3/30/18
Everything was closed, including supermarkets because of it being Good Friday. Luckily we had just enough food to get by. We drove to Totaranui where we did a hike on Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Trail. The hike went to some nice beaches, through jungly forest, and had us cross a large estuary at low tide to get to a hut where we turned around. We camped at a river near Takaka and enjoyed the nearly full moon
3/31/18
Drove to Farewell Spit and hiked in the rain to Wharanki beach. Wharanki was a desolately beautiful beach with sand dunes, interesting sand designs and arch islands in the distance as well as a few seals lying around. After this hike we drove to an area where we took a hike up to a a lighthouse viewpoint, and then we did a hike to Fossil Beach and got caught in a total downpour.
Farewell spit is a huge spit of sand extending from the North of the South Island. While here we went to the Northernmost point of the South Island. After exploring Farewell Spit, we drove to Marahau on a winding road. Marahau is the southern entrance to Abel Tasman National Park. There were nice beaches here that were crowded with the Easter holiday. Elisha had been dreaming of this burger place there that she had been before, Fat Tui, so we went there and both got big burgers that I think she really enjoyed. We spent the night in Motueka.
4/1/18
Easter Sunday, April Fool's Day, Daylight Savings Change, and Full Moon
We woke up really early and watched the sunrise and full-moonset from a beach near Nelson. Stunning and peaceful. From there, we drove to Havelock and walked to a viewpoint (Cullens Point) overlooking one of the sounds. We then drove on a crazily winding road along Kenepuru sound. It was a bit of a frustrating day in a way. It was a super gorgeous, completely bluebird day. These are not usual in NZ, so you want to take advantage of them when you can. Unfortunately, we had a deadline of a $200 ferry (for the 2 of us and bongo) to the North Island that we had bought tickets for, so we had to be at Picton town by a certain time. It's not the kind of thing you want to risk missing. The sound area appeared to be so beautiful. Nice mountains and beautiful water; however, the road seemed to always be just in the trees where you couldn't get a great view. And the roads were so slow and windy that it was taking forever to get to where we wanted to go. There was this amazing hike to the top of Mt. Stokes that would have had unreal view across the mountains and green/turquoise waters of several sounds, but we just didn't think we'd have enough time. It was hard to turn down a hike like that in such nice weather. We managed to drive to a few viewpoints, but they weren't great due to so many trees in the way. We tried climbing trees and cliffy areas to get up to get the beautiful views of the sounds, but we just never got anything great. Oh well. But it's frustrating when you are in a super beautiful area on a super beautiful day and feel like you didn't take advantage of it and spent most of the days winding around some crazy roads with a thin layer of trees between you and the beauty. If we hadn't had the ferry to catch, we could have climbed the mountain without any worry of finishing in time.
We ended the day driving along Queen Charlotte Sound, which was pretty. We cooked dinner in Picton and boarded the evening ferry to Wellington. Again, it would have been nice to have a day ferry to see the sights of the islands and sounds as we sailed by, but I think the night ferry must have been considerably cheaper. We just didn't plan it all very well for today, but sometimes you have those days
We arrived into Wellington after midnight, and drove to Upper Hutt to camp in a nice spot by a creek
Everything was closed, including supermarkets because of it being Good Friday. Luckily we had just enough food to get by. We drove to Totaranui where we did a hike on Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Trail. The hike went to some nice beaches, through jungly forest, and had us cross a large estuary at low tide to get to a hut where we turned around. We camped at a river near Takaka and enjoyed the nearly full moon
3/31/18
Drove to Farewell Spit and hiked in the rain to Wharanki beach. Wharanki was a desolately beautiful beach with sand dunes, interesting sand designs and arch islands in the distance as well as a few seals lying around. After this hike we drove to an area where we took a hike up to a a lighthouse viewpoint, and then we did a hike to Fossil Beach and got caught in a total downpour.
Farewell spit is a huge spit of sand extending from the North of the South Island. While here we went to the Northernmost point of the South Island. After exploring Farewell Spit, we drove to Marahau on a winding road. Marahau is the southern entrance to Abel Tasman National Park. There were nice beaches here that were crowded with the Easter holiday. Elisha had been dreaming of this burger place there that she had been before, Fat Tui, so we went there and both got big burgers that I think she really enjoyed. We spent the night in Motueka.
4/1/18
Easter Sunday, April Fool's Day, Daylight Savings Change, and Full Moon
We woke up really early and watched the sunrise and full-moonset from a beach near Nelson. Stunning and peaceful. From there, we drove to Havelock and walked to a viewpoint (Cullens Point) overlooking one of the sounds. We then drove on a crazily winding road along Kenepuru sound. It was a bit of a frustrating day in a way. It was a super gorgeous, completely bluebird day. These are not usual in NZ, so you want to take advantage of them when you can. Unfortunately, we had a deadline of a $200 ferry (for the 2 of us and bongo) to the North Island that we had bought tickets for, so we had to be at Picton town by a certain time. It's not the kind of thing you want to risk missing. The sound area appeared to be so beautiful. Nice mountains and beautiful water; however, the road seemed to always be just in the trees where you couldn't get a great view. And the roads were so slow and windy that it was taking forever to get to where we wanted to go. There was this amazing hike to the top of Mt. Stokes that would have had unreal view across the mountains and green/turquoise waters of several sounds, but we just didn't think we'd have enough time. It was hard to turn down a hike like that in such nice weather. We managed to drive to a few viewpoints, but they weren't great due to so many trees in the way. We tried climbing trees and cliffy areas to get up to get the beautiful views of the sounds, but we just never got anything great. Oh well. But it's frustrating when you are in a super beautiful area on a super beautiful day and feel like you didn't take advantage of it and spent most of the days winding around some crazy roads with a thin layer of trees between you and the beauty. If we hadn't had the ferry to catch, we could have climbed the mountain without any worry of finishing in time.
We ended the day driving along Queen Charlotte Sound, which was pretty. We cooked dinner in Picton and boarded the evening ferry to Wellington. Again, it would have been nice to have a day ferry to see the sights of the islands and sounds as we sailed by, but I think the night ferry must have been considerably cheaper. We just didn't plan it all very well for today, but sometimes you have those days
We arrived into Wellington after midnight, and drove to Upper Hutt to camp in a nice spot by a creek
No comments:
Post a Comment