Blogs from Picton, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Day 10 August 30 Arriving in Nelson was one of the happiest moments of our trip because we were finally out of Westport. We spent two night in Nelson and a full day there. In the morning we tramped up to what is known at the "center of New Zealand." At the top there was a giant needle that pointed down to mark the center of the country. It also over looked the entire city and the ocean which was beautiful. The city its self was very cool and had more then just one street. After lunch Emma and I wanted to ride down to the beach so we grabbed some bikes from our hostel. I always thought the saying "its like riding a bike, you never forget" was a true saying, but Troll seemed to ... read more

We made our journey across the Cook Straight on a car ferry ride that lasted a bit north of three hours. The skies were clear and we were offered nice views as we left Wellington. The port is inset quite a bit in the bay, so we didn't hit the open sea for over a half an hour. Once the boat cleared the North Island, the South Island was immediately in view. We entered the harbor of the South Island at Picton and were summoned back to our vehicles. We had a two hour drive ahead of us to Mapua, the majority of this was in the dark. We arrived at our new house for the next week, a nice little cabin on an organic orchard on the banks of an estuary. We are looking forward ... read more

So yet another adventure and one more thing to check off my bucket list. This time it was a three day sea kayaking adventure throught the Able Tasnam national park. The adventure was filled with crystal clear ocean watters and golden beaches. There was also a whole array of birdlife, seals and manta rays for your viewing plrasure. The highlight of this trip was definatly paddleing upto the seal colony and being surrounded be numorus baby seals, jumping and playing all around us. They really are the dogs of the ocean. so playful and loving. The trip started out with a one hour paddle to fishermans island where I enjoied a nice swim and beautiful walk throught the woods. Then some more paddling to north where we found a beautiful gloden beach for lunch and another ... read more

Up at 06:00, quick shower, cuppa and were off! We use the GPS to find the ferry terminal, as we don’t want any mix-ups. Being early we miss the worst of the Wellington morning traffic, although it is starting to build up and you can see that it will be gridlock a little later. We find the ferry terminal and check-in and board immediately – all quite painless. We make a beeline for the café on the ferry for a full cooked breakfast before the masses arrive. We eat breakfast and Di makes the comment that she hopes that is the last time she sees it as I have read in the Lonely Planet that the Wellington to Picton ferry crossing can some times be a little choppy!!. We sit and read the morning newspaper for ... read more

Kia ora from New Zealand..... so after less than 12 hours in Wellington I checked if there was any update from my travel agent (nope!) and headed off to get the Interislander ferry to take me to the South Island. Farily uneventful trip - had some pancakes for breakfast, got myself a seat at the front inside so had pretty good views. Nothing could have prepared me for how stunning the scenery would be as we headed inland to the town of Picton - have a look at the photos and judge for yourself. When I got to Picton I dragged my bag the furthest I've had to drag it so far and I swear there are some rocks hidden in it that I can't find. I got to the train station and they said the ... read more