Picton & Martinborough: A return to the North Island

Monday 26th September

When we awoke it was still raining, having done so for about 2 days straight. With a ferry crossing coming up, we were keeping our fingers crossed for a nice clear day and a calm sailing. We said our goodbyes to Linda and then packed our things back in to the car ready for the journey up to Picton. We did have one final thing to do before leaving Nelson though. By chance I'd overheard Linda and Ricardo talking about a peanut butter brand that was started locally and is now New Zealand’s favourite peanut butter. We had seen a stall at the market we'd visited on Saturday but it hadn't really clicked. I gave it a Google and found out that they did tours of the factory and there were 2 spaces left on the Midday slot, so I signed us up. It was a short drive out of town to the suburb of Stoke where the factory was located, we couldn't see any potteries though. We parked up and entered the reception area. The lady who checked us in was very nice and done the usual spiel of asking us where we were from. She vaguely knew Sussex, having lived down in Cornwall at some point. We showed our ignorance to our local area when she asked us if we'd ever visited Virginia Wolff’s house around Lewes. We just looked at each other, not knowing a thing about it. We'd encountered the problem before and it just shows at how bad we are for not knowing and exploring our home country (it applies to more than just me and Charlotte too!). She then said that when she arrived back in New Zealand from the UK she bought a Lonely Planet book about her home country and learned a great deal, which seemed like a great idea and we couldn't believe we'd never thought of it. Anyway, she had to check other people in, so we hovered around the reception admiring (for want of a better word) their display of peanut butter jars from around the world. There was also a wall of items they were selling which included a 5kg tub of Pic’s peanut butter (just realised I haven't mentioned the brand name yet, so there you go), as well as two unconventional flavours, Cashew butter and Almond butter. The 5kg tub was tempting, although we weren't sure we'd ever get through it in the 6 months we had left in New Zealand, particularly with Charlotte only just coming round to eating it. Whilst we were browsing we were greeted by the aforementioned Pic (I'm not sure what it's short for either!) who asked us where we were from and told us that they did sell Pic’s peanut butter in the UK at various markets. He disappeared and the tour began. It was conducted by a lady who neglected to tell us her name and the first part was just a basic what's what. To be fair, it was fairly interesting finding out where they got their peanuts from and that they crop twice a year. When we were asked how do peanuts grow, I didn't expect to end up red faced when I said “on trees?”. Charlotte and I have gone 23 and 26 years respectively not having a clue that peanuts grow underground, just like potatoes. In fact, I'm sort of hoping a couple of family members reading this didn't know that either, to make us feel a little less stupid. Anyway, the peanuts needed to be dug from a town in Queensland, Australia with far too many o’s and w’s in its name to remember what it was called. After the information session, we entered the factory and peered through windows to watch the process of roasting, blending, bottling and labelling the peanut butter. The only part of the process we could see in detail was the bottling, done by an incredibly enthusiastic man in white coat. He was obviously good at his job though, as he was so  fast at filling the jars the labelling machine couldn't keep up. The tour lady somehow kept us peering through the windows for around 10 minutes, which was impressive in itself considering  there wasn't all that much to see. After that it was the walk back to the reception, so the kids could make their own peanut butter “the old fashioned way” using a hand press. This brought it home for Charlotte and I, as we obviously weren't considered kids anymore. We had to make do with tasters of the Cashew and Almond butter. The former was thicker and had more taste than the latter, so Cashew butter won the taste test hands down. Always after a cheeky souvenir we picked up a box of what are called “peanut butter slugs” and a couple of tumblers with crunchy peanut butter inside, as Charlotte has never experienced crunchy before. We paid, dashed through the rain and started the drive to the town of Picton. Well, who'd have thought I could right so much about a peanut butter factory tour? The drive to Picton was only about an hour and a half and would have been much more scenic had it not been for the awful weather. We had a slight false start when we tried to check in to the wrong campsite but we didn't feel to silly seeing as there were 2 by the same company in town. With the ferry booked for early the following morning, we'd reserved a bargain cabin for the night, as we didn't fancy the rush of getting the tent away and driving to the ferry by 7:30. We had fancied going for a walk when we arrived but due to the terrible weather and not arriving until about 3pm, we thought we'd give it a miss, opting to stay in the cabin and watch ‘The Chase’ on the smallest tv in the world instead. We were back on to our sack of spuds for dinner and cooked up some jacket potatoes with vegetables and baked beans in an attempt to plough (good farming pun there) through them, before they turned green. When we arrived back at our room, there were hundreds of dead ants all over the bed that hadn't been there when we arrived. We considered what to do and thought it best to see if reception were still there and move rooms. Fortunately the receptionist was still there and was happy to shift us to a different cabin. Seeing as it was an issue we had expected a bit of an upgrade to at least an ensuite. The cabin was an ensuite but for whatever reason the bathroom door was padlocked shut. We couldn't be bothered to complain about it so went to bed just thankful to be away from the ants.

Tuesday 27th September

We got up bright and early to squeeze in breakfast and repack the car before leaving to catch our ferry which was due to depart at 9am. It was a packed ferry and it took a good while to get all the cargo and vehicles loaded on. When we went through the ticket booth it was slightly reassuring to see a sign that said it was calm on the Cook Straight and we were looking at an easy crossing. After boarding and hunting down one of the lounges, we tucked ourselves in some corner seats and read for the majority of the crossing. After a couple of hours we did get restless and stretched our legs on the outside decks just as the ferry was rounding the corner to Wellington harbour. Before arrival we squeezed a coffee and a couple more chapters in the onboard café. The tannoy blared in to life stating that we had arrived in Wellington, so we followed the hordes back to the car decks. We weren't planning on stopping in Wellington for very long but had found a highly rated fish and chip shop in the Lonely Planet book we had. Wellington was quite a complicated city to navigate but we found our way fairly easy using our road atlas. The only problem was finding a parking space that wasn't residential or coupon parking. Miraculously, on our second time around we found a space right outside the Mt Vic Chippery. The only drawback was the $2 charge for half an hour but we dropped in a coin and went for it. We'd had a browse of the menu online and were really impressed by the chippy’s selection of fish but maybe we shouldn't have been so hopeful. They had the big long list up in the wall but we could only pick the ones that had a tick by them. Out of about 20 selections, there were only 4 available. Snapper, Salmon, Warehou and Tarakihi. Salmon is available anywhere in the world and warehou seemed like the poor quality option due to it being cheap. Charlotte had been after monkfish and I'd heard good things about blue cod but we had to plump for the tarakihi and the snapper instead. To add insult to injury they even got my order wrong by giving me a small instead of a large portion of chips, but did only charge for a small. With Charlotte getting a large, she agreed to share her portion with me. When we received our boxes, we returned to the car and then escaped Wellington to find somewhere free to park and enjoy them. We pulled up in the suburb of Lower Hutt and tucked in. They may not have had a great selection and got the order wrong but the chips were the size of small potatoes, tasted great and the fish was a good size. We finished as big greasy messes but we throughly enjoyed it and could see why they were so highly recommended by our book. Slightly fatter than before, we rejoined the highway north and drove out to the town of Martinborough. The area is well known for its high quality wines but that wasn't why we were visiting for a couple of days. After 5 nights in real beds it was back to the tent, just as the North Island was getting an entire springs worth of rain. Fortunately,me found a gap in it to get the tent up nice and dry. With an outing planned for the following day, we walked in to Martinborough to have a look around and buy some dinner. Martinborough was a funny little town. It's only really selling point the large amount of vineyards in its vicinity, it seemed very well planned with a large open square right in the centre of town. With it seeming planned we also guessed it was rather new and the buildings all looked bright and well painted like they'd just been built. We walked through the park to the small supermarket and then headed back to the campsite for an evening in the kitchen. We were desperate for a break from potatoes for dinner, instead opting for a simple dinner of rice and veggies, with lashings of soy sauce for some flavour.

Wednesday 28th September 

A few nights out the tent had seemed to make all the difference. It was a pleasantly warm night and when we woke up in the morning we just couldn't be bothered to get up. We had to though as we had places to see. Despite rising a little later than usual we were still ready to head out around 9. We took the road south out of Martinborough, following the signs pointing the way to Cape Palliser. We'd read about the cape in our book months before and had been really looking forward to visiting such a remote place. After Martinborough we didn't pass much life bar for the occasional farm with fields chocked full of sheeps and cows. Our first destination was a walk in the Putangirua Pinnacles Scenic Reserve. The walk was to the eponymous pinnacles and we had 2 different routes to choose from. We thought we'd leave the river bed for the walk back and took the ridge walk instead. It was up all the way through a thick forest but the pathway was pretty clear. The ridge led to a viewpoint that overlooked the Putangirua Pinnacles. It's safe to say we were pretty underwhelmed. They didn't really look at all as we had expected, so we started down towards the riverbed return fairly disappointed. When we found the riverbed, there was a sign on the opposite side to us that pointed up the stream and said access to the pinnacles. We thought we'd give it a whirl just to spend more time out and about. We were pleased we chose to as the riverbed plopped us in the perfect spot for really appreciating the pinnacles. Our road map suggested that the location was used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings films but I couldn't recall from what scene, a sign with some information would have been handy. We hung around for a little while and then scrambled down the riverbed, which was quite an effort. The loose gravel and large boulders made it really awkward and on top of that there was no defined pathway, so we just followed the water and eventually made it back to the car. We carried along the road towards Cape Palliser, passing through what really felt like the end of the line. We didn't stop in the town of Ngawi and from the looks of it, we wouldn't have lasted long. There was a long line of rusting bulldozers on the beach, which our book said were used to pull the fishing boats ashore. Not long after Ngawi the road went from sealed to unsealed to almost 4x4. We were stopped in our tracks by a river that was running straight across the road. Charlotte was about to plow through it before I stopped her with a shout. It was flowing very fast and it was dropping off the road straight into the sea. We reversed back up to a platform and decided to wait to see how other cars took it. The one that went straight through it made it look very easy, although one that drove up just before us backed away just as we had. With them out of the way, Charlotte went for it and we got through fine. With the ford dealt with, we just had to navigate round the road at the base of sheer cliffs that were preceded with signs stating there has been slips, avoid the numerous potholes and we'd made it to the car park. A steady drizzle had started by the time we got out the car, so Charlotte wanted to get up and down from the lighthouse and back across the ford before the river swelled too much and became impassable. The lighthouse was up 250 steep wooden steps that Charlotte and I shot up despite the weather and wind. The car who had backed off the ford just before us had clearly braved it after seeing our brave attempt and the occupants were making their way up the stairs. We took some snaps of the little we could see from the lighthouse, waited for the 2 girls to ascend the steps and then headed down ourselves. Going down was significantly harder than going up and wasn't helped by the winds howling around us. We drove back out under the cliffs and through the ford and parked up just beyond and ate our lunch looking out across the Cook Straight. Whilst driving back towards Martinborough we came across a huge herd of sheep on the road. We pulled up next to a man on a quad bike and he just told us to drive through them. There was hundreds of them and they bounced out the way as we approached. In our attempt not to get back to the campsite too early we followed our road map to where it said a walk should be but all we found was farms and gravel roads. In the end we gave up and accepted that we done everything we wanted to in the area and we could relax for the remainder of the day. We attempted potato fritters for dinner to go alongside our rice and veg. They were nice but we’d forgotten to put any salt and pepper in so the fritters were slightly bland. We knew for next time though.

James and Charlotte

Wwoofing in Nelson

Thursday 22nd September

Despite the mild days it had been yet another chilly night in our tent. Fortunately, Charlotte had done some shrewd business online that meant we'd be out of the tent and under a roof for the next four nights. First though, we had to get the wet tent dry and packed away and fill up on breakfast. It took longer than planned with the tent but we departed around 10 heading for the city of Nelson. Back to Charlotte's shrewd business. She had found a wwoofing host for us in Nelson, who was happy to only have us for the 4 nights we'd be spending there. We jumped at the opportunity as it meant we'd be saving at least $200 over the 4 day period. The only drawback was that we'd be spending the first 2 nights in a shed but as long as we were warm, we didn't really mind. The drive round to Nelson took no time at all and we arrived at the house slightly before our arranged meeting time of 11am. We were greeted by a barking but very friendly golden retriever named Matty, who we gave plenty of attention to whilst waiting for her owner, Linda, to arrive. We weren't waiting long. The very chirpy and enthusiastic Linda showed us around her house and garden and ran us through the jobs she wanted doing during our short stay there. We were pretty happy with everything, so she dashed off to another meeting and we made ourselves some lunch. There were some freshly laid eggs from the hens in the garden in the fridge, so we cooked up some scrambled egg, cheese and onion, which fuelled us up for the gruelling 4 hours of weeding we were about to undertake. Linda had a wonderful garden, packed full of trees bulging with lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruits, there was a fantastic view across the Nelson suburbs to the sea and up into the surrounding hills but there was also endless weeds. She wanted the garden looking presentable for a BBQ on the Saturday, so we were happy to help her out. 4 hours, thousands of weeds and as many sandfly bites later we were not even half done but it was nice to be wwoofing again. The weather helped with the enjoyment. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was midsummer and both Charlotte and I finished the day slightly pinker than we'd started it. The only down point was that after our showers, I came down with a migraine that forced me to bed without dinner. Charlotte cooked up some steaks that Linda had left in the fridge for us but put mine in the fridge for the following day. Charlotte was in bed almost as early as me as there was nobody around to keep her company. We  were sure Friday would be a better day though.

Friday 23rd September

The 11 hours sleep did me the world of good and despite the shed being rather compact, we were very comfortable and the sunrise was fantastic. We decided to get the 4 hours out of the way bright and early, so started at 8. Whilst working the previous day, we had already been devoured by hungry sandflies and they were out in force yet again. Some groovy pulled up socks helped but if they want to find a bit of bare skin, they'll find it. We spent 4 hours until just after 12 weeding and prepping beds ready for spring planting. As if we don't get enough of weeding on our allotment back home, the weeds here just seemed to go on forever. After 4 tedious hours though, it was satisfying to stand back and admire our work. For lunch I had the dinner I'd missed the night before and Charlotte cooked up a pizza that Linda had picked up for us. The weather was lovely, so after lunch we walked down in to downtown Nelson to have a look around. Without researching it, we guessed the town was named for Admiral Nelson and after passing Trafalgar Square and walking down Trafalgar Street, we were even more sure of it. It seemed a compact little city, nestled in between hills and the coast. We weaved up and down the main road and its offshoots with no real destination in mind. Eventually, we stumbled across the iSite, which is a chain of information centres dotted around the country in the popular tourist towns. We had a look around for a book of walks but there wasn't one to be seen, so we picked up a town map instead and carried on. For a bit of culture, we wandered back to Trafalgar Square to have a look at Christ Church Cathedral. Walking down towards the square from Trafalgar Street, the tall rectangular bell tower can be seen rising from the cathedral. The were a few school children sprawled on the steps celebrating the start of their end of term when we walked up to have a closer look. Unfortunately, wecouldn't get too close as every access point was blocked off with traffic cones and bars. We got a few photos in and then scoured the map for something else to do. There were a number of parks at the opposite end of Trafalgar Street, Trafalgar Park (so imaginative with their names) and Rutherford Park, so we thought they would be worth the walk. They weren't. One was a football/rugby stadium and the other was some other kind of sports complex that was either under construction or under renovation. With not much left to see nearby we started on the short walk back to Linda’s house. To be honest, we would have been pretty happy spending all of our time when we weren't working just sitting in the decking at Lind’s house soaking in the view and when we got back, we did just that with a cup of tea and a book. The only problem with sitting outside was the insatiable sandflies and the time came when we had to admit defeat. We scrubbed up and then sat in the dining room awaiting Linda’s return from work. Whilst we were waiting, a precession of Chinese or Taiwanese people kept turning up, joining an ever growing tumult in the lounge. The reason behind the Asian arrivals was that there were 2 Taiwanese lodgers also staying in Linda’s house. They had been working at a fish factory for the past 3 months and had just completed there last day, so they were having a gathering at Linda’s. Eventually, Linda did appear with a couple more Asians in tow, which was quite amusing. Due to finishing work late she had nothing prepared for dinner, so popped back out in her slippers and picked up a takeaway. She came back with a Chinese and we ate with a backing track of Asians laughing. After dinner, Charlotte helped Linda put together a rather futuristic chicken feeder for her chickens she kept in her garden. She claimed it would help train the chickens over time by making them stand on a metal plate that would open the lid for them to eat their food and it would stop other animals from stealing their food. Unfortunately, we'd be long gone before the chickens would get to master it. With that, it was time for our final night in the warmth of the shed, as we'd be moving in to the room occupied by the Taiwanese lodgers, as they were leaving the following day.

Saturday 24th September

Today we were leaving the work for the afternoon. Linda had told us there was a very good market in town on a Saturday morning, so we thought it would be worth a visit. We walked the same route in to town we had taken the day before and found the market set up in what was usually a car park. The market wasn't huge but had a about 5 or 6 rows of stalls. It was predominantly arts and craft stalls, interspersed with food carts and a busker or 2. We did one circuit to have a quick look at all the stalls and then left it behind briefly to return to a souvenir shop we'd spotted the day before. We knew they had pin badges, so when we didn't see any at the market, we knew where we had to go to get some for Nelson. With that done, we headed back to the market to have a closer look. Despite having had breakfast before we left, we couldn't resist the temptation of a doughnut each. They were made from sourdough, of which Charlotte is particularly familiar, with one having a chocolate filling and the other vanilla. The sourdough aspect was interesting and they weren't as sweet as the doughnuts we are used to from home but they were still a nice treat. There were a couple of stalls we were eyeing up in particular. One sold numerous kitchen utensils made from local wood and the other was locally upholstered cushion covers. The cushion covers win and we picked up a couple of nice ones with native birds on. They would join the coasters and placemats that we'd picked up in Cambodia on the “when we move out” pile of items. With the market done we headed for a short walk we'd been eyeing up since we arrived. It followed the bank of the Maitai River to Branford Reserve and then ascended a steep hill to its summit that had the privilege of being the centre of the whole of New Zealand.  The view from the top was very good, having a more central location than Linda’s house, we could see more of the city from the top. We waited patiently for a large group of Asians to depart so we could take a couple of uninterrupted photos but there were so many different permutations of photos they could take, it seemed like they would be there for hours. After growing impatient, we barged our way in and got what we wanted then walked back towards Linda's house, crossing the river and running along the bank again. We got ourselves some lunch when we got back, cooking up another pizza that had been bought for us and then donned our gloves ready for yet another afternoon of weeding. There was still plenty about although we were pretty sure some fresh ones had sprouted up overnight after all the sunshine the day before. Another task for the day was to dig some well rotted and some not so well rotted compost into the beds that we had weeded over the previous day's. When I say not so well rotted, we were digging in the occasional lemon or grapefruit that hadn't quite decomposed. It had been raining quite hard for a couple of hours by this point though, so we were at a point of not really caring. We eeked out weeding for a further hour before submitting to the rain and retiring inside for a shower and a cup of coffee. The rest of the evening was a washout with rain pouring almost continuously. We sat in our new huge room with views out across Nelson to the Tasman Sea, deliberating if there was anything for us to do. We didn't fancy getting soaked on a walk, so we decided to stay in and keep our fingers crossed for better weather the following day, although a quick look at the forecast suggested we wouldn't get any. There was a strange atmosphere in the house that evening. A 45 year old Brazilian man named Ricardo, who was staying in the house whilst doing a woodworking course, had a BBQ to celebrate the end of the course, with his classmates and instructors attending. We were never really invited but when we finished work for the day Linda told us to get cleaned up and then feel free to come out and have some dinner. It was only 4 so we told her we'd wait until later. We left them to it until we headed out to feed off the scraps that they'd left behind. We eventually got shot of them all when, on a whim, they decided to walk in to Nelson, through the pouring rain to a bar. We were invited but we politely turned them down, not really fancying a night out with 40 and 50 somethings (mind you, we probably wouldn't fancy a night out with people our own age!).

Sunday 25th September

The clocks had sprung forward overnight which meant it was almost 9 before we’d even realised. There wasn't much movement around the house, so we quietly made ourselves breakfast,trying our best not to wake the lady in the sleeping bag on the sofa in the lounge and headed out. We walked to a place called the Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, which was in the next valley down from where we were staying and took us about 45 minutes. It was another miserable day but thankfully the rain wasn't falling too hard. The Brook Sanctuary is a project to maintain an area of land that is completely predator free. That means non natives such as rats, stoats and weasels. The New Zealand government had a policy to make the whole country predator free by 2050, so the Brook Sanctuary is a precursor to that. To keep the predators away from the native birds inside there is a 7 foot high, partially electrified fence running around the perimeter of the sanctuary that cost a whopping $1000 a metre. The only problem is that the fence isn't quite finished. The fence looked like something out of Jurassic Park and as we entered through the holding gates, which could only be opened one at a time to avoid “contamination”, it was hard to shake the feeling that we were entering the Velociraptor pen. There were a number of walks around the sanctuary and we spent an hour or so exploring the area. Apart from the main track from the gate, the ones branching off were all incredibly narrow, forded streams, passed under rocky overhangs that looked like they'd fall at any moment and crossed bridges that had signs that said we weren't aloud to cross them for safety reasons. It all seems slightly incomplete to us and we were just pleased we didn't have to pay to enter. When we'd had enough, we made our way back to the bio security gates, taking one final glance over our shoulder to make sure we weren't being stalked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. We were aiming to be back at the house for 2 to fit in our work for the day, so we just about had time to pop in to town, pick up a snack for lunch, have a quick browse in a shop and make it home. As with the previous days, we weeded, pulling great clumps of grass from underneath the Avocado, Feijoa and Macadamia trees. We were supposed to do 4 hours work but Linda came out at about 5 and told us to go in and get warm by the fire. We didn't need a second invitation. By the time dinner came around we were starving and were frustrated by the help yourself nature of the food. It would be so much easier if we were just given a plate of food that we could eat rather than being worried about how much your taking. After dinner we were bored to death by Ricardo talking about Brazilian politics before heading to bed, ready for our departure the following day.

James and Charlotte