A steamboat chugs along from Picton harbor and out into the Marlborough sounds. Picton is home to the Edwin Fox, the world’s oldest merchant ship that brought convicts to Australia and immigrants to New Zealand. It’s preserved as the world’s 9th oldest ship. The first stop on our Magic Bus from Marlborough was Picton and then on to Nelson. Brits comprise 10% of the population in Nelson, and are said to now be the fastest growing ‘immigrant’ population in New Zealand, surpassing several Asian countries. We met a couple at the top of the hill who were 1st generation UK Kiwis. They were exceedingly friendly and after talking about their daughter in Oxford and trips to England, they guided us down a new, more scenic trail back to town. Steph and I took on the challenge and discussed the many open questions for our plans next year along the way down.
‘Point Zero’ - In Nelson you can hike up the hill for a vantage point over the town and the Abel Tasman national park in the distance, from what is the centre of New Zealand.
We rejoined a familiar face on the bus the next morning. - Alan our bus driver who had taken us from Dunedin to Oamaru. We had regretted not continuing on with him since he had tried to organize group bbq’s for sunny Lake Tekapo - for what sounded like an experience pretty much opposite to ours.
What’s more, I was excited to embark from Nelson on one of the world’s top scenic drives, and this time from a passenger seat. The route takes you west through the Southern Alps, via the Buller gorge and before turning down the western coast road. This crossing through the Buller pass follows a major fault line here on “the shaky islands” of New Zealand (which has over 100 earthquakes per week, mostly unnoticed).
The Southerly Alps are listed as a World Heritage Site. No less than one third of land in New Zealand is environmentally protected.
Down the west coast we drove. The magic bus stopped for us to take pictures of the famous pancake rocks, and tour gold mining and jade polishing towns. The driver’s ipod seemed to be stuck on “everywhere you go, always bring the weather”. Grey was delivered, as promised, with the rain and by the town of Greymouth where we had already heard that the weather is dark and there is absolutely nothing to do. The hostel was as drab and friendly as the weather (Noah’s Ark - don’t go there). However we made the most of a Brewery Tour at Monteith’s which cheered up our entire tour group. Note to staff - never leave Canadians, Americans and Irish with an unsupervised bar after teaching them how to pour from the taps. The evening ended at a post-brewery group dinner with our wonderful bus driver Alan who shared many wonderful stories with me, and explained many of my ongoing kiwi questions.
“Good as gold” - We dropped in on the town of Ross that literally sits on a goldmine fortune and still mines from the river to this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment