We have covered quite a lot of ground in the last few weeks! We have been blessed with warm and sunny days which is perfect when exploring what New Zealand calls the “Golden Bay.” This definitely is not the kind of winter we are used to in MN, to us it feels like paradise when you can still go to the beach and relax in the sand.
To give you a little geographical idea of where we have been traveling, currently we are in the north of the South Island. The South Island has what I think of as two “ears” and we started in Nelson which is nestled between these two ears. In Nelson we did a Helpx and stayed with an amazing host family. They have a 2 year old son and we had a lot of fun interacting with him. During the week we built them a storage cabinet for their garage (well Dan built it and I held things, glued things, and cleaned up :) We really enjoyed Nelson's famous market on Saturday morning! The weather was perfect and the market was huge! We came away with some delicious produce, honey, and other fun home-maid goodies!
After saying farewell to our host family we made our way to the Golden Bay which is the “ear”to the west of Nelson. A large portion of the Golden Bay is Abel Tasman National Park. We hiked about the first 12 km of the Abel Tasman great walk (making for 24 km total or 41,000 steps for the day, which is the longest hike we have done so far)
It was a beautiful trail and we had lunch near a gorgeous beach surrounded by tall mountains soaring out of the beautiful blue waters of the bay. It is called Golden Bay because the sand on these beaches is gold in color which is actually because the rock of the shore is all granite and when it turns to sand it becomes golden.
The landscapes and beaches were crazy unique and it was so fun to explore the area. Eventually we made our way to the quaint little town of Takaka. We had to drive through the mountains to get to it but we were able to reach the other side of Abel Tasman from there. We hiked another 6 km of the great walk from the opposite side of the park.
From Takaka we ventured up to Farewell Spit which is the northern most point of the South Island. Again the landscape completely changed and it felt like we entered an entirely new world. Farewell spit is a large sand dune that extends up over the South Island. We walked along the sand dune until our legs couldn't take it anymore. We were completely surrounded by sand and it felt like we somehow ventured into the desert.
From here we made our way to Wharariki Beach which was a totally unique and breathtaking beach. We had to hike about 20 minutes to access it and the beach front was rolling sand dunes. There also were massive boulders right off the coast which added to the magical scenery.
Once we saw everything we wanted in the west “ear” we worked out way back down to Nelson. We traveled along the eastern ear to make our way across NZ and back to the East Coast. The eastern ear is primarily the Marlborough Sounds so the best way to explore it is by boat. We have seen some of the highlights but hope to do a boat tour prior to leaving the south island.
Slowly we worked our way down the East Coast to Christchurch. We have decided that this is the city we will settle in for a few months. We have loved the van life and Waka has treated us very well but we think the rest of winter will be a good time to find some longer-term jobs and experience life more as a kiwi and less as a traveler. We are both excited to have a more permanent home and to see what the work culture of New Zealand is like!
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