April 1
We stayed less than 24 hours in Cape Foulwind, which is a shame because it’s a really beautiful spot. We left early because we had a three hour drive ahead of us to Motueka.
The drive was beautiful, windy and narrow at times with the road built just under carved out mountains. A one lane bridge was nerve racking to cross and a makeshift traffic light controlled the flow of cars, if there were any on the road. Since we left Cape Foulwind we probably saw three cars in either direction. Where was everyone?
An hour into our journey we stopped at NZ’s longest swing bridge, Buller Gorge Swing Bridge.
In retrospect, we probably should’ve kept going. I was not a fan.
At 360 feet long and 62 feet above the Buller River, my dormant fear of heights resurfaced. I only realized this when I was halfway across the swaying bridge and had no choice but to keep going.
At about that point, some older kids who were just being kids I guess, stepped onto the bridge, jumped up and down and purposefully started swinging it. Oh crap. I held on for dear life, not daring to stop for the picture Mitch was trying to take, and tried to look ahead of me instead of down towards what seemed like an imminent death on the rocks in the river.
A wave of relief washed over me when I safely reached the other side. “Yay,” I said to Mitch. “We’re doing the 15 minute forest loop walk, so I won’t have to cross the bridge again.”
“Uh, sorry Vic, but the loop takes us back to the other side of the bridge. We still have to cross back over.”
“F@&K!”
We did the uninteresting walk and arrived back at the bridge. Mitch crossed first so that he could prevent anyone else from walking on it from the other side.
I took a deep breath, hummed the song that’s been stuck in my head the past few days (ABBA’s Chiquitita, why? WHY?!) and forged ahead.
I crossed as quickly as I possibly could without slipping, picked my stomach up from the riverbed floor and stepped back on land.
“How was it?” the overly cheerful attendant asked. “Awful” I said, as my pulse gradually returned to normal and color returned to my cheeks.“Which part was awful?” she asked in dismay. “The whole thing.” And to think we actually paid money for that experience.
Grateful to climb back into the car, we continued our journey and stopped in Murchison for a stroll around town exploring some antique shops, the general store and grabbing a cup of coffee.
The rest of the drive to Motueka was beautiful. It took us a long time to get there because we kept making photo stops.
It’s autumn here now and the leaves are starting to turn. With the mountains, water and sheep as a backdrop it seemed every turn in the road revealed another source of beauty.
We came across a farm store and general store in what seemed like the middle of nowhere so we stopped for a visit.
Further up the road in the Motueka Valley, we passed the narrowest of wooden bridges and saw some traffic making their way over, so we followed the cars to experience the creaky structure.
About 30 minutes later, we arrived in Motueka.
We are staying in Motueka tonight because it’s near the starting point of our five day Abel Tasman hike, which starts tomorrow. The town seems a bit sketch to us. I’m grateful our motel is across the street from the police station, even though it seems like no one is actually inside.
We stopped by the office of our hike organizers to check in for our hike and then grabbed a late lunch and went to pack up and organize our gear for the long excursion.
We may not have internet access on this hike so there will probably be another delay in sending out the blog. Try not to miss us too much 😉.
V, I’m with you about that “swaying” bridge. I’m all for a bridge, but one that sways like that is enough to give me palpitations. Loved your description of going across it TWICE!
It was the absolute worst! Must be the Virgo in us!