South Island Here We Come ...

After 2.5 weeks in North Island we finally enjoyably trickled down to Wellington and took the ferry across to South Island where we have another 4.5 weeks. We started in the Marlborough Area where three quarters of NZ's wine comes from and which the Hawkes Bay vintners had taken the mickey out of on our previous wine tour.

A couple of hours outside the port, Picton, down a slow and winding road, and then a singletrack gravel road brought us to Mistletoe Bay Campground (which advertises as an Eco Village). Forget sky-diving, upside down water-skiing and jumping out of aeroplanes: try driving a 21 foot campervan down a super-narrow 1 kilometre road which descends 1000 feet to the sea...But it was worth it, as you can see below: (the Chief Correspondent is putting his job on the line perhaps by pointing out the injudicious conflation of units in his Editor's post; thankfully, however, the Editor avoided reference to the avoirdupois system...) But I'm an Arts graduate: it's called poetic licence.

 

Gloriously isolated and with few other campers, it gives access directly onto the Queen Charlotte Track, a relatively easy 3-4 day walk. After a bite to eat we went for a short run up to the highest local point .... Only 3.5 miles or so but with 1400ft of ascent it was very hot work! Here's a bit of the path up through the bush:

and us on the way up

... And at the top.

He's behind you!

The track is

here ... Even those not particularly interested in the Chief Corresondent's GPS tracks might find some interest in this one as by zooming in and out you get to see clearly the isolated location.

Here's a photo of the view, if, like me, you don't want to engage in the 'zooming in and out'

The next day we did a few hours walking on the Queen Charlotte with stunning views round each corner. Very pretty but, we felt, a little lacking in variety ... One can only have so many views of blue paradise before a little ennui sets in 😉The Ed. doesn't agree with this... it was fab. And below is the photo of our lunch stop:

We did worry about whether we would be able to get the van out from the campsite again and trembled at the thought of meeting another vehicle coming down ... As things turned out it was foot on the gas and 'eat my dust' ... We were safely away. (It was worse going down than coming up!)

 

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