We had a full day today. We woke up to the sun and it stayed with us all day which made the drive quite pleasurable. We left the Nelson/Richmond area by turning north on Hwy 60 which would take us to the northern tip of the South Island. Once we turned north we could immediately see one or more of the numerous Mountain Ranges in the area. Without it being directly pointed out to us it was difficult to say exactly which one or ones we were looking at.
A short way up Hwy 60 we came to the town of Moteuka which was on Tasman Bay. It would be the last water we would get close to until we stopped for the night. We stopped to get a quick coffee to go and found out that in New Zealand coffee to go takes 90 minutes. The truth being that we ended up talking to some people in the Cafe. They told us about a Farmers Market, so off we went.
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| Downtown Motueka |
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| Farmers Market |
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| Motueka Farmers Market |
There was a group of Maori Children performing different songs and dances as a fund raiser so we stopped to watch for awhile. They were quite good, at the least the ones truly interested were quite good. Some of the younger ones were too busy looking around.
We walked around the rest of the market, bought some produce and decided we had better get going. It was a fun break.
When we left Motueka we turned inland and started to climb. We stopped at a couple of viewpoints for pictures and in looking back the way we had come we realized how big of an agricultural area the entire valley is.
The rest of the scenery was pretty nice in itself.
Our first planned stop was at the Ngarua Caves which are located 2000 feet above sea level on Tanaka Hill. It is not clear who actually discovered the cave but the signature of H.B. Everett, a 17 year old surveyor's assistant was carved in the limestone formations. It was dated 1876 and is the earliest dated signature found.
The main cave which is one of many in the area runs for 300 meters. There is at least one offshoot that goes for another 60 meters but we weren't allowed in that area. The cave is also considered a dry cave and I, for one, was thankful. This, along with being open at two ends prevented it from having a damp or musty smell.
The tour which was 45 minutes was quite interesting. I wasn't sure how much rock was on top of us and I really didn't want to know.
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| Entering the Cave |
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| The cave is quite high in places |
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| Yes, she actually got me down in a cave. |
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| The Exit |
At one point the tour guide turned off the lights. I was amazed at how dark it was. The term " Couldn't see your hand in front of your face" certainly applied. It was not a nice feeling.
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| View of Golden Bay from Tanaka Hill |
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| View from Tanaka Hill |
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| View from Tanaka Hill |
It took us a bit of time to get to the bottom. You don't see many signs like this on a major highway.
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| 15 KPH or about 9 MPH |
We finally reached the coast and after a quick stop at the I Site in Takaka we starting looking for the campsite we wanted to stay at. It was in Pohara which is right on Golden Bay. We checked in and then went for a short walk on the beach.
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| Pohara Beach |
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| It's big when you can sail on it. |
It is a big beach, huge. It was low tide when we got here which gave it about 100 yards of sand to the water’s edge. It will be interesting to see how it looks in the morning when it is high tide.
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