Blogs from Takaka, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

A tremendous thunderstorm overnight with all the elements going at once has partially cleared the overcast sky but it still wasn’t brilliantly fine as we surfaced for the day. Still at least that rain had come during the night and not while we would have been hoping to take in more sights around Takaka during the daylight. We planned a casual day with a short amount of driving locally and then finish the day with dinner at the River Inn, a real old Kiwi style pub, which we had passed by several times over the past few days. Taking our time during the morning we left the apartment late morning and headed first down to Paton’s Rock another of the numerous seaside settlements that surround Takaka. The place looked deserted and although there were a good ... read more

This morning the four of us headed over to Takaka Hill to visit the Ngarua Caves. Robin and Sandra haven’t visited the caves since they’ve been back in NZ so they were interested to see if much has changed since they visited about 30 years ago when their kids were young. We had a bit of a hold up on the way as there is a section of road that is still restricted to a single lane following damage caused by Cyclone Gita in February. The area is controlled by a traffic light system that allows the uphill and downhill traffic through alternately. Immediately after the cyclone hit the road was closed for about four days so tourists were stranded in the Golden Bay area with their hire cars until the road reopened. We arrived at ... read more

Transition douce post luminate vers Motueka. J'ai un job interview lundi à Nelson pour un salon de massage :) Petite session pêche, avant d'apprendre un désastre écologique... 416 baleines pilotes échouées à Farewell spit (où j'ai fêté mes 30 ans) l'operation rescue est lancée. Un groupe de 300 à été sauvé dans la nuit, mais les leaders étant morts sur la plage, elles risquent de revenir les chercher dans la nuit... On a essayé de sauver un groupe d'une 20aine ce matin mais elles sont épuisées... On a tenté un dernier sauvetage avant l'euthanasie... :( C'est triste, la mer commence à prendre des teintes rouges de sang... :'(... read more

La vie ici est paisible, quel bonheur de se réveiller dans cet environnement ! La famille de médecins français en wwoofing avec moi et Prassant mon colloc hollandais sont au top, mais.... et oui il faut un mais... rester trop longtemps au même endroit, c'est pas bon. Surtout que je commence à en avoir marre de leur désorganisation. Nous devions fêter Noël avec eux, et probablement ils mettent tous les wwoofers à la porte la veille de Noël... Ils ont oublié de nous prévenir... Le travail bête et méchant sans réflexion, n'occupe pas assez mon esprit. Je file au free campsite demain. Le temps de préparer des pain et des biscuits, des légumes (j'en aurait mangé des silverbeet !!!) histoire d'avoir un peu d'avance ! Hier nous sommes allés avec Prassant voir la Pupu Spring ( ... read more

We have had another great few days here in the North West of South Island. After spending the the night at proper campsite with hot showers we went 20km up the road to Oparara. The last 16km was on a rather narrow gravel road and we had to check with the local information office as to whether we would fit (answer Yes but go careful). We arrived at Oparara and set off on the first walk to the Moria Arch. The path was just magical through pristine rainforest with towering tree ferns and huge trees covered in moss, in fact there was moss everywhere all different kinds and dripping with diamond like water droplets. We encountered a number of birds including Weka and a very chatty NZ robin that hopped along a branch towards us totally ... read more