Two Years in KiwiLand: Christmas Break (Day 7)

Today we woke up and took our time a bit around the campground. We had to pack up to leave the Pohara Beach Holiday park and eventually make it to the Interislander Ferry in Picton for the 10:10 PM crossing back to Wellington. The ferry terminal was only around 3 hours away so we had plenty of time to check some more things out around the area.

We started off by heading to Wainui Falls which was near Pohara Beach. This was a pretty quick hike back into the woods to see the waterfall. It was pretty cool - we got to cross another suspension bridge along the way. The falls were pretty, but the water nearby was pretty rough and freezing cold so we didn't go in.

After the falls, we gradually made our way back towards Picton. One highlight that we wanted to see was Harwood's Hole which is supposedly one of the deepest caves in the southern hemisphere. It was an 11 KM drive off of the main highway on a one-lane gravel road with a steep cliff drop-off on the other side. We made it about half way up the track when we saw some people standing around as if they were hosting some sort of event. Sure enough, it was apparently the first day of the Canaan Downs Music Festival. This was some sort of big hippy event held down by the cave each year that is pretty famous in the area I guess. The people wanted us to buy tickets for the event, but we just wanted to see the cave. They warned us that since so many people were coming in, it would be tough to get back out if we didn't turn back soon, so after a bit of thought, we decided to take their advice and head back. Sure enough, as soon as we started driving back, a big hippy bus was coming around the corner causing a road block. We had a bit of a standoff then more cars came in behind the bus. The only thing for me and a couple other cars going my way to do was to back up about a half mile until the road widened enough for the bus to pass. This was very stressful as there was a ditch on one side of the road and a cliff on the other. Eventually we made it far enough, but all these hippies got out of there cars and were trying to direct traffic. Some large sloppy hippy got out of her car and was trying to direct me around the bus - I had plenty of room if only she would get out of the way instead of telling me what to do. After me screaming at her and losing my mind, she finally moved and I was able to pass. We met a bunch more cars coming in as I was trying to get out that were a bit easier to navigate around but still caused a big delay getting out of there. Needless to say I was quite stressed out by the time we got back to the highway.

We still had a lot of time so we decided to take a three-hour walk on the Takaka Hill Walkway. This was supposed to be a three-hour hike with some great sea views and lots of marble rocks to see. It turned out to be pretty awful. The track was not used much so it was overgrown in a lot of areas. There wasn't much to see in the way of marble and not really any good sea views. There were all sorts of pricker bushes along the way that were driving Dan and I crazy. The only sort of cool thing was that there were a bunch of sink-holes along the way due to the number of caves underground in the area. We were bored pretty quickly so moved pretty fast when able and fortunately finished the track in about an hour and a half.

Then, we pushed on towards Picton. Since we finished the track ahead of schedule, we had time to stop along the way for dinner. We ended up going to a really nice place called The Clansman in Havelock where we got a big platter of their famous green-lipped mussels which are larger than mussels we have back home and are native to the area. These were actually really good -I didn't realize that I liked mussels.

After dinner, we traveled on to the ferry, caught a bit of sleep on the ride over, then went back to the Hutt Park Holiday Park. We arrived at 1:30 AM, and of course they messed up our reservations again. Oh well, they straightened it out quickly and we were off to bed in another bunk cabin immediately.

Me on a suspension bridge on the way to Wainui Falls.

Wainui Falls

Me and Dan at the falls

A close-up of an opening fern - symbol of New Zealand

A full fern which is also a symbol of New Zealand

Sign for Canaan Downs Music Festival and Harwoods Hole - would have been nice if they put people at the entrance to collect tickets rather than 5 KM in.