Greetings readers from a very damp Takaka, the last major town before you fall off the top of South Island! This first picture, taken at Bob's Bay, Picton, shows that the sun has been shining but today and yesterday the heavens opened and the wind blew making our exploring slightly soggy and chilly. Anyway back to the photo, we found this beach after a wonderful walk through native bush about 2 miles outside Picton. Very beautiful and as always virtually empty. A good place to sit and recharge the batteries.
We have mentioned the timber industry before in previous blogs and so thought that these 2 photos were good to illustrate it and other land use in SI. These logs are waiting to be loaded onto a ship in Picton harbour - Pinus radiatus a fast growing tree that is grown everywhere here. The second photo puts it in context with other crops, mainly fruit in this area - apples, pears and citrus fruits as well as the vine!!
The colours at this time of the year are beautiful and because many of the native trees are evergreen the fruit and imported European trees stand out in their bright autumn livery.
These 2 photos are from Hawke's lookout high up in the Takaka Mountains. Thought you should see that we are both still trim and happy!!!
The walk to this lookout took us through karst country - typical limestone outcrops that according to local legend are the scales of a dragon killed as he tried to escape with the local princess. The road then led us down and down to the plain and Takaka where we came upon the Te Waikoropupu Springs - Pupu for short!! This involved another wonderful walk through native bush to the largest cold water springs in Australasia. The water was crystal clear and bubbled up all around us, this photo shows one of the largest upwellings. We were delighted to be chased by a number of fantails (birds about the size of a robin with a fan tail!!) as we walked back to the car. They are totally unphased by our presence in fact they welcome the chance to catch any insects our passing may disturb.
So now we are staying in Collingwood, a small settlement that once could have become the capital of NZ! From here we took a very wet and windy trip to Farewell Spit, the 'beak' that sticks out at the very top of SI and which is only accessible on a tour and on a 4-wheel drive bus as shown. The first picture is of Cape Farewell, the most northerly point on SI.
The weather was so wet and windy that Fogg was unable to take many pictures. We were driven to the lighthouse right at the end of the Spit, where we had our picnic and a very welcome cup of tea. We did climb a sand dune, a pretty awesome experience as well as being uncomfortably wet! The birds were wonderful - dotterels, oystercatchers, shags, Caspian and white fronted terns. Not to forget the black backed gulls and a solitary fur seal!
This is the view that greeted us on the way to Takaka, we are promised a slightly drier afternoon but who knows.
This is an excellent internet site in Takaka and we have just had a good yarn with the insightful staff about the ghastly outfits worn to the wedding - we will leave you to decide who we were talking about.
So best wishes to all our readers from us both.
Phileas and Fogg
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