How do you like your eggs in the morning?

We started the day with a lovely early walk. Returning to the van we now had a gas stove to cook on.   Five and a half weeks in and we’ve only had eggs a handful of times.  This is very unusual as they are normally a big part of our staple diet. Toasted Bagel,  sunny-side-up eggs and seasoning, yummy. Not quite the delights, from Georgie, Benny and Kevin in Tasmania but organic eggs were perfectly cooked and made a huge difference from overnight oats on the go.

After eating, it was straight on the road.  Although we miss the thrill and adventure of wild camping,  it’s mornings like this when you can cook, eat and head to another camping spot without having to pack up the damp tent and all the accessories. Instead there is time for a walk and meds around on the driftwood covered beach.

Sound after sound after sound

Highlighted as one of New Zealand’s main tourist areas are the sounds and in particular Marlborough Sound.  In New Zealand a ‘sound’ refers to a coastal feature.  This is typically a narrow steep-sided sea inlet or flooded valley. The term is often interchangeable with the term fjords for some of the deeper trenches. While technically, many sounds such as Milford Sound are glacial fjords. The term sound is widely used to describe these deep, scenic. Our first stop was the Pituresque Picton.

In picton we picked up some water and had a walk.  Met a marine biologist working in the tour shop who gave us some great advice of places to see,  wildlife to view and areas to avoid. We spent a couple of hours milling around town then used the most amazing public amenities ever before leaving.  AI talking toilet, the most polite toilet ever invented.  I was actually wondering if it would teach me how to wipe my backside. It even had some mellow music playing. Which was only interrupted when it gave a one minute warning to say the door would open.

Around the sounds

We spent the day travelling from Picton to Alfred Stream camping area with a few spots in between.  As we drove down around the sounds, there were so many beautiful lookout points.  We stopped at a few of the car parks and did the treks up to lookouts to see the most spectacular scenery of these fjords. Unlike the  magnificent Norwegian Fjords, these are packed with glorious golden sand beaches and turquoise water but are still surrounded on all sides by mountains.

All these beautiful places we were seeing from up high.  It was time to go and explore the shore.  27⁰C, the perfect temperature for a swim.

One of the locals in Picton had told us about the best two swimming spots on our route.  The one we chose at Mamalungi beach was apparently renowned for having a high magnesium content, so we should sleep well tonight.  We also managed to get a good wash and a shave here.  The other place she suggested was Polaris Bridge, so we headed there.

Sand bites

Here in NZ they have ‘freedom camping’, where you can stay overnight in a self-contained vehicle for free.  It’s on a first come first served basis.  The site we were hopefully staying at had five pitches. 

When we arrived all five were taken so we illegally parked in the sixth spot,  which was probably a turning spot when people left.  As we were last in and would be first out it would do no harm. Got talking to a few others.  Had a chicken stir fry and waited for the skies to come alive.

For a couple of days we have been getting bitten by what only looks like harmless little fruit flies. In fact they are not so harmless and attack in droves. At Polaris Bridge we took a walk through the forest to the river. By the time we reached it we were covered in bites, especially around the ankles.  We went for a paddle rather than swim, as time was pushing on with all these scenic lookout spots we’d been stopping at. That didn’t stop the blighters so we moved on to our next location.