Lord Of The Wheel Trilogy: Part 1 - Nelson to Christchurch

Today began the first of three five hour road trip days in a row - the bulk of the driving on the trip.  Sharyl has been amazing behind the wheel - and the skills she has honed driving on the other side of the road since we arrived over several shorter stretches (though one was 4 hours so not all that short) are being fully utilized on this main section of the road trip.

We woke up to rain for the first time on this trip, a sure sign that we picked the right day to head out of Nelson.  After a stop into Alioke Eatery for a send off plate of their amazing waffles for each member of the family, we were on our way down Highway 6 out of Nelson (technically we were leaving from Richmond).  Within 10 minutes we were out in the countryside - passing over the Wairoa - a beautiful river right on the edge of the little community of Brightwater.  A few minutes down the road we went through the somewhat larger town of Wakefield - passing lots of Hop farms, and a few vineyards along the way. 

The road quickly got into the foothills, with the hills getting larger, the valleys deeper and the scenery even more picturesque.  Within an hour full scale mountains had closed in and we were passing turn offs for Nelson Lakes National Park - an area we are really looking forward to checking out on a future trip.

After about an hour and a half we started to spot rapids on the Buller River which kept popping into view at the bottom of the valley we were driving through.  We soon arrived in the town of Murchison - a mountain town flanked by three rivers.  Murchison is the confluence point where both the Mangles and the Matakitaki flow into the Buller River.  The Buller happens to be the only major river in New Zealand without a hydroelectric dam - so it is the only major river that can be kayaked from source to sea.  The town of Murchison is a bit of a whitewater hot spot as all three of the rivers running through town have good whitewater and are popular for rafting and kayaking.

The road continued on out of Murchison and we eventually veered left onto highway 65 toward Lewis Pass when Highway 6 started heading down toward the West Coast.  We passed a few scenic reserves including Maruia Falls without stopping - though had we done more research about what was along this section of highway - and if we had a bit more time before we needed to be in Christchurch we would have made those stops.

For over an hour we followed along the Maruia River - a jaw droppingly beautiful braided river which flows out toward the Canterbury region on New Zealand's East Coast.  All photos were taken with my iPhone stuck out the 1/3 open car window in the rain as we drove down the windy highway - so what you see in these images does not perhaps sufficiently capture the beauty of the area but it hopefully gives a rough idea no less.

Eventually the road brought us out of the mountains and back into the agricultural lands surrounding Christchurch.  The timing was getting tight so we bypassed the hotel and headed straight for Britz Campervan Rental.  

We arrived at Britz at 4:15 - they close at 4:30 and want people to be there by 4 pm for the last rentals of the day, so we were lucky to slide in just in time to pick-up our ride for the next 10 days! 

After a bit of vehicle juggling by Sharyl (#amazingwife), our SUV has been returned at the airport, and our new camper van is currently in the Sudima parking lot awaiting it's first voyage with the Boren Family tomorrow.  Reef is beside himself with excitement - I am fairly confident the trip would be a success in his book if he was allowed to just play inside the camper van for the rest of the trip.  It's going to be fun!