David Coxon wraps up his southern tour
Story and photos by David Coxon
After nearly three weeks touring the middle of the South Island, we arrived back in Picton four days before our sailing back to Wellington. After the last few days of main road traveling to get to Picton, we were looking forward to exploring the area, especially the backroads. We stretched our legs that evening with a stroll over to the Picton shopping centre to take in the Saturday evening buzz before returning to the campground for a quiet home-cooked dinner in the evening sun.
After a good night’s rest, we started off by visiting Blenheim and exploring the town centre. Being a Sunday, there were only a few shops open, but like Akaroa and Christchurch, there were some good clearance sale bargains. Rather than stay in Blenheim we headed around the coast toward Port Underwood for a scenic gravel road drive where we could hopefully find a nice beach for lunch. After about twenty minutes we spotted an interesting side-road that led us down to the coast at Whites Bay, and a parking area that was more crowded than a Wellington shopping mall. We finally found a park and, despite the number of vehicles, managed to find a quiet sunny area with a very pleasant view where we could enjoy our lunch. We had a pleasant walk along the beach to soak up the fresh sea air before continuing to work our way around the coast, enjoying the fine weather and amazing views from the hills, finally reaching the slightly larger settlement of Port Underwood. We considered detouring down Tumbledown Rd but after looking at the map and realising that this would a be full day trip in itself, we continued on the sealed road back to Picton through the small settlement of Whatamango Bay, arriving back at our campsite in time to chill out in the warm late afternoon sun.
The next day, with the shops open, we had a more serious look around Blenheim and had lunch in a little park in the town centre before following Taylor’s Pass Road through the hills from Blenheim across to the Molesworth Station road. This was a very pleasant gravel backroad excursion, with the road winding through the sun-scorched hills and a minor gorge before climbing up to a plateau where we stopped just off the road in the shade of some pine trees for afternoon tea with a relaxing view across the valley. We got a few friendly waves from passing locals as we soaked up the view before descending back down to join the Molesworth Station road and returning to SH1 for the run back to Picton.
For our final day of exploring we decided to return to Port Underwood and take Tumbledown Bay Road to get as far east as we could go in the Sounds. We retraced our steps back though Whatamango Bay, and the adventure started before we even got to Port Underhill, when we came around a tight corner and met a fully laden logging truck coming the other way. We were both travelling very slowly, so the was no panic, but we had to back up to give room for the trailer to cut the corner. While this was no problem, it meant that I was now on high alert on every corner, especially when there was a sign warning of logging trucks just as we left Port Underhill on the unsealed Tumbledown Road. Happily, we only had one other encounter with a logging truck, and in this case, I saw it ahead on a straight section as I came around a corner, so I had plenty of time to pull over and close all the windows before he came past with a wave.
We explored a few little settlements as we worked our way around the coast soaking up the quiet coastline and the world-class views from the higher parts of the road. You know that you are on a quiet road when there is almost as much grass in the middle of the road as beside it. I had been trying to decide whether to stick to Tumbledown Bay Road or take an unnamed side road up onto the ridge and down to Oraumoa (Fighting Bay), but when we finally reached the intersection we found that the unnamed road was a gated private road – decision made for me. As we got nearer to Tumbledown Bay, the road became narrower and less maintained, finally becoming a private driveway when we reached the very small settlement at Tumbledown Bay. Here we were able to follow a short access track onto the beach – a beautiful place to stop for a late lunch. There were a few surrounding houses, and although we never met anyone it felt a very welcoming place as we soaked up the peace and isolation, interrupted only once by my phone ringing! Isolation and 4G mobile reception, what more could you ask for? Regretfully, we eventually had to make a move and head back to Picton, fortunately without meeting any more logging trucks. This had been an amazing end to our holiday.
The next morning the fine spell had broken, and we just got packed up before it started to drizzle. We parked up on the unlimited free parking just out of Picton and visited the historic Edwin Fox display, the last surviving sailing ship that brought convicts to Australia, and settlers to New Zealand. I have been watching some YouTube channels of people restoring and building traditional wooden boats, so it was fascinating for me to get an up-close view of the way this 1850s ship had been built. We then moved on to a more modern ship, the interisland ferry, for the crossing back to Wellington and home, finishing a most memorable holiday.
