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Published: October 17th 2009
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We left Murchison quite early and headed to Motueka to stock up on provisions for the next few days, making sure we raided a deli of at least five different cheeses before we left! We had been told of a really sweet place to stay right on the edge of Abel Tasman NP so after stopping off at a gorgeous bay for some lunch we made our way round the windy roads to the Barn and spent the afternoon getting to know our NEIGHbours over a few beers! The Abel Tasman is the smallest Nat Park in all of NZ but its one of the great walks of the country. The walk takes about 4-5 days and you need all the proper camping/trekking gear so we just went for a half day walk along the stunning coastline. It was a lovely sunny day, still a strong fresh wind but it was absolutely beautiful, I can only imagine it get better and better the further you go up to the very tip of South Island. After our afternoons exertions we had a drink and a nibble in the lovely organic cafe and planned our next move. The Barn was a very sweet
place to stay but my god was it cold having a shower basically in the middle of a field in a little shed - chilly!!!!!!
From here we made our way back along the twisty road back to the main road and then up another very twisty road and then up a twisty hill to Takaka and Golden Bay. We arrived in Golden Bay in pouring rain - shock - so fed our faces in a lovely cafe and then went for two very overdue hair cuts - rock and roll! I also managed to do a bit of shopping - a hand crocheted hat by Marion, some lovely rainbow socks and a mental but very warm orange poncho. Golden bay is known for its thriving arts community and when we stopped at the information place to pick up all the leaflets as we usually do I found a leaflet for an artist called Ngang. One of his paintings really caught my eye and so we went and found his studio. The original of the painting was a little bit much considering we are homeless at the moment (14k NZD) but it was the most amazing painting I had ever
seen. We arranged to go back the next day to meet Ngang and we ended up ordering a custom embellished giclee print that should be winging its way to Odin’s pretty soon. The painting is called Stairway to Heaven and it was on the radio on the way back from meeting Ngang the second day - it was meant to be! Our first and second days in Golden Bay were spent sheltering from the rain in the common room and kitchen at the campsite and making friends with a fellow astronaut (That’s what spaceships call the drivers!!???!!) and artist from Memphis Tennessee - he was a really lovely guy and gave us one of his prints signed, how sweet. We did manage to drive out to the Mussel Inn one night for some lovely home brew and New Zealands finest green lipped mussels. Luckily the weather changed on the third day and we drove out to Cape Farewell and the farewell spit at the very North western tip of New Zealand. It was a fair drive along gravel roads but eventually we got to the car park and after a 45 minute walk we came out on an amazing beach
- windswept but gorgeous. We had our picnic (Picnics are so easy when you live in a van!!!) on the beach and had a bit of a climb over the rocks only to find a seal family inside - cute!!! I am now on the hunt for a seal to replace Ted to replace Barclay! After taking lots of photos of sheep we drove to the Farewell Spit and then into a small village called Collingwood to try out the good of the Rosy Glow Chocolate shop - All we seem to do is eat here - I blame it on the weather! To finish our day off I had a blast behind the wheel in true Schumacher style and we made it back to takaka just in time to go and fish for our tea! Its cheating really as you are fishing in a stocked lake but Tel’s wanted to go fishing for weeks now, since early Australia, but have not had the stuff so it was as good an opportunity as any! At the salmon farm they give you the rods etc for free and you pay for what you catch. So we walked over to the lake
with two rods and I’m taking photos as usual and Tel throws his line in and within 2 seconds he’s caught one. As we have got a pretty rubbish fridge (Its tiny after the Aussie one) we could only catch two and by the time I had even got my line in the water Tel was pulling out number two - nice work Mr Kemp. We took our salmons to be weighed etc and then had them hot smoked while we sat and enjoyed a beer in the sunshine - life cannot get much sweeter. We made our way back to our site to enjoy our freshly caught salmon with some local asparagus and a nice dry white - spoiled or what! After the perfect day we decided it was time to get moving and head towards Marlborough and get the ferry to North Island - only 2 and a half weeks left here - where has the time gone!
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You guys look like your having a blast!! me and my girlfriend are flying out this saturday and get into Auckland on Monday!! so excited!!