Hopewell - deep in Marlborough Sounds

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Left The Barn at Abel Tasman, drove east through Nelson, stopped off at Havelock (The world's capital for green lipped mussels) for a harbourside rest. Had a very winding and steep drive for 30 mins further to the water taxi jetti for our backpackers Hopewell Backpackers. What a fantastic place!! It is set within Marlborough Sounds in lovely gardens overlooking the water. There is nothing else apart from the lodge within reach (no shops/bars/houses) unless you take a boat back to where we came from. Hopewell is on the beach, and we harvested mussels and oysters for our tea!!! We've relaxed in the spa overlooking the Sounds, kayaked, fished and took a pretty hard walk to Pete's Point. It was just over 4 hours round trip, and to get to the point, it's a rugged and steep uphill walk/crawl in parts! We both fell over a few times each as the path is rough - Debs fell flat on her behind crossing a rocky brooke - nice. The views from the top were fantastic, and there are messages in a bottles from other walkers from all around the world hidden at the peak. We also took the hostel's collie cross dog with us, King, as a local guide! He was great, lead the way and kept up a mean pace! We really wished we had longer.

The last evening was Mussel Night at the hostel - great fun - all tucking into local mussels by the bucket load.

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Photos

PetesPeakDebsKing
Looking tired - just reached the top in record time - thanks to King!!