Fresh Salmon - Cinnamon Scrolls -Wanaka Here We Come

The weather is beautiful, a great day to see this wild and wonderful West Coast.
This South Island just keeps on coming and amazing us.
New Zealand is dotted with great old pubs
Unlike the cities the country people revere their history and work with what they’ve got.
We are rushing past fabulous early colonial cottages. I’ve yet to capture one but I will soon.
You keep on turning corners and look...wonderment!
This is Lake Ianthe

About another 100 kms on we reached the town that surrounds the Franz Josef Glacier and Coffee Stop.
The Full of Beans Café.
Highly recommended
I was intrigued with this beautiful cake. One of the cooks was assembling it.
This is a gluten free cake.

It is one cake cut in half.
Would you believe only 4 tablespoons maize cornflour is used.
It took a lot of trial and error to perfect this cake.
About 8 eggs…
Will do some experimenting.

Didn’t get to taste I had already been distracted.
My search for perfect date scones is changing to perfect scones of any flavour.
These cinnamon scrolls were excellent. According to the lady in the gas station next door you have to get in early so that you don’t miss out.

We didn’t do the Glacier. We moved on another suggestion from Derrick was to go to Lake Matheson

So we turned off…so beautiful. A lovely cafe...we didn't eat there as we were still full from Full a A Bean Cafe

But we reneged on the actual view of the Lake it was a 20 minutes walk each way. So that was another hour added onto our trip so reluctantly we carried on south. Anyway we had a bonus not too much further on there was a Fox Glacier Lookout

Quick left turn and up this lovely track not suitable for Campervans and Truck Good.

We nearly missed the lookout a dick head cyclist had parked his bike over the sign Dale had to get out and move it so we could see where to go. The hidden arrow pointed to the left. Lucky we could have driven on for ages.

It was worth it though. Look at it

Now as a contrast here is the Garabaldi Glacier in the Beagle Channel not far from Cape Horn picture taken while we were cruising couple of years ago. But that's another story.

Back to the South Island
Knights Point

It seems every where we have been...of course there are the usual Cluster of Campervans.

(A little aside- our friend Jim, who is an Uber Truckie says that the Campervans are known as White Maggots by the trucking community)

They quite often travel in convoy and it is a real pain.

There are ancient occupants in this area.

Sandflies. I just killed my first one here at Knights Point

But let’s not digress
Looking straight ahead 1700 kms to Tasmania

And to the left (the south west) First stop Antarctica

The sights just keep on coming
The Haast Region
Haast Population 295 known as Haastafarians
Lunch time.
On recommendation from our Lonely Planet we really wanted to go to
The Craypot at Jackson’ Bay Wharf but once again 40 kms out of Haast...so we settled for the Fantails Café.
We chose Fish and Chips.
They were cooking Blue Cod. The Blue Cod in this region is sensational
Normally!!!
The fish and chips were OK…edible but not fabulous. Anyway they filled a gap.

So over the Haast River
Now a major milestone… we have traveled 1500kms since we left Auckland
8 days ago.

Then into Haast Pass just vision after vision

Waterfalls, rapids

The sign post at Cameron Flat
There is a map of the area and walks etc you can take
Of course we didn’t…after all we are on a eating and drinking tour of New Zealand.

Not a walking tour unlike some mad friends who are biking

Go for it Severne, Annie, Julia and Rexy

Then over the hill Lake Wanaka
on our right back into hills and then on our left Lake Hawea

Quite spectacular

See we are not alone

So we arrived at Paul and Lesley’s.

Lesley was away helping her daughter with the new baby Jack
But Paul was prepared for us with an excellent meat sauce (very rich and hearty) to top spaghetti...served with a tasty Chopped salad

Bit chilly down here

They know how to light a fire in the south.
Their view from the back veranda is sensational.

Paul took us for a Tiki tour of Wanaka we were the “Sunday Drivers”
There is a disproportional amount of very rich people living here for the size of the town.
Some great houses but 2 of the best are owned by people we know.
Unfortunately once again the battery ran out on my bloody camera.
This the only shot I got of Sue’s superb Villa
Now those who know us well will be delighted to see how the little dog ran and sat on Dale’s knee Luckily I got this shot before technology failed

But all is not lost Sue has a website she rents this wonderful place out
Villa South Pacific
The we went to visit Annie and Colin Mantell’s amazing house overlooking the golf course.They have so much style those two.
Check their place out. Mantells

They have a superb event location in Auckland and the Ultimate Motorhome.

Bit different from the Clusters of Campervans we have encountered

Wanaka is outstandingly beautiful I loved this little churchOn her way home Lesley popped into the Salmon Farm and purchased us some fresh fresh Salmon for dinner

Lesley seasoned and sprinkled chopped chives on the fish and cooked it face down
After a couple minutes she flipped it and poured over some wine
Got that bubbling and then covered it.
Heat off leave for about 3-4 minutes.

Moist and fabulous.
AND Jersey benne potatoes and steamed asparagus
So so good

It got a bit raucous after dinner

So it was farewell to the Burts

I would award this establishment
♥♥♥♥♥
Lovely garden, spectacular view, good bed, good shower. Excellent Sunday Drive

Great Fun Paul.

Last of the Whitebait I Fear -Nelson to Hokitika via Greymouth

We left Nelson and started looking for a place to lunch.Murchison was the destination
The trusty Lonely Planet gave Rivers Café plenty of stars
We agree

I had The Whitebait Sandwich
2 fritters laden with Whitebait on home baked bread nestling on a bed of salad with Highlander Condensed Milk salad dressing.

YES!

Dale had a bowl of hearty pumpkin and parsnip soup

They have wonderful slices of meat pies
Venison or Lamb and mint, Hearty Beef. I nearly changed my mind, they looked so delicious but the Whitebait won. After all it is the end of the season…make the most of it.

The weather had been shitty but suddenly the sun came out and we could really appreciate he beauty of this countryside.
The rhododendrons and azaleas are so beautiful

There are so many fabulously quirky exhibitions scattered around the countryside we missed the excellent photo opportunity of 2 car bonnets as a gateway to a long drive...but we did go back and get this arty array of old motor bikes

Derrick our friend from Bunnythorpe gave us some incredible instructions for getting the best out of the South Island so the next stop was Shantytown a replica of a 1860’s gold mining town. They have done a sterling job.

This is the wheel house from the Taupo which went down off the West Coast many years ago.

Looks like a playhouse. Imagine being in a gale. I don't think so, we'll stick with Cajun Moon. Much more my scene.

Sophia Joseph and Mia, I mailed your postcards from this old Post Office.

The church is picture perfect.

The prison is suitably horrific-

I looked into the cell God both of us got a real shock...I thought it was a real person Very Madame Tussard

The hospital was quietly benign but once inside, the horrors of early 20th century medical were there on offer.

Remember the dentist chair in “The Murder House” Gosh same kind of chair when we were kids...Yuk. No wonder everyone hated going to the dentist

But disaster struck just as I was about to capture the Iron Lung to film, my camera battery ran out and at the same time, Dale ran out of film
So no iron ling also no pictures of the brass operating table

I was planning to take a nice shot of the steam engine as this shot below is not great but you can get an idea.

So off to Hokitika we went.
We took the more expensive room option in the Beachfront Hotel. That Wild West Coast is pretty spectacular.

It was a fairly long trip and we settled into our room with a nice chilled Sauv Blanc and a
combination of deli foods and bread.
Much nicer view in the morning.
Sunshine!!!

And it continued for the rest of the day
Just as well it’s about 600kms to our next destination Wanaka.

I would award this establishment
♥♥♥♥
No garden, great wild view, good big bed, excellent shower.

Food and wine bit average...(Only from the Super Marche! no super duper cooks)

Roll on Wanaka and The Burts.

South Island Here We Come

We left Chez Christie reasonably early to catch the ferry.

Last time we did this crossing was decades ago. The ferry has got a bit flash nowadays.

The food used to be just pies and bob’s worth of chips in the past.

Now we have The Big Kiwi Breakfast $12

Good value.

It was an easy crossing…the boat barely moved…30 years ago when we lived in Wellington, we used to sail over this dodgy strait in a 39ft Cavalier Yacht we were involved in, that was a different kettle of fish. Can be treacherous

Off in Picton and on the road again.
Look at the beautiful colour of the South Island Sky

We drove to the Wairau River Winery and Restaurant.

Above see the lovely tree lined avenue to the Winery itself. Of course that's not the restaurant...we made a mistake... so back down the road and finally we reached our luncheon destination.

Our friend Annie works here on Mondays she is the excellent maitress ‘d
It is a beautiful stone building...according to Tony our lunch companion and Annie's husband...the family built it themselves.

As lovely as it looks, it was a bit chilly to eat outdoors so we dined in with Annie!

The menu was really innovative and finally we chose.

The food is sensational.

Tony and I had Vietnamese Prawn and Chicken Salad and Dale had Smoked Fish Cakes with Proscuitto and Hard boiled Eggs
That food was paired with their excellent Gewürztraminer.

We didn’t dally as we were off to Nelson to visit Linda
We will be re-visiting Tony and Annie later
Tony suggested we called into the Slip Inn for a coffee (and cake)
Overlooking the Marina. Good coffee good Devil’s Food Cake

Quite taken with the billboard outside
"Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional"

We had to gas up at Havelock nice surprise. Straight ahead was this Art Gallery.

The Tuatara art work on the exterior was organised by a mad friend Peter Fyfe.

The artist was an Inuit he had discovered
Amazing piece of work

Linda used to live on a 25 acre block in Richmond on the outskirts of Nelson but has moved back into town.
Our timing was a bit bad...like Annie, Monday is the only day she works.
So after settling us in she went to work. She runs the bar at one of Nelson’s top Hotels
Harry her son looked after us. The stomach’s were rumbling
Time for a drink and food/ The drink was consumed at Linda’s Bar

The lovely Linda on the right.

We did a little Tiki Tour of Nelson looking for fish and chips but finally settle for Indian.Very nice to was too.

Didn't get a shot of the food but here are two satisfied customers outside of Little India

Dale and Harry went to bed.
I sat up with Linda’s boarders Penny and Clare, get in a few extra wines. NOT

We are really ploughing through the wine
We had limited but quality time with Linda and Harry

I would award this establishment
♥♥♥♥♥
Great food, great wine, good bed, nice little garden, Superb company, excellent shower.

And a couple of dogs.