Our New Year’s Day started as ropey as it always has done for the last decade. Sore headed and bewilderment as to where i have ended up. In this case, it was waking up in the car park of wellington harbour inside a campervan that wasn’t ours. A quick cleaning up of the van so it could get going and Katy and I headed back to our own little green machine.
We drove out of the car park and as we turned right we decided we might go into McDonalds for a coffee. Unfortunately we missed the turning and looked like were being indecisive as to where we wanted to go in an attempt to avoid swerving across 3 lanes in the city centre. Now, this was not the time for this to happen, as a mere 100 metres down the road the police were in full force. Closing off two lanes to filter traffic and run breathalyser testing on random drivers. We prayed that we wouldn’t be selected for this particular test this morning as we didn’t have time to stop and wait, we had to get to the ferry pronto.
The others who stayed in the super swanky town penthouse were not too far behind us and the other campervan joined us in the boarding lanes of the port. Slightly tired and bored a round of eye-spy was played whilst in the port queue, but my lack of nautical terms made for a game that used generic terms like “boat” and “rope”.
The ferry was, well like any other ferry. There isn’t much I can offer here which is eye opening. You park up, you go to the on board restaurant and find a place to sit. When you go outside during the main crossing the winds blow you all over the show. However, the scenery as we approached the South Island was impressive. The Cook Straight ferry approaches Picton by navigating the fjords and small islands on the northernmost part of the South Island. This was a nice scenic welcome to the next stage in our adventure.
When the boat pulled in we punched in our next campsite into the satnav. This was (as they all were really) booked last minute the day before. They thankfully had some spaces and said the journey from the boat was in the region of 25 minutes or so. They were not wrong and we were grateful to see it would be such a short drive.
We parked up at Spring Creek and were greeted by a sign telling us the this campsite was the home of Eddie the Eel, who resided in the river at the back of the campsite. The main office was bizarrely closed but we were informed on where we would be parking up and that we could worry about paying later. Seemed like an odd business tactic but I guess the campervan tourists of New Zealand aren’t the type to dash off when asked for payment.
We went to the river in search of Eddie but instead found a handsome looking duck. We tried our best to spot the eel, but we had no luck! Oh well, maybe Eddie was just sleeping. We did however find the caretakers cat. Still a relatively newborn kitten, No (interesting name choice) entertained us with classic kitten affection.
Enough of the chill time at camp. We were in the Marlborough area for only one day and we had some serious wine tasting to get done. We located a vineyard nearby that was open so we all got into the one big camper (Jayne very kindly offered to be the designated driver) and we headed out to the Cloudy Bay vineyard.
There were a total of 3 different tasting menus for us to choose from. We opted for the best value for money option which came with a selection of 5 wines across Sparkling, Red and Whites produced on site. They all came with a little spiel but the actual tasting experience was a bit uninformative. Not to be deterred from having an enjoyable session, we decided to buy additional bottles to enjoy at our own leisure on the grounds.
We enjoyed our personal selection out in the garden of the vineyard. This was actually much better than the tasting session as you could walk through the vineyards and look at the grapes being grown. It was great being in the ……sun?
The sky was notably darker than a typical summers day. The nearby mountains were shrouded in a unusual, yet recognisable haze. We then took note that you could look directly at the sun without being blinded. Then it clicked, what we were seeing was what Katy and I had seen in Sydney. But surely not? Surely the effects of the bushfires had not made it this far.
In talking to some of the locals on the table next to us it transpires that yes, indeed this was the ash from the fires clouding the sky over New Zealand. This was pretty hard hitting in understanding the true scale of the fires that were languishing the western coast of Auz. However, I’m not here to make dramatic observations of a climate disaster and so ill move on swiftly.
We had a fun, somewhat slightly tipsy, photo booth session in the garden. Next to the vineyards own branded Land Rover, Katy learned how to twerk whilst I was trying to resemble a younger form of the man from Del Monte in portrait shots.
Sadly as all establishments annoyingly do, closing time rang out and we were made to leave the vineyard (though not through force, which I believe to be the clear demarkation between class and riff raff). We hit the road again in search of the next vineyard open to us. A few minutes up the road we stumbled across a vineyard/brewery which also made cider. With that much variety on offer we had no choice but to pull in.
We enjoyed a variety of drinks made locally on the site and decided we would stay there for dinner. Sadly, as soon as that decision was made we were told the venue was closing down for the evening. Darn! Not wanting to say goodbye to the good drinks, we popped into their shop and bought some boxes to take on the road with us.
We stopped off at a grocery shop on the way back and decided we would emulate the food that was on offer at vineyard, with our own barbecue. I helpfully stayed in the van as i am a big believer of too many cooks (plus being quite peckish I would’ve offered the non-helpful suggestions of Doritos/chocolates/Obscure dipping sauce no one actually wants but sounds somewhat tasty).
We arrived back in the campsite to find that we now had a neighbour. He had used every available inch of his lot for his converted horse trailer campervan connected to his Land Rover. He was instantly keen to make small talk conversation that none of the group were overly enthused by.
Note: This wasn’t us being anti-social louts, this particular campsite guest falls into the category of Ned Flanders mixed with Ron Burgandy. Somehow there with a cheery tone to brag about their own campervan. Whilst this can be dealt with easily in a bar environment, this was not the occasion.
We subtlety snuck off to the BBQ area and cooked up our feast. It was delicious and went down well with our newly acquired, locally sourced beers. We sat by the benches talking and drinking the evening and early night away before the tiredness from the New Years antics hit hard and we all gained the million mile stares and non-versational silence of defeat. The last conversation of the night involved the caretaker of the site. On passing we thought we would ask about Eddie the Eel and ask as to where he hides. Turns out Eddie was actually dead (and had been for a number of years). They just keep the signs up for fun, though i suspect it’s actually a memorial to the campsite fish. On that somewhat weird note we stumbled back to our vans and bedded down for our first night on the South Island.