South Island summer - Nov 2022

 Having crossed over to Picton on the ferry we headed for one of our favourite camping spots close by, the Wairau River diversion.  We were saddened to see that the council hasn't been bothered to open up the campsite at the end near the river mouth.  No surprise there.  We find Marlborough DC to be the most anti freedom camping council in the country!  Not to worry, there  was plenty of space in the allocated area.

Having stocked up with petrol, water and groceries from Blenheim we headed for Argyle Pond, a small man made canal and freedom camping spot on the road to Motueka.  James quite quickly had a lovely rainbow trout hooked, which went back into the pond to live another day .... or hopefully more.

While Clare enjoyed this view whilst trying to finish a pair of knitted socks.

Argyle Pond, watching the rod tip

However, we quite quickly noticed that the solar panel was showing an intermittent problem.  At the same time, we were debating whether to head to an isolated spot on the west coast or to Molesworth Station, where we had a hunting block booked.  Either way, we needed to solve the solar panel problem before heading anywhere remote.  Back to Blenheim we go where we easily obtain the part (for free!).  Too late now to continue our journey we head back to Wairau diversion for the night.  Upon arrival it became apparent that the kahawai were running in the mouth so James was pretty quick to head out there to spin some up. 

He had tons of fun, giving a few of his catches to a migrant vineyard worker who had been sent by his friends to try and catch a feed.  A young German guy also turned up, was offered a fish but said he wanted to catch his own so James gave him a spinner to use.

The next morning ......

James brought a few back to camp and had them pretty quickly filleted and into the fridge. And when the German guy came to admit to loosing the spinner, he got gifted with half the fish to share with his travel mate.  They had no fridge and only pot noodles for dinner.  Such is the life of young foreign travellers :-)

Next day it was decided to head for Collingwood where we would travel south down the coast to the river mouth we had heard about.  We stopped first at the Manarakau river mouth for a couple of nights.  We were the only campers here.  It was so peaceful.  The ocean was much too rough for surfcasting but we had a bit of fun spinning for kahawai in the river mouth and just enjoying the peace and tranquility of this magic place on earth.

The Detectorist

Back on the road we kept heading south till we arrived at the mouth of the Anatori River, 7km short of the end of the coast road from the top end.  (There felt like some symmetry to this journey as next year we will be house sitting in Karamea, which is just about as far north on the West Coast as your can drive from the bottom.)  

There was one other guy staying here who was something of a regular and soon enough he, with his local knowledge, and James as the good keen man that he is, had headed off on a hunting trip and come back with a few wild goats for the fridge.

 We also foraged some mussels off the nearby rocks and opened them on the camp fire.

The weather was pretty bad most of the time keeping us holed up in our van for a full day, one of the only downsides of living in a tiny space.  So after a few nights we headed back to the other side of the island again, stopping at Patons rock to pick some more mussels.

Arriving on the coast near Takaka we found ourselves fishing with a friend!  No wonder we didn't catch anything, but it was quite fun to hang out with this guy.

Heading back to the van we came across the biggest rock oysters we have ever seen.  Harvesting a few to take to family in Nelson, we continued on our journey.

A new baby had just been born into the family recently and we were delighted to call in for a couple of nights, helping out with the cooking and cuddling some gorgeous children.

Clare looks like she's been up all night
with this babe, that is certainly not the case!!!