Golden Oldies in Golden Bay (Sep. 24 – 27)

Terminology note: during our visit at Chris and Martin’s, Martin off-handedly referred to Linda and Don as our “oldies”, and for better or worse the term caught on with Becky and I. L&D haven’t seemed to mind much, so that’s good, but we enjoy it so much that we’d probably use it either way, we might just be more circumspect in our usage. With that in mind…

From the Sounds we took the oldies to Nelson, which is generally sunny, but wasn’t exactly cooperating for our day there. While in Nelson, we didn’t seem to get heaps of input on activities for the day, and so we took it pretty easy after our long hike the day before. I did take the opportunity to highjack our trip for a little while for a beer-related activity, diverting us to Founder’s Park for a mug at the brewery in the afternoon. I’ll cop to that being a danger of traveling with me. Otherwise, we took it easy in Nelson, enjoying the free-but-glacially slow internet at our hostel and playing cards.

Hot "tubs" by the stream at the Innlet

On the next day we headed out to Golden Bay, the hippie-rific rural beach area north of Nelson. You may recall our earlier visit to Golden Bay, where we stayed at a really cruisey Buddhist-inspired hostel, Shambhala. Unfortunately Shambhala was still closed for the low season this time, but Golden Bay seems to have good hostels all over the place, and we found one, The Innlet, and had it to ourselves for two nights. That’s the beauty of traveling in off-peak seasons here, and it’s tough to beat.

Hardhats are required for the tour at Ngarua Cave

Though the weather didn’t cooperate much of the time in Golden Bay, we were able to make the best of it, stopping at Ngarua Caves, a cool limestone cave formation with a tour guide who was a dead ringer for Albert Finney. We also stopped at a farm zoo/eel attraction that was highly recommended by Chris and one of Becky’s convention center workmates. It was surprisingly fun to feed eels pieces of raw meat, but Becky really got a kick out of feeding a little pig that followed us around the park – he looked so much like her sister’s dog that she began to call him Mickey as well. We also got out on Wharariki Beach that day and were able to find seal pups there again, but had to hurry and wade back to the beach before the tide got too high that afternoon.

Feeding the eels mince (otherwise known as ground beef) at the farm

Andrew suspiciously eyes the llama, who we called "Snarfy"

Becky makes friends with Mickey's swine doppelganger downunder

The next day we took a guided tour out on the Farewell Spit, Golden Bay’s unique sand formation that stretches towards the North Island. The Spit is basically a long sandbar extending from the tip of the South Island, and is formed from sand that is washed down rivers on the country’s West coast and subsequently carried by the strong northward current along the coast. It finally makes its way to the Spit, where it accumulates in a largely straight line, now about 24km in length. The Spit is a strongly protected environmental area, and the only way to get to the end is on a guided tour. Becky seemed to regret not taking the tour last time we were in GB, so I suspect we went there because of her as much as Linda or Don, but it was really good so no complaints by anyone.

The amazing upclose view of the gannet colony at Farewell Spit

Much like our tour on the North Island’s 90-Mile Beach, the Spit tour was an interesting drive down a dune-filled beach to a scenic lighthouse. Luckily, our tour this time was much smaller (only 6 of us), and our tour guide, an enthusiastic German, Kersten, was heaps better than our Cape Reinga driver, who prattled on for over an hour on the gory details of the local fishing competition. The highlight of a tour of the Spit is the gannet colony at the end, which is the only known one in the world not perched on a cliff. The gannets are a beautiful and colorful bird, and being able to get really close to a huge group of them was worth the ride and cost.

The Farewell Spit lighthouse

Of course no visit to GB is complete without a pilgrimage to the Mussel Inn, home to NZ’s most out-of-the-way, and some might say best, brewpubs. We can heartily recommend the mussel chowder with a Captain Cooker manuka beer to wash it down. We were fortunate to arrive when we did, as it had only re-opened for the spring the week before, having been closed for about six weeks in the winter. Driving around to various attractions we found out that to be the case for more than a few places, so good timing Linda and Don!

On our next and last day in GB we went out sea kayaking in the northern part of the Abel Tasman National Park. We’d been to Abel Tasman our last time in GB, where we did a hike and sail excursion, but again Becky seemed to regret not doing the kayaking. Since Linda is a keen kayaker back home she was keen to kayak in NZ, though she wasn’t so sure of doing it in the sea as compared to a placid lake. In the end it turned out to be a great kayak though, with sunny weather and generally calm seas around Tata Beach, where we put in. We got a few hours to paddle around rocky islands containing shag colonies, and saw a few seals to boot. The shags are another cool bird to see, but you definitely don’t want to get too close to them, as they seem to be more than happy to poop on you. Judging from the stench around the island, it’s not something you want to wear.

Andrew avoiding the shags while kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park

Alas, after 4 days our time at GB was up, but despite the bad weather on several days, this visit only cemented its status as one of our favorite places in NZ. You stay cruisey, Golden Bay.

Loose Seals On Golden Bay (Feb. 17-19)

After sailing in Abel Tasman, we headed even farther north up to Golden Bay, a remote and relatively sparsely populated area that makes up the extreme northwest of the S. Island. From the Kiwis we’ve talked to, it seems to be inhabited mostly by hippies, alternative lifestylers, and others who are looking to get off the beaten path. We seem to be finding there are quite a few places in NZ where that’s true. Which makes sense, as NZ isn’t exactly on the most well-trod paths, globally speaking. But as so often happens, I digress.

View of Wharariki Beach

From our few days in Golden Bay, the alternativee lifestyler thing seems to ring true, as we stayed in a decidedly unusual, but very laid-back hostel between Takaka and Collingwood, Shambhala. A Belgian backpacker in Tauranga had recommended the place, and as we’ve been trying to incorporate fellow travelers’ advice into our plans, we decided to stop in. Shambhala is apparently another term for Shangri-La, and while I wouldn’t go that far in describing the place, it was pretty nice, with a wicked location set far off the highway just a minute away from the beach.

Shambhala Backpackers

As you might figure, the guy that runs the backpackers is a pretty big Buddhist devotee, offering yoga at the hostel and providing heaps of free Buddhist literature. We didn’t really go for all that, but we did find it interesting to stay someplace different. The vibe at Shambhala was pretty cool and many of the people were really friendly, and I think we got there at a good time, since most of the travelers seemed to have been there for several days and were getting along quite well. Everyone hung out, talked, drank, and went to the bar together, making it seem like a big party instead of an impersonal backpackers. A nice change.

Another bonus of Shambhala was that it was just about across the road from the Mussel Inn, a famous local bar that brews their own beer and has live music nearly every night. Their beer, particularly one called ‘Manuka’, named after a tree that thrives locally, was really pretty good, so I was alright with that. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I won’t find any really hoppy beers here on the order of an American-style IPA, which is probably a good idea since Kiwis seem to like their beer relatively subdued.

After our first night at the Mussel Inn, we decided to walk back to Shambhala rather than catch a ride with the rest of the group. Although it’s a 30 minute walk up the driveway (unpaved, of course), it allowed us to detour through a small glowworm path along the way. Glowworms are the larvae of a fungus gnat and can be seen in lots of caves and natural areas around New Zealand. Their luminescent organs produce a soft, greenish light in the dark. We had previously seen glowworms during the hangi in Rotorua, but these were nicer because they were free. It really is spectacular to be standing in a dark forest surrounded by thousands of tiny glowing lights.

On one day we stopped at Puponga Farm Park, a national park at the end of Farewell Spit. Farewell Spit is like a sandbar growing from the tip of the island stretching out into the sea more than 30km, with sands continually deposited from the sea. We did our usual few hours of walking around, finally getting to Wharariki beach. If you’re thinking, yet another windswept, lonely, gorgeous NZ beach, you would be right. What was especially cool about this beach was that we found a small pool with seal pups swimming around and playing just a few feet from us. You know that they’ll grow up to be big smelly penguin-eating seals, but when they’re small they’re cuter than puppies. Becky can now cross seals off the list of animals she has to see here, yay.

View of Farewell Spit

Andrew with the seal pups

Jean, more cute animal pictures for you!

Other cool things we saw in the area were Pupu Springs, home of the world’s clearest freshwater springs. It doesn’t show up well in pictures, but take it from me you could see right through the water there… We also visited Harwood’s Hole, which is pretty much what it sounds like, a huge hole in the ground. Unfortunately it required about a half-hour drive over unpaved roads (Sorry, Ron!) and we weren’t keen on getting too close to it to get a great picture. Although we figured why bother risking life and limb when it’s tough to say what a great picture of a hole would look like? Maybe we’ll have to read our newly-acquired Buddhist literature to get a good answer to such a question. Don’t worry, we’ll let you know if we receive any enlightenment on this topic. Until next time, grasshoppers.

Pupu Springs

Harwood's Hole