Here we are again in a motorhome, our favourite form of holiday transport. This time, we’re using it to tour New Zealand’s South Island, beginning at the top, then travelling anti-clockwise right around the island, with several inland stops along the way.
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| The motorhome for our South Island trip - Vwhā |
We found a great motorhome hire rate with Britz, and when we went to pick up the motorhome in Wellington, we were upgraded to a Maui motorhome with the same layout. The folks there gave us a wonderful deal and excellent service.
We have a full kitchen, bathroom, a U-shape lounge with table, and a drop-down bed. We have decided to call it Vwhā (V for Vanni after our first motorhome and whā is Maori for 4 – it’s our fourth van).
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| The planned route around New Zealand’s South Island |
We’ll be on the road for 6 weeks. The plan loosely, is to start in the Nelson-Tasman area, then drive along the west coast of the South Island down to Stewart Island, then back up the east coast, criss-crossing the island when we find something interesting to visit.
Our starting point was decided when we bought a 3-day walk on the Abel Tasman Track, one of New Zealand's great walks. Because that leaves from Nelson at the top of the South Island, we thought we should make the most of it and do the rest of the South Island too.
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| Queen Charlotte Sound, NZ |
So, after picking up the motorhome in Wellington, we drove straight to the Bluebridge ferry to take us across Cook Strait to the South Island. Around 3.5 hours later, the ferry was sailing up the Queen Charlotte Sound, and we had great views of the wonderful scenery.
Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui is the easternmost arm of the Marlborough Sounds, and the whole area is lauded as one of NZ’s scenic jewels. After driving off the ferry in Picton, we took the coastal road that follows the edge of the Sound.
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| Havelock on the Pelorus Sound, NZ |
Our first stop was in Havelock, a pretty town with a population of around 600. It’s set in a lovely location on Pelorus Sound at the mouth of the Pelorus and Kaituna rivers. We found a great camping site right near the edge of the water.
Havelock is known as the “Greenshell Mussel Capital of the World.” Although we arrived quite late, we wasted no time in finding a quaint café for a meal of greenshell mussels. The next morning, we walked through the small township, where we saw several reminders of its gold mining heritage.
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| Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve, NZ |
A couple of days later, we drove west to Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve. We stopped to stretch our legs and decided to do one of the many walks on offer there. It was a beautiful walk alongside the Pelorus River under the canopy of hearty native trees.
An hour later we lunched at the reserve's pleasant café. Then we drove north-west to Cable Bay, and after weaving our way through a few small settlements and a loose flock of sheep, we finally arrived at this picturesque place.
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| Cable Bay causeway to Pepin Island, NZ |
The small Cable Bay settlement has a pebbled causeway that separates the bay and estuary, and connects to tiny Pepin Island. It’s a very lovely place. We asked one of the locals about the Bay’s current name, and he told us it was because the first international telegraph cable was laid here from Sydney. It took 11 days, and transmission began on 21 February 1876.
It also has an interesting pre-European heritage, showing a Māori presence as far back as 1150 CE. Reluctantly leaving beautiful Cable Bay, we drove on toward Nelson.
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| Marg at the Founders Heritage Park, Nelson, NZ |
As we drove into Nelson, a roadworks detour took us past the attractive-looking Founders Heritage Park. We stopped for a look and found a number of re-constructed historic buildings set up to look like a whole village. It tells the story of Nelson’s colonial heritage and local characters.
An hour or so later, we drove on into Nelson city to find our campsite. We were planning to spend a few nights there to explore the place. Unpacking our electric bikes at the campsite later, we found the battery on Leigh’s bike damaged so our rides will be short until we can replace it.
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| Lovely produce at the farmers market, Nelson, NZ |
The next morning, we walked into Nelson City. Our first stop was the fantastic market. You could buy anything there, from fresh and home-made produce, to arts and crafts of an innovative nature….and it was so buzzy.
After a couple of hours, we left the market area to explore other areas of this lovely city. Our walk took us through the river area, and to several art galleries for which Nelson is famous. Our favourite was the Suter Gallery where we spent an hour or so.
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| Selection of architecture in Nelson, NZ |
Then we enjoyed lunch in the Suter Gallery café overlooking the lovely Queens Gardens. After that, we wandered through the historic centre seeing a mix of architecture that reflects Nelson’s heritage, including churches, the war memorial, the art deco State Cinema and more. Many date back to the 1860’s.
A few days later we drove north, stopping briefly at Rabbit Island, a regional reserve. After admiring its beaches, we ended up at Moutere Inn, NZs oldest pub, for lunch.
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| Marg at Moutere Inn, NZ’s oldest pub |
The pub dates back to 1850, and has a great selection of local wines and craft beers, all made within 10 km of the pub.
We were also going to visit nearby Moutere and Neudorf vineyards. However, they were closed so we drove through Motueka, a village of around 8000 people, and picked up some local produce before moving on.
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| Kaiteriteri beach, Nelson Tasman, NZ |
After that, we took the coastal road north, passing through the pretty beach town of Kaiteriteri. This is a small coastal settlement with a beautiful beach of turquoise water and golden sand. We found it to be very vibrant, with plenty of cafes and boats.
Kaiteriteri also has some wonderful wetlands, and after a walk around, we were back on the road driving further along the coast. Our next stop was the attractive beach settlement of Sandy Bay which was full of feeding waterbirds.
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| Marahau, NZ |
This is the first part of a bigger blog on our travels around the South Island of New Zealand.