Easter Weekend :)

It's holiday time! Easter weekend had been great, because we are closed on Friday and Sunday. And for the first time in 10 months, i'm given a saturday day-off. It was simply the best thing ever happen because i can finally meet up with Leia and her friends and go for a short holiday.

Destination? The tip of South Island, collectively called Golden Bay. This is the 2nd time i'm visiting Golden Bay, and it's great! Lovely and peaceful place. Since my car is gone long time ago, i went back to uncle Bruce of Arrow Backpackers to rent his Toyota Estima for 3 days. Pick up the car early on friday morning and drove to Motueka for a night. Stop by quite a number of places, taking some photos with my old trusty D200 (still waiting for my new baby to come... :( )

Anyway, the trip here is to take friends around for a tour, and i do hope my 'tour guide' is worthy. hahaa.. Some hiccups along the way, like 'lost' in our supposingly short walk to Wharariki Beach ends up in Green Hill Beach. Sorry guys! :P And hopefully my driving doesn't causes too much nausea and dizzyness..  the hills of Takaka is hard to tame :)

So here's the photos from our trip at end of March. Day 1, Blenheim-Motueka Town, stop by Mapua for fish and chips again @ Smokehouse, hehe.. and mini potluck at night with Leia, Kim, Shiny, Pauline and Karl at Abel Tasman Motel.





Day 2, we start early, roughly around 7.30am and head straight to Takaka town. We visited Waikoropupu Springs around 9.30am, took some photos, short walks, and heads back to Takaka (well, it was only 10 min drive) for lunch. We walk around the town, had some crepes, while waiting for Dangerous Kitchen to open. It's pizza for $10, which is pretty cheap and tasty. After lunch, we head straight to Collingwood town, which is nearby, 30 minutes drive to check-in at Somerset Backpackers! Weeeee.. i miss Somerset's Chris and Hiromi, and Joy, the Labrador mix, and their wonderful home made breads and bush honey. Yum Yum!

Dancing Sand


From left, Karl, Shiny, Leia, Pauline, Kim, Me


There's heaps of midges flying on the water surface, and so does spiders setting webs and wait for easy meals.


Interesting plant hanging from the trees


We made some changes to our plan since low tide is imminent when we are there, and we could visit Wharariki Beach on that day itself. Low tide was around 5-7pm, which is perfect! We plan to take the 'short' walk around some small lakes before entering Wharariki Beach on the other side, but somehow, all of us miss the signs and end up walking further until we reach Green Hill Beach. Alamak! It was unexpected, but not too bad... at least another beach added to travel list.

First, we stop at Cape Farewell for a look out. Stunning view..






Next, we went to our 'short' trek... which ends up here; Green Hill Beach


Wharariki Beach on low tide.. reveals the mussels, seagrass bed, which is quite vibrant!


Leia and the famous arch of Wharariki Beach


Nice beach...


Sunset is beautiful on the beach


3rd Day, we decided to climb on top of Pillar Point to have a nice view of fossil point and Golden Bay
The view is stunning just like last time, but sadly, my camera was not wide enough. But it's a nice hike! Our next destination is fossil point but sadly, after just a short walk, it started to rain :( Have to cancel our plan and heads back to Motueka. Since the day is still young, we went to visit Abel Tasman National Park, and visited the Apple Split. Had quite a bit of fun there too..



We end the day with a dinner prepared by the girls. Another nice home cooked meals :) I had a great time for the past few days.. it's great, spending time with Leia and friends around Golden Bay.