Wednesday 20 February

Totaranui, Abel Tasman NP
A second fabulous DoC camp. We left Kaikoura yesterday morning on the coast road northwards. It was a lovely drive, the coast line was rugged, with small bays and rocky promontories and often isolated rocks jutting up from the sea. After Blenheim we turned inland, through Havelock for the DoC campsite at Pelorus Bridge.  It was spectacular, far and away the best campsite we have stayed on, it was a bit reminiscent of Clippesby Hall, but much more so. All the pitches were in little bays surrounded by high tree and bush. It's usually booked out during the school holidays but we arrived early and there was no-one there. We choose a pitch looking down on the river on a tree encircled ledge. It was amazingly plush for a DoC site, not only a basic kitchen, but also hot showers. We took a walk through the bush, much of it looking out over the Pelorus River, to the site of two waterfalls. There were one or two sandflies but not enough to cause a problem. I didn't write up anything last night because it was just so nice sitting looking out over the river, soaking up the sun and being really warm.
It was cool when we woke up this morning though, and damp.
Today we have had a wonderful drive through Nelson and then further northwards, turning off the SH60 to head east into the Abel Tasman National Park, and the coast at Totaranui. At first the road followed the coast which is obviously a bit holiday/tourist area, lots of Motor Camps and Backpacker Hostels. Then at Riwaka the road turned westwards, up and over a spur of the Arthur Mountain Range. Like lots of things in New Zealand it was a condensed version of  other things we have done, by that I mean condensed and concentrated so more intense; the climb up and the drop down from 900 metres was steeper, the bends were tighter. It was 'awesome'! We then continued north to Takaka and took an easterly side road to Totaranui. The first bit of the road was sealed but there had been a terrific amount of erosion. On the left hand side there was a vertical drop down into the sea and in many places  all of the left hand side of the road had disappeared. This was marked by some netting on poles and a sign advising that it was single carriageway. It was a relief to get onto the gravel road which stretched for a further 12 kms until we reached the campsite at Totaranui. It is large, indeed enormous and so popular in the summer holidays that an application has to be Mae for a place in August, and pitches are allocated by lottery for the period of 16 December to 10 February. Today on 20 February it's not crowded at all, although there are quite a lot of people, not many big Motor Homes though, guess they don't like that access road! I wasn't too keen on the left hand side of a car! It's pretty basic, a couple of toilets, cold showers and a tap for potable water, just a larger version of many DoC campsites. The setting is lovely, tucked into the Awaroa Bay, a curve of golden sand and blue sea. No-one swimming though, so I guess it's cold in The Tasman Sea. We walked along the beach and a couple of water taxis put in, several backpackers got off, I believe you can come all the way here from Nelson by water taxi, what a lovely way to sea the coast.
I am happy, it's warm and sunny, in fact we have put the side awning up to create shade, the first time for about three weeks, and here we are sitting underneath it drinking beer. There are fire pots, one of the attractions of the site, so tonight we can cook steak and sweet potatoes with salad, our standard Southern Africa fare.

Time this afternoon for a few thoughts about New Zealand.
Maori - I now realise it is a description of all the inhabitants of these islands when the first explorers/colonialists arrived. Ignorantly I had thought that both islands were inhabited by a single nation, called Maori. I now realise that as in all the parts of Africa which have been colonised there were many tribes, mostly of Polonesian descent, who waged their own wars over land and ownership. Those tribal affiliations seem to perpetuate today, with different groups of Maori people being referred to by their tribal name.
The South Island is about half the size of the U.K. but less than 1 million people live here. That number is insufficient to provide the resources through taxation to maintain the infrastructure, I believe, I have to check that out. It's just what I have picked up. Evidently the wages here are low, we spoke to a retired couple earlier and their state pension was a bit more than we get in the U.K., so I'm not sure of the comparison there. The cost of living is definitely higher, we are finding this an expensive grip. Again, we spoke to someone who said that a recent TV programme looked at a standard shopping basket across the world and New Zealand was more expensive than London. We have been told that there is a dramatic exodus to Australia where wages are higher and the cost of living lower. Just the cost of rebuilding Christchurch must be phenomenal. The maintenance of  all the National Parks by the state funded DoC must be so expensive, they must get some income from the extensive logging, but how does it compare? We have found the infrastructure to be very good, well maintained, a lot of road maintenance and sign posting.