyone else was up. The first 8km was up the beach and I walked past the saltworks at Lake Grassmere. It was a different landscape for the next 12km up mostly gravel roads past vineyard after vineyard. It was pleasing to have wide grass verges to walk on. I stopped for a rest at one stage and became aware of classical music being played to the grapes! I booked into the camping ground at Seddon. The kitchen and shower facilities all have a seedy atmosphere and there were several semi-permanent residents living there while working at the vineyards.

Leaving at 7.30am on Tuesday I walked 4km on SH1 and then 10km down Redwood Pass and Renners Roads. Once again it was vineyards all the way. At the end of Renners Rd, I found what I initially thought was Domain but turned out to be private property. I met Peter Wells who is a Taxidermist but has branched out to making carbon fibre walking sticks. Thanks to Peter my stick Pak 'n' Save now sports a leather lanyard and a rubber stopper! He and his wife live in a house his father in law built. It is built into a bank, has a turf roof and cant be seen from the land side. The front of the house looks out over the ocean.

Unfortunately, their dog decided to follow me down the beach. despite much yelling and pleading on my part she would not go home. I thought several times that she had gone home only for her to reappear from the scrub. After 3km I thought I would have to take her back myself but when I stopped for lunch she eventually left. Later I texted Peter to make sure she got home OK and he texted back that she was home and "buggered"! He thanked me for tiring her out!

The tide was on the way out and I was able to walk on a a narrow shingle beach beneath cliffs for 3km until I reached Boulder Bank. As there is a large uncrossable river mouth at the other end I had to turn inland.
As I walked up what I thought was a public road I came across Chris and Simon. They are contractors who spend 7 months a year grubbing out Chilean Tussock, an invasive weed. It turns out it was not a public road but a farm track. A phone call to the farm manger Paul by Chris brought me permission to walk to the road. As Chris and Simon were just finished work for the day and returning the next day they agreed to take me into Blenheim where I booked into a backpackers. Finding a backpackers was easy, finding one to stay in proved more difficult. The first was full of young vineyard workers who liked to drink all night and I was advised to try elsewhere. The second place I tried was closed for two hours, the third I could find nobody about, the 4th had closed down for good! Finally I found "The Grapevine" where I am staying now for a few days.

Yesterday I was up early and Chris & Simon gave me a ride back to where they picked me up from. They carried on grubbing and I walked into Blenheim via the farm track, a minor road then SH1. There were a few showers on the way but just before I got into Blenheim it rained harder.

As I have another 12 days until I catch the ferry to Wellington and its not far to Picton I am hoping to get some casual work here.

I have recently changed some settings  which hopefully will make it easier for those of you who have been trying to send me comments on this blog. So if you have experienced problems sending a comment, please try again. Adding photos to this post will have to wait until I get back to Hamilton for Xmas as I'm unable to load photos from this computer at the library.