Middle Earth

Still feeling jubilant from the night before we got ready and left the campsite in the direction of Nelson, the second city created in New Zealand. It wasn’t a particularly lengthy journey to get there but it took us longer than we thought as the road weaved left and right and up and down the cliffs along the waterfront. We had the occasional stop just to marvel at the bays and scenery that we were driving through, all resplendent even with the cloud and drizzle that continued to fall. But soon enough there was a break in the clouds and we were basking in a little bit of sunshine - something that we thought we mightn’t get to do on the south island at all.

When we finally got to Nelson we parked up and headed out towards a trek that was labelled Centre Of New Zealand. We didn’t know much about it but we thought we had little else to get up to so why not a little jaunt up into the hills. When we arrived at the trail it said on the map that it went to the actual centre of New Zealand. It all made sense. So we just HAD to do it, as I don’t think I’ve been to the centre of any country before. At least, not without knowing it. It was a steep climb to get there, but before we did we came across a Kauri tree. It had been planted in 1951 and was only about 10 inches in diameter, but they grow to massive proportions and are akin to our English Oak from back home. 

An old tree...

We got to the top of the hill and there it was, the centre of New Zealand. Not quite Middle Earth like in Lord Of The Rings, but instead there were 5 Japanese tourists and an Aussie. There has to be a joke there somewhere. So there we were, waiting for them to go so that we could take our pictures and do some videoing, and it was just lovely. It was even so nice that I was only wearing a shirt, and there was even a bit of a sweat breaking out through that. All the stories we had heard about the freezing cold/ridiculously wet south seemed to be just a case of hyperbole. On the way back we saw the Nelson cathedral and Anzac Park, but there was little else to keep us entertained. We did manage to both leech some Wi-Fi from the local Maccy D’s to finalise our Fantasy Football teams in readiness for the opening game on Saturday. And have a cup of tea too, whilst looking out for any disgruntled employee coming out to tell us to move along. Whilst we were online I had found a website that showed you were loads of free campsites were, nothing special, but just in case we couldn’t find a random patch in the darkness. So we set our sights on Clark Valley, outside Korere, off Highway 6.No facilities but we knew that we would be able to park up and do our thing without the fear of jocks parking their car right besides ours or farmers banging on our door to get us off their land.

The centre of New Zealand!

Whilst leaving Nelson I realised that we hadn’t disconnected the gas canister from the stove (no danger of explosions or anything, but it’s just better to be on the safe side) so I decided to pull over at the next availability and sort it out. I spotted a few free parking spaces on the left and clicked the indicator on. At that exact moment I clocked a guy standing on the side of the road (with a guitar and possible a sombrero) hitchhiking. He had a momentary look of glee in his eyes when he saw me flick the indicator on and motion to pull over, but that dissipated in an instant when I realised what he was thinking, looked directly at him and just shook my head. I had to pull over way down the road just in case he came running down to the campervan. With the gas disconnected we rejoined Highway 6 and after half an hour we were pulling into Clark Valley. A little too near the main road for our liking but it felt like a good place and there would be very little traffic at night, and anyway, the Toyota Hi-Ace is pretty well insulated so we probably wouldn’t hear much.