Hippy happy:)

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From Fox Galcier we went to Golden Bay. We stayed near Takaka, a town where the hippy vibe is alive n´well & in keeping with the flavour of the area we shacked up in a hostel which is eco-freindly & encourages free-loving if you know what I mean. Apart from the limited fridge space it was nice....very remote with a lovely garden overlooking the bay but the elements conspired against us so the magnificent scenery was out there somewhere in the dense mist, not to be seen! Next time. Grace & John-Ross had the pleasure of staying in a hut beside the house....actually the pleasure wasn´t the hut but the aroma of wood-chippings one acquired after a trip to the loo. After you did "your business" in the toilet wood-chippings were used to assist with decompsition of the refuse. I stayed indoors & because it was raining a special concession was made & I didn´t have to go outside to use the loo & resort to 2-3 scoops of wood-chips with every number 2!! Although I was very cautious of water-usage...always conscious that I couldn´t go mad & flush the toilet repeatedly or worse still......linger in the shower longer than my allotted time.

Oh & let me explain the free-loving. Me being very innocent in the matter I´ll tell you. The car needed to be moved on the 2nd morning & I had the keys. I was nowhere to be had...apparently...so obviously I must have been shacked up with some random fella in his hut.....according to the owner that is....so off he trots to your man´s hut. Banging on the door "Alison we know you´re in there, your shoes are out here" he got no reply until Grace persuaded him that he must be wrong. I came out of the shower to find him in a flurry looking for me.....little did I know what he thought of me. Letme tell you I did nothing to warrant the accusation. Only met the man for a few minutes when I checked in & I definitely wasn´t batting my eye-lids at him!! Not to worry though....the Romeo in question wasn´t cold that night....I believe there were a pair of sandals at his door....that didn´t belong to me or him!!

Anyway Golden Bay is tucked away in the mountains & surrounded by Abel Tasman National Park. I had planned to do the Abel Tasman track, booked the hut but the weather was dreadful so I opted out. There were some nice restaurants in Takaka, so instead treated outselves to a nice meal out & a night of live-music. Was good craic. Managed to finally get some laundry done too...it´s

On the Sunday we headed back across the mountain to Motueka to the Laughing Kiwi hostel. We stayed there 3 nights & did a one-day boat trip out to Abel Tasman with a bit of walking & lounging on the beach. Not sure John-Ross will ever come walking with us again.....apparently because he has long legs he can´t walk as fast as us on the terrain.....the excuses were poor but I think he got a feel for "a day in the life of Grace & me"! Thankfully we had a sparkling day with blue skies & it did the place justice....beautiful.

After Motueka we had to scamper to make sure that we had Grace´s beloved back to Christchurch so we started moving south through Nelson lakes. We could work for Tourism New Zealand now.....we´ve covered the South Island pretty extensively & hit some places more than once...twice....let´s say we know the roads well. It´s rare to take a trip in your car & not meet raodworks.....they may be the windiest, narrowest roads you´ll come across at times, but you´d be hard-pressed to find one that was in disrepair or with pot-holes masquerading as swimming pools!! A lot of road-works!

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Photos

Abel Tasman
Near the end....

All real
Can´t beat a bit of sun

Abel Tasman....
More of the sights

Abel Tasman!
Beach

Abel Tasman?
Picture tells the story