Riding in New Zealand: South Island Ride 2011

Late Janauary 2011 we headed down south with our friends Chris and Sally. Headed down toward Masterton to drop into the Wairapapa Air Show which was on for the weekend. It was Friday afternoon when we were there and the weather packed it in over the weekend, so we were pretty lucky.

These are mostly pictures of radio control planes and jets

These are real "real old planes"

Pelorus River

I had stopped waiting for Scott to catch up after he had been pulled over by the cops. Turned out be one of those ones that a filming for a TV show, he didn't play up to the camera so I guess they won't show it on TV.. But he did get a speeding ticket. Bit of a blow for the start of our South Island trip.

Stopped for a coffee and a break in Nelson.

Fuelling up in Motueka

Beautiful little Bays around the coastline

Stopped part way up the Takaka Hill. What an awesome ride up here. I had some big 1970's V8 Falcon trying to keep up with me going up the hill

View out over the farmland from the Takaka Hill

Found this lovely BnB accommodation in Collingwood called The Lewis House.

Rode out to Farewell Spit in the morning.

. Farewell Spit is a narrow sand spit at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. Known to the Māori as Tuhuroa, it runs eastwards from Cape Farewell, the island's northernmost point. It forms the northern side of Golden Bay and is the longest sandspit in New Zealand, stretching for about 26 km above sea level and another 6 km underwater. The spit runs in from west to east, and is made from fine golden sand - as Cape Farewell to the west of the spit is mostly composed of late Cretaceous quartz sandstones, i.e. silica but with traces of other heavy minerals, garnet, ilmenite, magnetite and pyroxene. The erosion of the cliffs into fine sand carried on the sea currents creates Farewell spit further east

The northern side of the dunes are steeper and unstable being constantly exposed to the prevailing winds which average over 25 km/h. The southern side, that which faces Golden Bay is more stable and largely covered with vegetation. The tide here can recede as much as seven kilometres exposing some 80 square kilometres of mud flats; a rich feeding ground for the many sea birds in the area but also a trap for the frequently stranded whales

Heading down the Buller Gorge

The Buller River flows through the deep canyon between Murchison and Westport. Land Information New Zealand lists two sections for the gorge, Upper Buller Gorge and Lower Buller Gorge.State Highway 6 runs alongside, but considerably above, the river through the gorge.

Buller River

Hawk's Crag on the lower Buller Gorge

Arriving on the West Coast of the South Island

Stop to have a look around Punakaiki or simply Pancake Rocks

The Pancake Rocks are a very popular tourist goal at Dolomite Point south of the main village. The Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts through several vertical blowholes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments), these form the main attraction of the area

the curious weka was a bit hard to get a photo of

Scott Chris and Sally

Managed to get me into a photo

Stunning views and walks around these rocks. But alas, full of tourists.

Moving on to Greymouth

The town is located at the mouth of the Grey River, on a narrow coastal plain close to the foot of the Southern Alps. The mouth of the river divides the town into three areas: Blaketown, close to the river's mouth on the south bank; Karoro, to the southeast, separated from Blaketown by a series of small estuarine lakes; and Cobden, formerly a separate town, on the river's north bank.

Greymouth has a history of coal and gold mining. When the mining industry started to decline, forestry became a new staple industry

Fishing has long been important to the town, despite the fact that the entrance to the Grey River has two notoriously dangerous sandbars; an inner and outer bar

Hokitika

Hokitika River and Bridge

Franz Joseph - with Mount Cook hiding behind the clouds

Franz Joseph glacier is currently 12 kmlong and terminates 19 km from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20-square-kilometre large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé

Fox Glacier

The Fox Glacier (Te Moeka o Tuawe in Māori) is a 13 km long glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It was named in 1872 after a visit by the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir William Fox.^[4]

Fox Glacier

Lake Paringa

Haast River

Blue Pool - Haast River

Thunder Creek Falls

Stopped the night in Haast after a longs days ride. Tried heading out toward the beach to look for accommodation but came back to the hotel on the main Highway.