Day 13 – Saturday 11 April

All night it rained but we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. We left Nelson a bit before 8am & enjoyed the drive through apple orchards & vineyards to the lovely town of Motueka & breakfast at the local bakery, complete with lovely hanging pots of impatiens (flowers) outside adding real colour to the streetscape. Right along the main street of Motueka all the shops had impatiens in hanging baskets, it was very pretty. We finished a nice breakfast & as we started to get into the hills, the long white low wet clouds shrouded the beautiful mountains & scenery – another wet & cold day in paradise. Just past Motueka we started the climb up Takaka Hill, what a mountain it is, climbing & climbing & climbing & winding & winding & winding. All 791 metres of it with lots of hairpin bends & very steep drop-offs. To top it off it was raining & cloud/fog from half way up. The same on the way down the other side to the township of Upper Takaka. The road then widened as we drove down the valley with very green pastures on either side full of fat cattle & sheep. The town of Takaka was vibrant & buzzing & crowded with Saturday morning shoppers. As we neared Port Puponga, the northernmost town of the south island, the road started following the shoreline of Golden bay & was interrupted by a few single lane bridges. The tide was out & there are very large expanses of mud flats exposed.

Port Puponga may have been a port a long time ago, perhaps at high tide with shallow draft vessels. Today it is a motley collection of mostly old houses. We drove past Puponga a little & reached the Farewell Spit Cafe & Visitor Information Centre, located on a hill with a great view over the north west corner of Golden Bay & the start of the Farewell Spit, great at least if the tide was in. We read the information on display, primarily regarding the huge amount of different migratory birds that feed & nest on the spit, all 35km of sand dunes jutting out into Golden Bay & a Ramsar Bird Protection area. A lot of whales also seem to ground themselves on the inside of the spit as well, judging by the photos. We sat on the verandah of the cafe with a coffee enjoying the view & departed just as it started to rain again.

On the way back, just past Takaka, we turned off inland towards Anatoki Salmon Farm on the Anatoki River. There is a large lake stocked with Pacific salmon, free fishing, but you must take everything you catch, & also there is a cafe. There were a lot of families there with mainly the kids catching the fish. The salmon are 3 years old & around 2 kg each, just a good size. There is no charge to fish for them, they supply the rods & bait, they clean & fillet the fish & hot smoke the salmon if you wish. You pay $22 per kilo for the fish you catch, a very reasonable price I thought. We walked around & had a look at each of the growing ponds then walked all the way around the lake, very nice with the families all having a great time catching salmon. We had lunch at the cafe, a mixed salmon platter for two (served on a fish shaped platter) & it was all delicious. The chocolate pattern on the coffee was also in the shape of a salmon. An excellent place to visit.

Back over & down Takaka Hill, again in the rain & fog, another delight. The delight was when we stopped & bought a big real fruit ice cream – NZ should add the yummy ice cream they make here to their list of attraction for the tourists. This time we could stop at the lookout at the top as it had a break in the weather as we reached it, cold & windy though, but great views over Motueka & Tasman bay. Then rain all the way back through Nelson & all the way to Havelock where we are spending the night. Our motel is only a short walk from “The Mussel Pot”, Havelock’s iconic restaurant right in the middle of the Marlborough Sound area, a huge green mussel producing area. Needless to say, the green mussels we ate were big, fat & tasty. The end to another excellent day, apart from the rain.