Okiwi Bay - Havelock 23rd November 2020

We had rain over night at Okiwi Bay. And woke up to a wet day. Low cloud down through the hills. Disappointing  as we hadn’t explore this little bay. Also we had decided to go up to French Pass as it’s meant to be beautiful scenery up there but decided it wouldn’t be worth it as we wouldn’t see anything. We have now driven down to Havelock a day earlier than planned. The drive down was wet low cloud but still I clicked away with my photos. I think the hills with the low cloud in the rain can come out well just a complete different look. We drove back through the Rai Valley in the rain. Couldn’t do much today when we arrived at Havelock due to the weather. Went for a walk around the marina with our raincoats on. We were hoping to get out on the mail run boat tour which goes round the different bays in the sounds delivering the mail. It sounded fun and a good way to get out on the water exploring the bays. They don’t go tomorrow so had planned to go Wednesday. We had a chat with the boat company who informed us that the weather on Wednesday is going to be even worse. In fact it’s not going to change for the better until Friday. We can’t hang around until then so tomorrow we will have a drive out to a place called Portage to explore even in the rain. We had such a good first week with all those hot sunny days now it’s the opposite. Haven’t seen the top of the hills all day. So I will have some more wet photos tomorrow. 

These next photos are coming back down to highway 6 to continue down to Havelock..

How’s this for a full sign post.

The Rai Valley Pioneer Cottage which was build in 1881 when the area was still cloaked in rainforest. It was built by Charles Turner and his wife and family were the first Europeans to settle in the area. They used locally available materials such as Totara. I can just imagine this family coming out and living in this place with no other Europeans in this whole area. How lonely would that be for them.

Had a walk round the house

Took the below photos with the phone flat against the glass and I am amazed how well the photos have come out as when I tried to look through the windows I could hardly see a thing. Therefore I didn’t know what I had taken until I saw the photos, quite amazing. I have now read that ‘ the interior can be examined through specially designed viewing bays” which I guess means special glass in the windows.

Got down scrambling over these boulders to get this shot of the historic bridge. Lucky I didn’t end up in the river.

Looking further down the river.

This is the famous Muscle Pot Restaurant in Havelock. As soon as we arrived we decided our first stop will be to have muscle chowder for lunch. Guess what,  closed on Mondays.

Went further up the road and we stopped at this cafe and had a muscle pie instead. Very yummy.

Might be back tomorrow.

As I said we went for a walk around the marina. This is how the day has looked all  day.

Weather bad for at least the next two or three days 😢 but we can’t control that and will get out for a drive tomorrow. Looks like it’s just the top of the South Island is getting this bad weather.