Story and photos by David Coxon

For the third year in a row, David and May, with their travelling companions Ashley and Gillian, headed overseas to the South Island, this time to continue from where the left off last year.
The plan this year was to head south from Picton, almost to Christchurch, and across Arthur’s Pass to Greymouth, which was as far south as we got last year when staying in Westport. From there we would head down to Jackson Bay and up the Jackson River, meaning that over the last three years we had reached every point on the West Coast that is accessible by public road. What we would do after that was still to be decided.
However, plans are one thing, reality is another, and before even booking we learnt that our plans were going to have to be flexible. Our initial plan was to leave just after the New Year weekend, but when I went to book, the first reasonable sailing I could get on either ferry service was a week later than we wanted. I booked it, then Ashley went to book his place, only to find that the sailing was full! Not wanting to wait three days for the next available reasonable sailing, they decided to go down the same day as us, but on the 1:00am sailing, and wait at the Marfell’s beach DOC campground for us to arrive. The upside of this was when we arrived at 6:00pm that evening, there was a sheltered site reserved for us.
The next day was an easy run to Kaikoura for the night to put us close enough to Greymouth to make a one-day trip of it. I hadn’t been down this way since the Kaikoura earthquake, and my interest in geology made the raised seabed an interesting sight. I was also very impressed with the amount of work done to restore and improve the damaged road. We stopped at the iconic Nins Bin near Kaikoura to pick up crayfish (or is it really lobster?) for dinner. Ashley and Gillian also got the fish and chips for lunch, and with May very well organised in the food department, we had salad wraps with a few chips to balance it up.  It was an enjoyable and relaxing start to the holiday, arriving at Kaikoura early enough to set up at the Top 10 campsite then explore Kaikoura before our crayfish dinner on a mild and calm evening. Unfortunately, the calm didn’t last, with the tail of the current cyclone sweeping through about 9:00 with strong winds and heavy rain. Although the tent was facing in the wrong direction for the unexpected wind, it survived with no problems, but I was up with Ashley in the dark reinforcing the awning by tying it to a tree and Ashley’s vehicle to support the existing pegs and guy ropes. We also found that the tent fly was no longer as waterproof as we thought, with two little dribbles of water coming in during the night. However, none of this was a problem and we were still warm and dry in the morning, although it was a bit of a wet pack-up and the weather continued to be blustery and showery as we headed off.
For our run to Greymouth, Ashley wanted to bypass Christchurch and go through the Ashley Gorge. His plan was to have the Ashley burger from the Ashley pub at Ashley, on the Ashley River. This sounded like a fun thing to do, but the pub was closed. Bother! We ended up detouring to Rangiora for lunch before following the Ashley River through to the start of the Ashley Gorge and finally joining the West Coast Road at Sheffield. The weather for the run up to Porters Pass continued murky with low cloud, and I was not expecting to see much of the Porters Heights and Arthur’s Pass area. However, as we came down off Porters Pass, we discovered that the clouds were all on the eastern side of the ranges and the Porters Heights and Arthur’s Pass areas were under clear blue skies. This was May’s first visit to the area, and I was very pleased that I was able to show here the alpine beauty I have loved since my university days tramping in the area. There were many stops for photos, and I hope to be back soon for more. After descending from the alps we took the road around Lake Brunner, expecting a bit more of a backroad route, but in practice this was all a smooth, sealed road, and probably as fast as taking the main highway.
We spent two nights on a very pleasant camping lawn at the Greymouth Top 10, giving us a day away from driving, and a chance to do touristy things like visiting Shantytown and watching the sunset from the beach directly behind our campsite. It was then time to head south and start getting to remote areas and taking on some real back roads. Next month’s article will cover the start of our exploring and reveal more unexpected events.