A roast dinner, pupu and pups!

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We based ourselves in Motueka for a couple of days in the heart of fruit growing country (lots of fruit for sale by the side of the road - we bought a huge bag of Braeburns). We enjoyed a very chilled Sunday - a lie in, late breakfast and cooked up an award winning roast dinner in the deserted hostel kitchen! We polished off a cheeky Sauvignon Blanc, dining al fresco, then read the 'Sunday Papers' - perfect relaxation after travelling. We finished the day sitting around the open outdoor fire. We did a bit of shopping the next day (replacing an item mangled by a tumble dryer - oh dear!) on the way to what was a lovely 12km walk on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track - we had a picnic at one of the stunning coves/beaches (Stilwell) and commented that we could easily have been on a tropical island, the water was so blue/green, sand white, islands lush green etc ....beautiful!

We then had an interesting drive north to the arching sands of Golden Bay in thick fog and darkness and to top that, Tim had to negotiate the narrow, winding, unlit road up Takaka Hill (it's infamous I believe). We stayed at 'The Innlet' (large, comfy share room in a pretty NZ villa with fig and kiwi trees with free cherry tomatoes and advocado for dinner!) We had a quick look at Farewell Spit (big long bank of sand!) then visited a beach and met.....lots of gorgeous fur seal pups - close enough to touch!!! We watched them play, swim, jump in a pool and new arrivals flobber along the rocks past us before plopping into the pool! AMAZING - a highlight of our trip so far.

We stopped at the Pupu Springs - another sight with the wow factor - a group of natural springs bubbling up into vibrant sparkling blue/green pools. The springs are of great importance to Maori people and are protected accordingly (so you can't put a big hosepipe in there and suck out that perfect and abundant H2O!). We drove to Nelson late afternoon.

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