Into the South

We had now left the North Island and were on the ferry across to the south island. Unsurprisingly, this was just like getting the ferry to Ireland, except that it's a much rougher crossing. They actually have a warning sign at the entry to the terminal as to what condition the seas are, we had a calm crossing which was true for most of the journey as the ferry is sheltered by the islands, however once you get out into Cook Strait itself, the boat gets bounced around from side to side for about 45 minutes and then gets calm again. We arrived in the south island and headed a little north to a town called Nelson. Nelson was a lovely little town, full of quirky little shops, and overlooked from above by a large church with an odd looking art deco style tower. The main reason for our visit to Nelson is that it is the home of Mac's Brewery and I wanted to go on a brewery tour. I'm easily pleased by little things like this, if the 8th rule of travel is never pass a bar with your name on it (© McCarthy's Bar), then that must be doubly true for a brewery!Unfortunately, as we found out the next morning, the beer is no longer brewed at that site, and therefore they don't do any brewing tours! It wasn't a total waste of time going to Nelson though as I got a picture with the sign and Emma got her hair cut in town.

We left Nelson and headed to Kaikoura on the east coast. Kaikoura is famous for its whale watching tours as there are a few colonies of sperm whales in the bay and it's a regular migration route for humpback whales during the winter. What we didn't know, is that it is also home to huge colonies of fur seals. As we followed the main motorway down the coast you are suddenly greeted with the sight of thousands of seals just sitting around on rocks by the shore. They are so close to the road that you can simply walk over the rocks to where they are. Well, you probably shouldn't as when I did it, they all scarpered pretty quickly, but I got a good few photos before they all ran away. We arrived in the evening in Kaikoura and found a lovely little carpark looking out over the bay to park for the night. If a hotel room ever promises a sea-view, I guarantee it won't be as good as our view from the van that night. We went into town for a few drinks and found a pub called the Strawberry Tree that just happened to be doing a pub quiz the night we were there. (This has been a recurring theme of our round the world trip; Irish pubs and pub quizzes) We did okay in the quiz and ended up mid table but despite good rounds in general knowledge and star wars; we fell down miserably on Speights and Kiwi rounds - yep, a whole round about Kiwi birds! That somehow the Magic and Stray buses did suspiciously well on!!

We awoke the next morning to a fairly miserable day and unfortunately the whale watching tour that we had booked on had cancelled the days sailings due to the bad weather. It's pretty common at this time of year and people can often spend a few days in town before they got on the trips. We didn't really have time to hang around so we decided to leave Kaikoura that day and hopefully return later on our trip. So we set off from Kaikoura and headed for the west coast. The south island of NZ is divided by a large mountain range that runs pretty much the whole length of the island called the Southern Alps. They were very rarely crossed by the Maori in the south island and for many years the west coast was largely uninhabited as it was so difficult to get from 1 coast to the other. There are now a number of passes through the mountains, and the first one we used was the Lewis Pass, which runs from just south of Kaikoura to the town of Westport.The drive up the pass is quite hard going in a campervan; you just have to take it slow for a large part of the drive as you get higher into the mountains due to the snow at relatively low altitude.

Along the route, we made a stop at a town called Hanmer Springs, which is another site of geothermal spring pools. They have turned the springs into a very nice spa and swimming pool and combined with the quick access to ski fields nearby, Hanmer is now a very busy tourist spot. We stopped and headed for the springs which were a really nice diversion. There is something surreal about sitting in a hot pool while it rains on you, but it's a nice way to spend an hour or so.As you follow the Lewis Pass, you drive alongside the Buller River. The rivers in the south island are quite different to what we are used to in a river. The rivers are generally formed from run offs from the mountain range and have lots of little constituent parts, divided by islands and plains made of lots of rocks. As the water comes down from the mountain, it takes thousands of little rocks and stones with it depositing them along the length of the river forming rocky riverbeds. As you drive along, it looks like the rivers are low because of the rocks in the middle, but this is the normal level. After a heavy downpour, or in the spring when the snows thaw, these areas are covered completely and the little streams of the river all join to make a large powerful river. The other thing that is really noticeable in the rivers is how clear and blue they all look. They look really stunning and inviting, although most of them would be absolutely freezing!

Westport is actually named after Westport in Mayo; however it has none of its charm. The town itself was built to service the coal mining industry in the area and is really quite dull. The most interesting thing we did there was empty the toilet tanks, which says all you need to know about the town really. Just outside of Westport is Cape Foulwind, which was named by a slightly petulant Capt Cook as when he anchored at this spot, there was a large storm during the night- what a crybaby! The reason for visiting Cape Foulwind is the large Seal colony at Tauranga Bay which was fun to see, although you are quite far from the Seals as it's a protected colony.We followed the coast road down towards Greymouth, which is the major town on the west coast. On the way, we stopped at an area called Punaikiki Rocks. Like most rock formations that are worth having a look at, these are limestone rocks that have eroded away over thousands of years. What makes these different from all the others, is that they have eroded away into lots of flat layers, which has led to them being called pancake rocks. They look quite odd and a bit like the old 3-d jigsaws that you could buy, but they were pretty impressive and we had a lovely sunny day as we left there and reached Greymouth.

Greymouth is the largest town on the West coast of the south island. However, that isn't much to boast about, it's like saying that you are the smartest man in Kerry; it's an achievement, but there isn't much competition. The town was built as a result of the large amount of gold mining in the area and this is still one of the largest trades here (As well as greenstone/jade production). It is a fairly small town though, but the highlight of any trip to Greymouth is a trip to Monteiths Brewery. You may have noticed that I have cut down on the Guinness drinking in my photos - there have been 2 reasons for this, firstly Guinness doesn't travel well as we know and I got bored of drinking bad beer. But the other reason is the frankly fantastic selection of beers that NZ has to offer. There is a long standing tradition here of brewing locally crafted beers and of regional favourites across the 2 islands. This is still much the same today and unlike Australia which is dominated by 1 or 2 brands and churns out bland tasteless lager everywhere. The beer produced in NZ sticks closer to the brewing traditions of England with an emphasis on Ales, good quality lagers and dark beers. These dark beers are not stouts, but strong malt beers and are gorgeous.There are 3 main breweries whose local product is now nationwide, Mac's Brewery, Speights, and Monteiths. Monteiths brew 8 beers, 1 of which is always a seasonal beer which changes twice a year. The tour of the brewery was really interesting, unlike the large breweries in Europe, they produce each beer here in batches. As a result, you can have 2 or 3 different brews fermenting at one time all ready for production. It's also incredibly small; they only have 8 members of staff, including 2 brewers which is amazing for a fairly large brand that supplies the whole of the south island.Not all there beer is brewed here though and they do have a plant in the north island to supply them as well. As with all brewery tours it ends with a tasting session and this was definitely worth it as each brew is actually different and has its own unique taste. I had already succumbed to the Monteiths Black during my travels which is a lovely malty drink like a good porter. But they also make a beer here called Radler, based on a German recipe which has lime added during the brewing process. It's a gorgeous drink and would be ideal bbq drink if you could get it in the UK.It's a shame that the only NZ drink that anyone can think of is Steinlager because some of these brews are fantastic, no wonder the kiwi's want to keep them to themselves.

We left Greymouth after the brewery tour and headed for Arthur's Pass to head back across the Southern Alps towards Christchurch. On the way we stopped at a campsite called Jacksons's Retreat which was far and away the best campsite that we stayed in during our travels. It was a fantastic site with amazing facilities and as it was high up in the mountains and we had a clear night, we got to see the best star show I have ever seen in my life. There were stars everywhere; it was 100 times better, than even the night sky in Ireland and totally unexpected. We had a nice relaxing night there before setting off the next day across the mountains again.