What we learned: Some roads take longer

The car we had on the north island had a built-in Navigation system. Not that you need a lot of navigation, but it would tell you the estimated time of arrival. That gave us an idea of how the roads are. Not that it really matters. We never make plans for the evening or where we stay overnight, so no need to hurry. But on our first day on the South-island we learned that the distance you can cover on the map is not just a question on how good the road is.

Some roads need a lot longer for a different reason: they are curvy.

And the road down Kenepuru Sound is quite a different one. My goodness it is curvy. Christy couldn’t get her eyes off the road for a second. And she was not the one driving. I was. With the curvy roads and the up and down you’d get carsick in matter a second. There are no straight parts of the roads.

But as we said, no need for a hurry. Just some roads need a little longer, that’s what we learned today.

Stuff we saw:

Nice views all along the road

we drove along the Karapuru Sound on a narrow road.

There are few places to stop. But those stops are stunning

view from a campsite run by DOC the New Zealand Department of Conservation. They provide cheap but nice Campsites for the tourists.

a very nice area

It is a wonderful contrast to stand in the rainforest and look at the sea.

Stuff we did:

We followed the Kenepuru Road a nice little road that winds through the forest. Deep into the Marlborough sounds. Well, to be honest, we didn’t see a lot of the sounds. First of all because both had to constantly watch the road (one because of driving, and one because of not getting sick). But also because there are trees along the road and only very few spots where stop. And most of these stops you couldn’t actually see anything other than forest. But when we saw something it was stunning. The road is a dead-end. We found some friendly horses at the end of the paved road and a fantastic campsite. But we decided to keep on going instead of pitching the tent.