Abel Tasman
Morning came and bad news: last night’s storm meant we weren’t able to go on our wonderful eco-boat tour in the famed Abel Tasman park. This was going be one of our mega highlights so it was such a disappointment…. nevertheless, we drove up to Marahau to the entrance to the Park and decided to […]
Nelson
Reluctantly dragging ourselves from the Sounds we made our way to Nelson in search of a seafood lunch before arriving to Motueka and the Abel Tasman park. Totally unexpectedly, as we tend to forget to read the guide beforehand, we stopped on instinct at an extraordinary spot, the Pelorus Bridge. A pocket of deep green […]
Southward bound to Wellington
A six am awakening to major swell for Alberto: a fine attempt was made with his new (muscled, gigantic, natural surfer type) Kiwi friends to show off the surfing skills, albeit somewhat short lived, to avoid drowning and general disaster. To give him his due, this was not altogether unexpected: the swell was such that they […]
Rotorua
Geysers, tourist buses and massively dodgy motels. That was the sneaking pre-visit suspicion, which was more or less played out, but nevertheless geo-thermal Rotorua was certainly worth a visit. Granted, the weather was no friend: we arrived as the jaws of one of the worst tropical storms in recent years clamped down onto North Island. […]
Two nights in a hut on a dairy farm in Parawera
From Piha we worked our way down State Highway 1 (in English terms, this is tantamount to a pretty mid range B road 😍) to Parawera, a fertile Hobbiton type valley given over for the most part to dairy farming. The towns we passed through on the way were frankly unremarkable: pre-fab bungalows, American style […]