Sunday, 26 October 2025
A beautiful morning this morning to precede the shocker that is forecast for tomorrow! Today was all about relocating ourselves to Nelson for the all important Trans Tasman Bolivia Ashes Tournament. We’ve seen scenery – let the games begin!
We were on the road just before 9.00am, refuelled around the corner from our motel and headed north out of Christchurch on State Highway 1. The road has been upgraded to motorway until about Pegasus, so a good quick run out of the city. The highway after that is still pretty good, but only a single lane each way, with occasional passing lanes. With the long weekend the traffic was quiet, with people taking the extra day away from home, before they drive home tomorrow on Labor Day.
Our first stop was at Cheviot where we photographed the cute little church. With ‘MARKET’ flags up we ventured around to the community hall at the back to check it out. Hmmn, your standard small country town trash or, well, trash market. Most of the tables had very tired offerings. The only things that interested us were all too heavy/bulky to consider taking back to Australia. On a positive note, we were able to use the conveniences in the hall before heading back to the car.
Continuing north, we hit the coast at Oaro with Bernie waking me to make sure I could see the sea! I was chewing gum AND playing patience but Could. Not. Stay. Awake. It’s a wonder that I didn’t choke on the gum and spill the deck of cards all over the passenger footwell?? With the sun continuing to shine, we took a couple of photos looking across to the Kaikoura Peninsula. The East Coast is very pretty, especially on a sunny morning, so we stopped at a few more viewpoints along the coast. Toka-ānau, Raramai and Pinnacle Rock, looking across to Panau Island.
The mountains come all the way to the coast, so in some sections there are tunnels to carry the road and railway line through the mountains. In other spots there are massive nets strung above the road to catch the rocks that might otherwise fall onto cars on this road that clings to the coast. To mix up the photography for the day, we pulled into Bay Paddock Road to take a shot of the Seaward Kaikoura Range across a field of yellow flowering canola.
We made a quick stop at Ohau Point to check out the seal colony. There were quite a few seals in residence this morning. There was a rock pool full of baby seals learning to swim which was very cute. Somewhere on the trip I remember being told that seals tend to make their colonies in places were their pups will have a safe area to learn to swim before they venture out to deeper waters.
With it being a holiday weekend we didn’t drive into Kaikoura figuring this would be a very popular, therefore crazy busy, spot. We drove across the neck of the peninsula and continued north. At Rakautara we drove into the car park where Nins Bin (Lobsters) is parked. There was no menu displayed so we weren’t sure if it was only whole lobsters for sale when what we were looking for was more of a lobster roll for lunch. Uninspired by the appearance of the kiosk we pulled back out onto the highway.
Another bay, another lobster kiosk. This one at Okiwi Bay had more of an air of permanence, so we pulled in and parked the car. They offered a lobster lunch served on leafy greens with a garlic bread roll, lemon and aioli, white bait fritters with bread and butter or good old standard, fish ‘n’ chips. The lobster was being sold by weight, so we purchased a very small lobster to be cut in half for two lobster lunches – with a side of fries – for a rather extravagant lunch. Yum!
We continued along the coast until the road turned inland after the Waima River, eventually finding ourselves skirting around Blenheim about 2.00pm. We had no need to stop in town, so drove through on State Highway 1 before turning off onto the Rapaura Road (State Highway 62) across to State Highway 6.
The highway heading towards Havelock runs between Mount Richmond and Mount Riley amongst others, so still mountainous scenery, but not quite on the same scale as the West Coast! We turned west towards Pelorus Bridge and then north again to travel between the Bryant and Bull Ranges, where we encountered a few brief showers. We eventually turned south westerly to make our way into Nelson and then a little further south to arrive in Richmond, where we found the sun shining again. This area around Tasman Bay is touted as being the sunniest place in New Zealand.
Not wanting to arrive empty handed, we made a quick stop at Woolies for a few food supplies and a couple of bottles of wine. Then up the hill to the home of our dear friends Robin and Sandra. It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since we were last here. These are the sort of friends where you just pick up where you left off as if no time at all has passed. After hugs, we hauled all our gear out of the car and up to our lovely room overlooking the bay, where we were greeted by sheep on our pillows. A bit like being on a cruise ship where the towel animals grace your bed each day.
It’s going to be a bit more difficult to keep up with the travelblog now we have other people to talk with, ha, ha. To say nothing of the fact that our evenings will be spent playing cards instead of watching bad television while we write the travel diary (me) and process photos (Bernie).
After a delicious roast chicken dinner, it was straight into the tournament. It was first blood to the Kiwis, with Robin and Sandra winning two games of Bolivia back-to-back. We managed to fit in a game of Jo after. The continued to run NZ’s way, with Robin the run away winner, catching everyone with their hands full in the last round.
Steps: 4,308 (2.87kms)
