Greg & Veronica's Singapore Update

Volume 18b

Friday, April 16, 1999

Anyway, back to the drive to Blenheim. This leg was about 4-5 hours long and passes through some very nice countryside. It’s a hilly area and the road winds through the hills quite a bit. Actually, as far we can tell, all roads in New Zealand wind quite a bit. If you have a problem with driving through slalom courses or have a tendency to get car sick, it will be a rough way of travelling. We saw lots of pastures and lots of sheep. We even saw a few cows. In fact, we were able to get up-close and personal with a couple of cows. The first stepped out of a wooded hillside just as we came around a bend. We were in the middle of a long line of traffic and had just returned to highway speeds after being delayed by some road construction. And suddenly, Daisy steps into our path. Thankfully, Greg's reflexes were sharp enough for us to stop before hitting the animal. Even better, the rental camper right behind us (probably being driven by people with all of 3 hours of camper driving experience) was also able to stop. The cow appeared unwilling to step out of the way, so Greg very (very) slowly drove around her. A few hours later we came to another cow in the road although this one was nice enough to appear less dramatically in front of us.

Blenheim is the heart of New Zealand's wine country. Actually, New Zealand appears to have several wine countries, each with a number of "hearts". In any case, Blenheim is a quaint little town nestled in vineyard covered hills. Returning from a disappointing dinner, we discovered that the center of adolescent Blenheim's social life is the public toilets in the middle of town. While I don't know that anything occurs in the toilets, there was quite a gang of teen-agers hanging around outside. The next morning we drove through the vineyards, visited an olive farm (they grow on trees, who knew?) and had lunch at a winery perched on a hill with an incredible view of the grape vines. Just wonderful! After lunch, we drove to Nelson, a port city on the Tasman Bay that is home to a large number of potters and artists. The hills became higher and the pastures turned to evergreen forests. The road still turned this way and that. We stopped for gas and Greg used the restroom. However, the toilet confused him because it had a small pipe and shallow depression built into the top of the tank. And a bar of soap. The mystery was solved when he flushed the toilet and the pipe begin to spit water. He discovered it was a sink built into the top of the tank. The incoming clean water (we hope) was used to wash your hands and then it drained into the tank to be used to flush the toilet. Very clever.

Nelson is an attractive town that is noteworthy for the local arts-and-craft scene and its very sunny weather. It is sunny just about every day. And the sun is relentless. People with doubts about the Ozone Hole are encouraged to spend a day in Nelson. Actually, the sun is very strong all over the island. Greg's hands were badly sun-burned by the sun coming in through the, mostly closed, car window. Unfortunately, the situation never really improved and Greg spent the entire week with badly burned hands. Nelson is also home to about a million motels. Almost all of them are little, family run places with 10-15 units. They reminded us of the line of motels you find along the old highways in towns that were bypassed by the Interstate system. Amazingly, just about all of them had "No Vacancy" signs up. We were lucky to get the last room available in our motel. Well, lucky is relative. It was a small, spare bedroom off of the owner's unit in a cinderblock cube that didn't have air-conditioned. While summer means highs in the 70's in Christchurch; here in Nelson, summer is summer and the lows were still in the 80's. It was a very warm night.

We had decided to be "spontaneous" and left Singapore with almost nothing booked, only our first hotel and the rental car. Once we got to New Zealand, we "discovered" that the high-season is very very busy and we got used to seeing all of the "No Vacancy" signs. However, all over the country, in most towns there's a Visitor's Information center that will also book you a room in town or anywhere in the country, all for free. Well, you don't pay a fee, but we found out your room rate includes some sort of commission. But it is very convenient and makes life easier. Of course, you may end up in a stifling hot room with the feel of a prison, but it beats sleeping in the car, right? We spent the next morning visiting pottery studios and a glass-blowing studio. We saw (and bought) some very nice pieces.

That afternoon, we drove around the Tasman Bay from Nelson to the Abel Tasman National Park. This is New Zealand's oldest National Park and it covers peninsula that makes up the North West shore of the bay. It was just beautiful. Steep hills come down to white sandy beaches that melt into the bay. Very, very nice. We stayed in a nice little lodge just outside the park entrance. Here we finally met one of those amazingly nice Kiwi's. The woman running the lodge was appalled when we said we were planning on taking a short hike in the morning and then starting our very long drive along the island's West Coast. She insisted that we plan on spending the whole day in the Park. Then she realized she didn't have a room for the next night, so suggested we spend the day exploring the park and drive a couple of hours after dinner. Her enthusiasm for the Park was very persuasive and we decided to take here advice. Before dinner that night, we walked along the shore and soaked up the scenery. The beach seemed to stretch for a mile between the shore and the water and it was great walking along it. The next morning we were surprised to discover that the water comes right up to the shoreline at high tide. We had decided on spending the day hiking along one of the Park's trails. The neat thing is that they have a system of water taxis. In the morning they pick you up at your hotel and then drive down to the water. The boats are launched and zip along the coastline and drop people off at different spots. And then, in the evening, they come by and pick you up. It allows you to hike between two different points along the shore and not have to do a loop or walk all the way back to the park entrance where the hotels are located. It's a great system even if the boat ride gets a little wet and bumpy. So, we were dropped off around 11:30 am at the white sandy beach at Bark Bay, spent an hour or so playing on the beach and eating our lunch and then started walking. Three or four hours later, we arrived at another beautiful beach, Torrent Bay where our taxi picked us up around 4 P.M. For some reason, the boat can't get too close to shore in the afternoon and we had to wade out in waist-high (for Greg; chest-high for Veronica) water to meet the boat. It was really great and we wished we could have stayed another few days. On the other hand, Greg's skin probably couldn't take it; he ended up with bad sunburn on his neck, arms and face. Next time, he'll use a sunscreen with SPF 300.