We’ve had a few busy days, so it’s good to have a moment to catch you up on our latest New Zealand adventures.

We enjoyed our wine tasting in Blenheim. We just visited one winery, that was plenty for us. Wairau River Wines https://www.wairauriverwines.com

We had a great experience and tasted some very nice wines. After wine tasting, it was laundry time (isn’t that what everybody does after wine tasting?). We found a laundromat in town, figured out how to work the machines (which always seems to be somewhat of a challenge in a different country) and, voila!, clean clothes. We headed to our room, and laid everything out on the sunny deck to dry.

The next morning we headed for Kaiteriteri and Abel Tasman National Park. Abel Tasman is on the very north of the South Island of New Zealand and is one of New Zealand’s sunniest areas. It is beautiful!

Here are a couple pictures of the beach in Kaiteriteri. This is a very small town, mostly supporting tour boats, hiking, kayaking, and camping tours in the park.

 

We had arranged a boat ride to take us two hours up the coast the next morning with a drop off at Awaroa Beach. We then hiked a little more than 7 miles back down the coast and the boat picked us up to bring us back to Kaiteriteri.

Here is our boat, ready to board, in the morning light. A beautiful morning with a perfectly calm sea.

On the way up the coast, the boat slowed at particular sites. This is called Split Apple Rock. It is a piece of granite estimated to be 135 million years old that split down its fault line. These rocks slowly break up to form the golden quartz beaches of Abel Tasman National Park.

 

After two hours, we have reached our destination, Awaroa Beach and the boat drops us off. Coe is thinking, “What…I have to walk all the way back?”

 

Awaroa Beach is this amazing stretch of golden sand. Here are a couple pictures looking both directions.

 

As usual, there were new and unique New Zealand birds to observe.

Our 7+ mile hike consisted of climbing over three sets of hills, sometime very steep, and then descending to beautiful beaches. Here we are starting up the first forest stretch and over the first set of hills. More beautiful tropical forest with such interesting trees. Also a look back at Awaroa Bay where we started.

 

 

 

Here is our first glimpse of our second beach, Onetahuti. And another unusual bird. These big brown birds are very common and love backpackers and the goodies in their packs. You have to keep your eye on these guys.

 

Onetahuti beach is beautiful. We take a granola bar break, during which a bold New Zealand gull swoops in to almost steal Janet’s granola bar. We find a beautiful shell on the beach, but just get a picture. You are not supposed to remove rocks or shells from the national park.

 

 

 

 

Then it’s back up another hill. This one really steep and over to the next beach. Beautiful views along the way.

 

 

As we near our last beach, Bark Bay, we cross a water fall and a stream running out to the ocean. It’s another one of those scary swing bridges, but I am holding on with both hands.

 

 

The foliage is just so interesting. This is a beautiful plant growing up the trunk of a reddish barked tree. And here is our view of our last beach. We are almost there.

 

It was so good to see our boat arriving to take us back to Kaiteriteri. It was a beautiful hike, but wore us out.

Some of you have been asking about our accommodations. We are staying in small rentals our entire trip. They were booked either through Booking.com or AirBnB. They have all been very nice and recently remodeled. I expect that many were remodeled during the COVID travel lull. They are very modern and efficient with kitchens that look like they may have been purchased from IKEA or something similar. Here is a picture of our current kitchen and little dining area.

This particular unit is in the basement of a private home. Others that we have rented have been in motels or little add ons built behind people’s homes. In Christchurch, we had a small apartment in a new block. Some have a separate bedroom, some do not. Most have been very comfortable. The one in Queenstown, was a little too compact for us (I earlier included a picture of the tiny sink), but all the others have been great. Our favorite was in Te Anau where we were in a little apartment built behind a private home’s garage. It was very neat, clean, modern and comfortable with even a little deck we could use. All have had a refrigerator, microwave, tea kettle and some have had a “hob”, a two burner stove top, and a few even an oven. I think two have had dishwashers and a couple have had washing machines as well. We have a box of food we carry around with us that includes breakfast stuff and some snacks. We usually eat one meal out a day.

The favorite coffee drink in New Zealand is a flat white. It is delicious. Very similar to a latte. Much less expensive than in the US. Of course, there is pizza, hamburgers, fish and chips, and all your normal tourist food. I have had some wonderful salmon, but were not real impressed with the green-lipped mussels. Penn Cove are better. We did try a new fruit called a Feijoa. The internet describes them as taking the best elements of strawberries, pineapple, and guava and mixing them together. Speaking of strawberries, we have had wonderful fresh farmed strawberries frequently. So good!

 

Today, we are having a delightful rest day and tomorrow we travel to Hanmer Springs, our last stop before heading home.

Thanks for traveling with us.

Kia ora,

Coe & Janet