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.

Golden Bay - Motueka Day 1 & 2

Finally, after 4 months of work, one in the vineyard, and three with Harvey Norman Blenheim, NZ.. it's time to take a break and go for a holiday. 2 of my friends came back from their Fiji and North Island holidays and joining 3 of us here for the next trip. Our plan was spending a week around Motueka - Golden Bay region, and the Abel Tasman National Park.

This is must be one of the early backpackers job, hanging their worn out shoes on the fences. From there, it became a tradition for most backpackers who pass by that area.. hanging more and more shoes! It was an interesting sight!

We left Blenheim on Tuesday morning… and our first stop was Nelson. Our initial plan was to stay a night in Nelson, but it's boring here.. besides, we came here before, and nothing much to do. Had our lunch in Nelson Oriental Restaurant, which is just so so... dont really recommend anyone to go there.

So, after some shopping at Kathmandu and lunch, we head straight to a small town called Collingwood, near the Farewell Spit of the Golden Bay.  This old man from the construction site was pretty happy to be taken photo. 

Halfway through, we stop by at Seafried Winery and Cellar Door, the first winery we've visited in NZ, and here we are again…. for the grape juice, not wine! LOL… at $5 a bottle, it's a nice juice! Don't blame me… i'm not a big fans of white wine here and the red is just so so… As we were wine tasting, i went on to sign the visitor book and guess what, it's either nobody (i mean, few..) visited them or those visitors just not interested to leave some comments. My 2nd signature and comments is still on the very same page. Hahaha.. after 4 months, still same page, what a pity!

So after the wine tasting and bought 6 bottles of grape juice, we continue our journey...We pass through Motueka town, and the hilly road started. It was pretty crazy and winding.. corners here and there non stop. Some are pretty tight. How i wish I'm here with a motorbike. Cornering heaven! LOL

We have to drive up the Takaka hill before going down to the town itself. A pretty amazing sight i would say… simply breathtaking!! 

We stop at Takaka town while looking for the address and vacancy of backpackers. The first choice was The Innlet, as recommended by some friends. However, to our disappointment, and answering machine took our call… saying… they are still closed for the winter! WTF!!! No choice but to look around the BBH booklet for the next backpacker. We chose Somerset Backpacker in Collingwood, as it got pretty good rating, free breakfast and near to Farewell Spit. It was a good decision. The owner, an englishman, Chris and japanese wife, Hiromi greeted us with warm welcome. Both of them are so friendly, and the place was homey. Nobody stay there but us, all 5 of us! That is cool! According to them, the season just about to start, and they just reopen for 2 weeks. Cool! We're in luck!

It was already evening when we reach there, so we decided to get some rest for the next day.

It was not a lovely morning the very next day. We were greeted by light rain and clouds! Deng! But the free breakfast was yummy! Homemade bread and local bush honey is just so tasty. Cant stop eating slice after slice. Coupled with a cup of hot coffee, it made my day a lot nicer! Hehe..

Joy, greeted us in the morning with his soulful eyes.. begging for foods but we are not allowed to! He is one of the clever and obedient dog! The owner show us, that without his permission, Joy wouldnt eat the dog biscuit right in front of him. That's a cool trick!  She was saying... No... No... No.... then Yes, there goes the greedy Joy.

The two girls were afraid of Joy, but Joy mean no harm! He's just too cute! haha.. Sitting there watching the two girls as he patiently waiting for some foods. Sorry Joy, we cant do that! You're obese!

 As the rain begins to slowed down, we start preparing and head to Farewell Spit. Chris and Hiromi was kind enough to show us what's nice to visit around there with an informative piece of yellow map and places of interest. Our plan was to visit Wharariki Beach, Cape Farewell and Pillar Point. Wharariki Beach, rated one of the most beautiful beaches around New Zealand, was indeed amazing! There's one thing to keep in mind though, make sure to visit only during low tides. That's the only way you could maximise the beach exploration.

I'll update the blog with Day 3 and Day 4 photos pretty soon, it takes a little bit of time as our internet connection in the backpackers is so unstable and slow! Haizzz.....