Emily's version of events...

I am sure that you have all been enjoying Christian’s excellent write up on our trip so far. I thought it was time I wrote a little : ) And for those of my family members who have been asking for my contribution I haven’t been completely lazy I have been writing in my own journal.

I know I have been to New Zealand a few times but the more I come the more I am fascinated by this country. Like Christian said it really does have it all. After reflecting on what we did last week I realised we had seen and climbed glaciers, enjoyed the beaches, driven through and over beautiful mountains and kayaked in the fiords and all in such a small space of time. All of which I am sure you will either read or hear about.

Our next stop after Nelson was Abel Tasman. This is a national park in the Northern part of the south Island. Like so many of New Zealand’s beautiful places to get to it we had to drive along windy country roads and through gorges. In our old campervan this does take a while but we have amazing views to keep us entertained. We arrive in Kaiteriteri a beautiful bay where a lot of Kiwis spend their holidays. The sand is golden and the sea is bright blue/green. We stop here for a walk along the beach but then continue to drive till we reach Marahau. This is the access point to Abel Tasman costal track. It is a beautiful spot but not much there apart from a campsite, shop and information point for the area. We spend two nights here and decide to save our pennies and walk around the coast rather than Kayak to find the idyllic beaches.

Christian and I set out for our day of walking, supplied with nuts, peanut butter sandwiches and bananas to give us energy for our long day. However 10 minutes into our walk Christian starts to complain about an itching sensation .......................... in-between his toes as he hadn’t changed his socks from our 26k walk we did a few days earlier. Anyway Christian struggles on for a while but we have to stop early. Luckily we found a secluded beach (perfect for Christian to bathe his sore feet) where we spend the day, swimming, sunbathing and reading. This is one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen, so we were both happy to abort our original plan.

After our day of relaxation we walk back to the campsite (Christian in his flip flops). Where we spent the evening talking about where to head next, reading our guide books and enjoying our favourite meal of the trip pasta and sauce. Decision made next stop Takaka ............................
Through another gorge, enjoying more beautiful sights and listening to a mixture of “Wilde Beasts” and “Simply Red” we head towards Golden bay. We finally reached the little hippy town Takaka. Straightaway we both love this place. As we enjoyed the laid back feel , the quirky shops and cafes. After struggling not to buy anything from the gift shops we enjoyed cup of New Zealand’s finest coffee which was of course organic and watched everyone walking around the town in bare feet, in multicoloured clothes and wearing t-shirts which say things like “Don’t make war, make love”.

We then headed further north along the coast to reach the most northern point of the South Island “Farewell spit”. This wasn’t exactly beautiful and we felt very remote amongst allot of Barron scenery, which gave it a spooky feel. We took some quick snaps and left. We continued our journey to see a much talked about beach. Once we walked through farmland to reach it we were greeted with amazing sand dunes, cliffs and crashing waves. We ran and skidded down the dunes and walked along the edge of the water in the evening sun. Then realised we hadn’t found anywhere to stay for the night. We desperately tried to fine somewhere free to camp. However it quickly became apparent this wasn’t going to happen so we settled for a campsite situated right on the beachfront. We had the view of waves from our van and were a mere 5 steps from the sand. We sampled some of the locally brewed beer (golden goose), ate more pasta with sauce and talked about our day before we fell asleep to the sound of the waves.