Very Windy in Golden Bay

Camper Van Duties  (very fairly distributed by Ruth)      

Chris : All Driving, Washing Up, Plugging in Electrics, Gas Bottle turning on, Emptying Bin, Making up the bed, Emptying dirty water, Putting table up (inside & out)

Ruth : Evening Meal

We had a very  long drive from Westport to Pohara. It took about 6 hours, this was due to the windy roads (think a road hugging the edge of a cliff with a rushing river below – very common) and the weather conditions which for the most part of the journey was torrential rain. There is one road into Golden Bay and this involves travelling up and then down a very steep mountain (Takaka Hill) with numerous hairpin bends and a very steep gradient. We had to take it very slow in the lorry. At the top we got some spectacular views back towards Nelson and over Abel Tasman park.

Tired we arrived at our campsite on Pohara beach. We had a great position directly overlooking the beach and we could admire the waves from the back window of the van. Definitely a very beautiful area with a lovely beach. They had just recovered from some flash flooding there (too much rain) and the after affects of this were still there. It rained quite a bit (fortunately we had the big comfortable van to sit in) and there was a really strong gusty wind the whole time which made sitting out on the beach or outside the van not overly pleasant. We did have a walk round to admire the scenery.

So tomorrow we are getting up really early to make sure we get to the ferry in time. We are sailing from Picton (South Island) to Wellington (North Island) at 2.30pm.