Blogs from Abel Tasman National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 37

The ferry across the Cook Strait was a bit lively! As forecast, weather conditions were bad and were described on boarding the ferry as "less than favourable out in the Strait". This translated to an approx 4 metre swell, gale force winds and torrents of rain, with over 50% of the passengers becoming well acquainted with their sick bags - incidentally we were not included in the number! ....and so to Nelson, where things were a little less lively and the sun was shining. The geographical centre of New Zealand is conveniently situated on a hill on the edge of town, which comes with panoramic views over the city and the bay. As we are now obviously converted to the code of egg chasing, it seemed appropriate to also make a beeline to the birthplace of ... read more

....viewing these pictures may cause you to quit your job and run away to New Zealand! Friends, family, and Gus, There are some places in the world that instantly click with a person, and the South Island of New Zealand has completely captivated me by its rugged, wild, scenic, and isolated terrain. The island is prepared to cater to anyone who seeks to experience the wild, push limits, and gaze at mind-blowing vistas. I wish I could bring all of New Zealand to you, but no picture or words can bring it justice. However, I hope that these pictures will bring you some sense of the country's splendor and brilliance that you may already know well from the Lord of the Rings. So far, I have spent my time hiking along the clifftops of Kaikoura, sailing ... read more

South island After our lovely Nelson weekend in its gorgeous microclimate, we headed up to the Abel Tasman national park where with our german friends and took a water taxi up the coast to walk one day of the three day coastal walk. We were blessed with glorious sunshine to enjoy the crystal water, golden beaches and lush forest. We even crossed squishy mudflats at low tide with bare feet crushing shells as we went, the winter water was very cold. My boots,giving up due to getting frozen in the mountains pinched blisters into my little toes, ouch,(wuss!) but we ate whittakers chocolate to numb the pain. I have developed some twitcher tendancies and love seeing pokekoes (a large moorhen like bird) and Tui birds who have amazingly varied call and little white wobbly bits under ... read more

A strange collection of pictures for this blog which covers many miles where not a great deal happened. We went from Lake Taupo down to Hawke's Bay area to start the wine tour (see separate blog). We hit a bad spell of rain and cold at Napier so didn't get to appreciate the Art Deco buildings properly. Compared to the rest of New Zealand, which seems to be full of brand new single storey wooden buildings, you can see why they make a fuss of Napier, but the architecture didn't really stand out a huge amount. We carried on to Hastings and Havelock North then didn't stop until Martinborough, driving through endless miles of pastureland and seeing a lot more sheep than people. Still, it has been lovely to see all the spring lambs and daffodils ... read more

Ya this was the highlight of the trip for me. We got to the small town at the base of Able Tasman after it was quite dark out. And since we brought the tent we thought we would camp but all the camp site offices were closed so we just drove and found a camping area that we thought was nice. Since it was so dark out, we parked the car and I got my flash light out and we walked around to look at the stars and to find a place to set up the tent and find the restrooms. Locked the car up and headed off. We got back to the car and realized that I locked the keys in the car. So we walked back down the road to find a phone and ... read more