Grand Tour South XI

After a belly bursting Blackball breakfast we Spidered back down the main street and turned right towards Greymouth as the benzina gauge was flashing red and we didn’t know where the next fuel stop might be. Fed, fuelled and fleeced up against an early morning chill breeze we set off for Punakaiki and a chance to see the famous pancake rocks and blowholes. The sea wasn’t cooperating for the blowholes but the rocks are always worth a look. The cloud burned off and fleeces were dispatched under the tonneau. The normally wild west coast swell just lapped the shore as seals played about close to the shore. Leaving the West Coast for the last time we headed up the Buller Gorge. Once more the South Island put on some spectacular scenery. In places the gorge narrowed so much that only a single lane was carved into the sheer rock face. You can still see the drillings for the explosive charges that blasted the ledge out when the road was built. The road twisted and turned through Inangahua and onto Murchison where the heat forced a stop for ice creams. We left Highway 6 to head towards Motueka as the sun burned overhead. It was a nice B road but not open enough to take at a constant 100 K so it seemed to take ages to reach our next stop. It was getting towards late afternoon when we encountered rush hour in Motueka before hitting the open road and experiencing the Takaka Hill. I was a first timer and was unprepared for the dozens of hairpin corners joined by short steep sections of straight. We were down to second or third as we climbed higher and higher, the summit hidden from view always seeming just around the next couple of bends. The view from the top when we finally arrived was forever, Tasman Bay on one side, Golden Bay on the other and valley 750 metres below. We descended down to Takaka where we stopped for supplies before our final push towards Collingwood. Getting to the camp ground as the sun lowered in the sky we were feeling desiccated after close to seven and a half hours and over 400 kilometres on the road. We pitched the tent overlooking the harbour and drifted off to the sounds of lapping water and the occasional screech of a sea bird.