Hello all!
Just a few days before we took the ferry from Wellington (North Island) to Picton (South Island) we made up our route for the South Island. We like to travel without a planning, so we can make up our plan as we go along. We had to spend 2 weeks on South Island, before returning the rental car to Auckland. We decided to stay on the North side for a few reasons. It saves driving hours, saves fuel costs, more chance on good weather and more time for hiking. They say the south of the South Island is beautiful, but we also heard its expensive, rainy, more sand flies and full of tourist. Staying on the North shore suits us better we thought. I (Steven) will tell you what we have done in two weeks in the north and I think you better see the pictures to understand how we enjoyed it!

Strait of the ferry we dropped in a DOC camp (Depart of Conservation) called Aussie bay. The next morning we visited the I-site (information centre) of Havelock for advice about the hiking tracks in the Marlborough Sounds region. We decided to do a 5 hour walk on the Nydia track to a DOC camp and walk the next day back to the car.
On the Nydia track we met almost no-one and we had the camp spot to ourselves. In the late evening we heard a screaming sound of a bird, we thought is that a Kiwi?! Then we saw the bird that looked like a Kiwi. It had the size of a chicken, was brown colourer, with a pointy beak and could not fly. We had doubts it was a Kiwi, because it was not shy to human and was not blind so it was probably some other animal. Later we found out it was a Weka, hahaha.

One of the most popular National Parks in NZ to visit is Abel Tasman NP. The park is famous for the golden beaches, blue waters and green subtropical rainforest. One of the nine Great Walks is along the coast of Abel Tasman NP, which takes 5 days to complete the whole track. We decided to start at the north side of the park and walk three days on the track and then return to the car. We booked two nights in the park at different DOC camps, one at Anapai Bay and the other at Totaranui Bay. We did not want to walk many hours with our backpacks, but rather enjoy swimming and relaxing in the park. We had a great time!

The following place we went was the most north point of South Island, called Farewell Spit. First we drove to Wharariki beach, which was absolutely stunning! There were also young seals playing in a pool made by the rocks at low tide. We had lunch on the hill overlooking the Farewell Spit. We heard hundreds of whales had stranded on the Farewell Spit, but the access was closed for tourists.

Then it was time to enjoy my birthday present, a tandem jump on the Paraglide! We drove up a mountain south of the city Nelson. The instructor gave me some sort of seat with strappings that was attached to the seat of the instructor and to the matrass. Together we run of the mountain with the matrass up in the air. Soon our feet were running into air and we were flying. We were looking for thermic air bubbles that would lift us up higher into the air. We gained in altitude as we circled our way up in the air for about 15 minutes. Than the instructor decided to head down to the car park near the city Nelson, a flight of 12 minutes. We finished with some aerobatics before we landed softly on our feet. What an awesome experience! To learn to fly the paraglide it would take round 3 weeks. I am happy to say that I would like to do that in the future!

We booked the ferry to Wellington and had three days left to spend in the Marlborough Sounds. On the map we found a DOC camp called Davies Bay just 30 minutes walking on Queen Charlotte Track where we camped two nights. The second day we walked one hour to a lookout on the Queen Charlotte Track. We run back to camp, because the track was going down hill. The bay in front of our camp was good for fishing. I caught a lot of Spotty fish (specie of Wrasse), which we eat for dinner with some fresh mussels caught by Talita. The sunset was amazing as well as the stars at night, do you recognize the constellation called ‘the Southern Cross’?!

Time flies when having fun! Two weeks went very fast. Soon we took the Ferry back to Wellington on a beautiful, calm, clear, warm and sunny day. We camped close to Wellington and the next day we drove to Taupo where we jumped in a hot water spring that was flowing into a big river. We were able to play with the hot and cold water streams to find the perfect temperature. The following day we drove to the Coromandel peninsula, close to Auckland. We decided to stay on a camp spot for 2,5 days to process all the happy moments we had in New Zealand. Besides we owned you guys some stories and pictures. Well, what do you reckon?

Soon we are off to Australia. Catch you guys later!

Geschreven door Bettertogether