Around The World In 80 Waves

After leaving the pub in Picton I spent the night in the car park of the monument to the Wairau Affray in 1843, which sounds as though it was only a little worse that your average Saturday night in Cardiff.

However there is not a great deal of written history for the islands of New Zealand so it gets a mention in all the guide books, its own plaque and based on what I have seen elsewhere here it is surprising it doesn’t have a museum to celebrate it.

After a few pictures of the stunning scenery and a quick coffee prepared on the stove and I am on my way to see how far down the west coast I can make it today. I start along the coast road towards Nelson. (So many of the towns and cities here are named after heroes of Victorian Great Britain.)

Everywhere you look the scenery is breath taking and it actually reminds me so much of North Wales. The flora may be different but the texture and colours remind me so much of home even if things are much bigger in scale here on the South Island.

I am driving for most of the day soaking in all the amazing scenery crossing forests, fjords, rivers and mountain ranges.

There are so many twists and turns in the roads, so you can tell that the Romans never made it out this way.

It does mean however that progress across the island is pretty slow.

How could you mind though when everywhere you drive through looks like this though?

I wouldn’t mind having a motorbike to play with on these winding roads.

After what I paid for the campervan on the ferry that will just have to wait for another adventure here.