New Zealand Week 3 04/11 - 10/11

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After a loooooong drive in the pissing rain we arrived in windy Wellington to the smiling faces of Joel and Polly (uni mates) who have been living there for about 18 months. It was HEAVEN. We had hot showers and shaves. There was actual television and electricity, not to mention they cooked us up a Spag Bol with garlic bread. Well worth the drive.

That next day we made a plan to head to the Te Papa museum. It was pretty awesome. We saw a WW1 war exhibition “hero’s of our war” which told the story of New Zealand troops fighting the Turks with massive wax work figures (made by the people who did lord of the rings) and it was free! As with most museums Jack read every detail of the information while Char ogled at the pictures and sculptures. Between us we got the full experience.

After this we fancied a beer and made our way through town where we bumped into a “day of the dead” themed street party so we made our way in and sunk a beer before heading to a rooftop bar where we spent $34 on 2 beers and nearly passed out at the price.... That night was fireworks night and Joel and Polly’s boss had a swanky apartment with a balcony overlooking the harbour. So we gladly accepted their invitation and brought some bottles of red wine over and saw the fireworks over the harbour which were pretty impressive. The night escalated from there really and the uni mates catch up turned into a uni night out!

The following day polly was suffering from the mother of all hangovers and the only expedition out of the house was to collect fast food to compliment movies.

The next day we booked extortionate ferry tickets and set sale for the South Island. The journey was pretty spectacular as we arrived into Picton, islands and beautiful houses in quiet peaceful bays with mountains everywhere.

We spent the night in a free campsite by the side of a river and in the morning chatted to a few fisherman who told us it was a popular white baiting spot. One of the older guys also told us a story about how he spends his retirement fishing and deer hunting and has a friend who takes him out in his helicopter to deer hunt. What a life!

We decided to make our way to “Queen Charlotte Drive” which is one of NZs best walks, however, we don’t have much money and it was quite expensive to get a pass so we went on our own walk near by. Jack wanted to walk ahead as Char was not up for racing but this ended in total disaster as we lost each other up a mountain without phones and the sky was looking menacing. We both ended up running through the mountain trails frantically looking for one another until thankfully we both turned up on the same path sweaty but unscathed.

We spent the night in “double bay” reserve which was picturesque whilst the sun was out but huge weather front came in and neither of us got a wink of sleep that night. The van was rocking in the winds and being pelted with rain. In the morning once we’d recovered our flip flops from the various places they’d floated to in the rain we heard that storms like that only occur 2 or 3 times a year.

We went on a few more walks the following day and this time managed to stay together and have a much nicer time. It was evident that the storm had done quite a bit of damage and there were many trees fallen across the foot paths. We found some beautiful waterfalls around Pelarous Bridge and were tempted to swim but the water, just to stand in, made your feet hurt it was so cold. That evening we went for a wash in the river near the campsite we were staying at and Jack almost got swept down river as the current was so strong from the storm. He did however, successfully make it across and return in one piece!

The following day we went to Nelson and walked around the city visiting a few art galleries and had fish and chips by the sea! Not as good as English fish and chips but we weren’t complaining, they were delicious after so long without them! Then that afternoon we stumbled across easily our favourite campsite to date. It was surrounded by fields and mountains and had a beautiful river and rock pools to swim and enjoy in the sunshine, perfect!

We maxed out our time in our lovely campsite and then went on the Abel Tasman walk. It is a lovely scenic costal pathway past golden beaches and turquoise seas, so beautiful. We walked about 25km that day and were absolutely on our knees by the time we got back to the van but it was worth it for sure.

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