The river

Walking along the Cobb Valley

We woke to a partially cloudy morning, but along the valley seemed not too bad, so after a yummy trout brekkie we decided to head off to walk the valley, well at least some of the way.

Fast-flowing water

A little hut

It was really pretty and we made a pretty good pace, all in all walking around 12 kms in about 4.5 hours.

The river

The river

Chris tried for more fish but was not so successful. Instead we cooked some potatoes on the fire and had them with baked beans and franks. Then we went to bed and watched Little Rascals which is a terrible film, unless you are 5.

written by  chrischarly on February 11, 2012 from Cobb Valley, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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Chris excited

Ancient marble

Climbing down and down...

About to go in the cave

Chris getting friendly with the cave

Stalactites and Stalagmites

Moa remains (bird that's now extinct)

Scary ladder

Kiwi remains

Moa remains

It was pretty awesome and we found out that they filmed some of Lord of the Rings 2 here and also recently some of the Hobbitt. After leaving The Caves we decided to head to a free DoC site in the Cobb Valley.

So high up in the clouds!

Happy Chris!!!

Dinner time

A nice big fire to keep the bugs away

Chris setup the van and collected some firewood whilst I watched the two naked men scrubbing their muscly bodies. Chris made a nice fire and this helped deter the sandflies. It was a clear night and it got pretty cold but I had Chris as my personal hot water bottle to snuggle up to all night.

written by  chrischarly on February 10, 2012 from Takaka, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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A very rare tree

The view from our walk

We headed to St Arnaud today, camped out in a café and caught up on the blog. We had a delicious lunch then went to the lake for a walk, only to find Charly only had one trainer. We drove back 25kms to last night’s campsite, to luckily find it sitting on the grass.

Nice view

View of the lake

Back on track we took a nice 1.5hour walk around the Peninsula of the lake spotting rare trees and wildlife, but unfortunately no Kiwis, even though this is a great place to spot them. We then went out of town to another free campsite and went for a nice walk to the River, did some fishing before returning back for dinner and bed.

written by  chrischarly on February 8, 2012 from Saint Arnaud, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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Seal on the rocks

Seal pup feeding

We left our campsite this morning and headed south for a while to Kaikoura as we had read that you could go on a whale watching tour which you could see, well whales obviously, as well as dolphins and other animals as well. On the way we stopped briefly at a lookout point from where we saw many seals playing really close up this time which was fascinating to stand and watch for a while.

Seals playing on the rocks

Seals

A seal

Seal swimming

Seals on the rocks

A seal

We then drove a little further and stopped at a little shack called ‘Nin’s Bin’ which is famous for it’s crayfish/lobster, but at ranging at $45-$96 for just one crayfish tail that would never in a lifetime fill us up we ran away from the tourist trap and continued to Kaikoura.

Chris' tiny trout

Scary-looking cow

Waterfall

We headed off up the gravel road across the Molesworth Station, taking in the bumps and amazing views before coming to the further DoC campsite. It was quite early so we stopped for lunch then headed on, after being advised of a free camp just outside of the station.

Amazing view

It was a long, bumpy and slow drive but finally we found a really nice free campsite with very few sandflies. This was paradise! Chris went off for an “ing” and came back with a big smile on his face after fishing, yes he actually caught one. It wasn’t the biggest, but cooked up with some pasta in a carbonara style it was simply delicious.

Chris and his catch

Nice view

Well done Chris, keep it up!
Some other campers were off to try and catch eels, so Chris joined them and returned well after dark, as he didn’t have his torch and had to wait for them.

written by  chrischarly on February 5, 2012 from Molesworth, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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High up

River by our camp

Once again, sick of the sandflies we headed off to cross the Southern Alps at the Lewis Pass, which was a really nice drive. We ended up in Hanmer Springs which was ultra-busy so after a refuel and a visit to the Doc Office we chose to take an adventurous route through Molesworth Station – the biggest farm in NZ. The road was rough, so slow going, but the views were great and we got to Accommodation House by mid-afternoon. This was another Doc campsite at an old cottage, used by trekkers. The site was really nice and near a River, so of course Chris went off “ing”, returning unsuccessful.

Chris cooking

Gorgeous countryside

Wild flowers

Walking through the Cobb Valley

After dinner we took a nice loop walk around the campsite to take in the amazing views and then Chris went for another “ing”, nearly fishing, as he did get a bite, but still no fish, very frustrating.

written by  chrischarly on February 4, 2012 from Hanmer Springs, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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We had a few things to do in Greymouth in the morning and early afternoon, and then headed up the coast and took a nice walk to see a seal colony.

How far we are from everywhere

A seal

Pancake rocks

Pancake rocks

After this we headed a bit further to Pancake rocks, which are a strange layered rock formation.

Pancake rocks

Pancake rocks

The sea

Coastline

We then headed inland to a DoC campsite by the Buller River, which is supposed to be good for fishing.

A weka

After getting to the campsite Chris went for a walk to find an access point but couldn’t, so no fishing, or “ing”, was done. We just chilled and had another yummy Chris creation for dinner, fought off the sandflies for as long as we could take it then retired to bed.

written by  chrischarly on February 3, 2012 from Punakaiki, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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