Te Hapu Holiday!

Bernie and I have just returned from a blissful yet typically frantic holiday near the Northernmost tip of the South Island.

We had to drive for over 3 and a half hours to cover the 160km get there - there is a massive marble mountain in between it and Nelson! There are only gravel roads for the last hour or so as our destination was so remote, and so beautiful.

Of course one objective was to see the Blue Whale which was washed up on the west coast last month. We also had biking, running, hiking and kayaking gear packed for an active break from sunny Nelson.

Friends recommended a remote farm which had a small holiday chalet. We had to take bedding and all food for the time we were there - the nearest shop was about an hour away!

Te Hapu is a near-on 1,000 acre sheep and cattle farm, farmed by a couple and their dogs alone. The terrain is very rugged and as you'll see, picturesque.


We arrived on Friday afternoon, had a good hike and settled to watch the sunset...

Over the next 5 days we covered many miles by foot, bike and kayak - as you can see, I like Lycra!

The land is limestone, moulded by the elements for many years. Man mined gold here not too long ago (hence the area being known as Golden Bay), but vegetation has regenerated through most of the area.

This is the cliff separating the farm from the coast - you'll get to see what we had to do on this cliff later... nothing dodgy but please remember for later how insurmountable it looks!!

This is me BBQ'ing outside the chalet. You'll see the sunset view I have later. There is a Kiwi fruit vine behind me, birds aplenty as well as a stunning garden with naturally sculpted limestone, plants, trees and gardens. The weather was mostly sunny, some spells were T-shirts off weather (sorry ladies, no pictures!), hence the mid-winter BBQ!

I want that one...

I first heard that a 27m Blue Whale had been washed up on a beach some 6 weeks ago. I'd show my students pictures of the beast in as many lessons as I could tenuously link it to and I was desperate to see it whole. Sadly, we came across the remnants of the whale - a mound of putrid skin and blubber after smelling it some way off. We then scratched around a bit and found shards of bones, broken on the rocks before suddenly seeing a spine instead of what we thought at first was a small tree!

Although it is nothing like seeing the whole animal, too see some of its huge components first-hand was mind-blowing!

Although very rotten, the spine was impossible to flex much... its weight was surprising despite its size... how do they swim?!

It is crazy to think that it's spinal cord fitted through that whole...

Merry Christmas! The Department of Conservation had kindly informed me (I pester them too!) that this Whale was not the property of the local Maori people - purely because of the beach it landed on. That meant that all bones were available for the public to take so this beautiful specimen yelled "Take me HOME!" when we found it! We tried to lift it and nearly broke our backs!
I also found a huge rib bone so we hid them in the vegetation above the beach and tried to plan their extrication. The beach we found these on is only a 4km walk from the farm. However, the beach has lots of limestone rocks to climb over as well as sandy beach - 2km in all. There was then a formidable 80m cliff to climb up - it is hard walking up it normally! Then, the next 2km is over rolling hills and fences with rocks, mud and sheep everywhere!

We tried gaining access to the beach by another farm which borders the beach directly. Sadly, other people who asked similar permission left fences open so we were not welcome to obtain our bones by this beautifully simple means... what to do?!

Hardest Game in the World!

This is the 80m cliff we had to negotiate with two backpacks and two huge whale bones! It doesn't look as sheer or as high as it is in real life... in fact this picture makes it look more like 8m - you'll have to take my word for it!
Check out how relieved we are to have got up there in one piece!

Two kilometers gone, three more to go... and night is setting in!

Fortunately we got picked up by some other visitors to the farm in their 4X4... unfortunately we had already stashed the vertebra further back so had to go back for that the next morning... fortunately the farmer took pity on us and gave us a ride on his quad bike... as he sheparded(?!) his Sheep!

After carrying the bones from the far end of the beach pictured below...


...we packed up our care to the rafters. We managed to squeeze in our clothes, left over food and wine (we always take too much!), running shoes, walking boots, paddles and kayaking gear, 2 mountainbikes (yes inside the car!), stereo, pebbles and shells collected from the beach and of course, the whale bones - sinew 'n all!

The weather turned sour only on the day of departure - marking our sombre mood at having to return home. We had to endure 3 hours of driving with the lovely scent of rotting whale, but did get a laugh from the dog (yes real) poking out of his mobile home:

We then had to un-piece the jig-saw puzzle in our boot (fortunately the back seats fold down!), and then it was the clean-up... I had to scrub as much of the remaining sinew (now 6 weeks old!) with my hands as possible!

I can still smell the distinctive (yet, now surprisingly familiar!) scent on my fingers despite scrubbling with washing-up liquid, Ajax and a multitude of different soaps!

Beautiful Bernadette!

Needless to say, Berns keeps us organised so we never run out of food (we eat huge quantities due to training!), clothes and other things that I leave home without - bike gloves, camera, clea underwear etc!

Our five days of fun went so smoothly thanks to Bernie keeping us well fed and prepared for the day's multitude of activities!

Here she is, packing food, food and more food to keep me going:

Now this is quite a rare sight - Bernie sitting down relaxing! Not much time for that when the Whitaker's go on holiday!

Now, Bernie has special powers - she is able to control the sea:

"Show me your power!"

"I want MORE!"

"GIVE ME MORE!!"

Sensational Sunsets...

We toasted the day's activities each evening with a glass or two of fine NZ wine (Cabernet Sauvignon being our favourite!) which complemented the stunning display Mother Nature spoilt us with:

Indiana Jones Country!

Whilst at Te Hapu, we walked around the near-on 1,000 acre property every day - sometimes twice a day, exploring the gnarly and diverse land. We really felt like explorers from an Indiana Jones movie - fortunately the only skeletons we saw were non-human!

This is or view from the side of our chalet - Sunset Rocks are aptly named...
We walked up, down, along and through ridges, caves, bush and open country:

With squeezes to navigate, streams to cross and steep sections to climb - often with the aid of ropes:

Bernie just cant believe how stunning this place is!

On this occasion a rope AND a ladder are required - proper Indiana Jones!

Please click on 'Older posts' below to see more of our exciting holiday...

Pancake rocks...

The whole region sits on a bed of limestone which has been engineered by the elements to form weird and wonderful shapes, for weird and wonderful people like us to explore! These pictures are from the shore no more than 200m from our chalet:
Me on top of the world!

Pancakes as far as the eye can see!

Bernie in Hobbiton!

Lazing in a limestone wonderland!

Fun on the Underground!

Spending many an hour travelling around London on the Underground has obviously had a lasting effect on us both. Bernie really excelled in the many caves we found around the farm - often guiding me down trickier descents as stalactites fell on my head (I have the lumps to prove it!)

As usual, pictures don't do these justice (and I can't be bothered to rotate some of them - sorry!):

Birds flocking everywhere!!

Twenty metres form our house is the end of the spit of land on which we live. Despite it being the middle of winter, the days are mostly sunny and warm which makes it so much easier to train and enjoy the outdoor playground in which we live.

Today I'm suffering with a cold, so I took the time off training to take a few pictures of our neighbourhood, as well as a fair few of the neighbours.

As you can see, the snow has begun to fall on the mountains - the ski fields have opened so we'll be visiting them soon!


The water is clean so we eat the fish we catch here:

Pied stilts bob around taking food on the hoof:

Fortunately these birds are common here:

Kingfishers also work the area. They are one bird which has benefited from pine forestry - they successfully hunt food in forests as well as by water so we see heaps of these birds. It's quite hard getting close to one though:

Pied Oyster Catchers

Those of you who go to Southwold know that I love a drop of the seasonal Adnams beer named Oyster Catcher. I also love watching and listening to the birds who live near and fly over our house at all times of the day and night (yes I know I'm still a geek!). Because they feed at low tide, their 'day' is not dependent on daylight, but by low tide times. I often hear the shrill calls as they fly over the spit of land on which we live as I fall asleep (Bernie is of course completely deaf to this - poor thing!).

Many Oyster Catchers are the typical black and white species you get in the UK, most however, are Variable Oyster Catchers of the South Island and their plumage is mostly (or entirely) black:


And they look quite cool (if you're a geek like me!):

And they have bright red beaks and eyes:

They're quite sociable too!