The Abel Tasman Trek & The South Island West Coast

The Interislander Ferry from Wellington (North Island) to Picton (South Island).

The Ferry route through the Cook Straight. The voyage takes around 3 hrs and is very beautiful but very windy on the top deck!!!

John snuggled into our 5 star hotel for the night in Marahu (a small coastal village), the starting point for the Abel Tasman tramp.

Early breakfast and pack up before the hike.

We took a water taxi to the top of the trek and got to travel through the marine reserve, where we got to see blue penguins(smallest penguin in the world) and a colony of fur seals.

A unique rock formation known as split apple rock left over from the ice age.

Getting dropped off at our destination Totaranui campsite, top of the trek.

We decided to do a little loop called Gibbs hill, which turned out to be not so little 18kms.

One of NZ's most popular ferns, the Black fern.

The Black Fern Tree beginning to grow, this is commonly referred to as a monkey tail

John in between some strange looking rock formations in one of the many beaches

Trekking along, our packs were quite heavy with all of our camping supplies.

Our first day where we stopped for a brief lunch and beautiful scenic lookout of the Tasman sea.

Some seriously steep hills we conquered and beautiful golden bay in the background.

An amazing sky at our first campsite Waiharakeke.

We had the beach to ourselves as there was only one other couple staying at the site

We made a campfire and had a small dinner and crashed after a long day of hiking (22kms)

Day 2: We had to do a coastal crossing at Onetahuti Beach. As the sign says there is only a small window of time to cross before the tide comes in.

Onetahuti Crossing, there were lots of little sea crabs scurrying into there holes and tons of shells covering the sea floor.

Our welcoming party once we crossed, perhaps a wax-eye.

Making our way down to our second campsite

Arrived at our second campsite Medlands.

The water was nice and refreshing.

Day 3: Starting the last leg of the trail

An old swing bridge, only 5 people allowed on at one time...little sketchy.

Stopping for a picture

Almost at our second tide crossing, Awaroa estuary in the background.

Anchorage Bay, one of the most popular coastal inlets, in peek season the bay behind me fills up with close to 150 sail boats.

Anchorage Bay Beach

Meet some furry friends along the way!

After 2  nights, 3 days and roughly 55kms later we reached the end of the Abel Tasman!

 

After the trek we decided to travel to some of the other local sights like the "Pupu" Springs.

Although it doesn't look like much but these springs are the largest freshwater springs in Australasia. On Average 14,000 liters of water a second is discharged from these springs, that's about 40 bathtubs full. There are large amounts of water flowing under the ground and is trapped expect for these spring holes which allow for some of the water to be release where as the rest flows out and is release through in the sea through other cracks.

We drove onwards and upwards to the top of the south island and saw the long thin peninsula known as Farwell Spit. There is a bird sanctuary out on the peninsula

This is what living out of your car looks like!

Mountainous peaks and deep water gorges, define the south island landscapes

A picturesque pit stop.

A very strange but friendly bird that we have only seen here on the south island. It looks a bit like a hawk in the face but crossed with a kiwi bird.

A wild and rugged west coast

A little windy and wet but still worth the stop

Pancake rocks, as coined by Cpt. Cook when he landed in NZ. They are about 30 million years old and are formed through erosion of the limestone by the sea bursting through a number of vertical blowholes during high tide.

The adventures continue.......

Wainuiomata and the Dutch experience

Emily and I have been in the Wainuiomata, Moores Valley region for the past two weeks, staying with Nicole and Titus, both originally from the Netherlands. They live 20 min outside of Wellington, which is the capital of New Zealand. Nicole runs a company called Body FX, a body paint/prosthetic operation, which is the biggest in New Zealand. She has worked on several movies, plays and special events over the years in NZ and internationally as well. We became Nicole's blank canvass on a few occasions and we have put some of these experiences below. Some of the highlights of our time here have been John's 25th birthday and Bon Jovi concert, Paua fishing with a local, drinking homemade beer and eating home grown lamb to name a few.

Windmill that titus built, reminds him of the Netherlands

Magic doves painted with food coloring, gives them a tropical bird look

Emily holding her first lamb in NZ. Titus raises a few sheep at a time, some for food and others for pets.

Vodka, the jack russell terrier with a big under bite

Rooster and chickens, this guy woke us up each morning around 6am

Emily at the Wellington National Museum. This massive bird used to roam all of NZ, with the equally massive eagle being its main predator.

Colossal squid specimen at the museum, these creatures live in the Antarctic ocean and are hunted by sperm wales. This specimen was accidentally caught by some Japanese fishermen.

Downtown Wellington

Maori carving at the museum

John with Delbi the dog, on a nature walk with Titus. Only a stone throw away from where they filmed a good chunk of the Lord of the Rings films.

Birthday boy before the Bon Jovi concert

Emily enjoying the local cider

At Westpac stadium

Bon Jovi, we got our seats for $67 NZ each, pretty good

What is left of the sheep once John and Titus were done slaughtering it.

Talk about fresh sheep, from the yard to the kitchen in under 1 hour. We ate some of the ribs a few days later and they were delicious. John and I are definitely considering raising a few sheep following that sheep feed, so good.

A fence that we built

Delbi helping out with the gardening

Our hosts garden, the netting prevents the doves from getting in and the fence keeps the sheep out.

Eal, a Maori delicacy. Some 12 yr old boys from across the way caught this for Titus. Sure enough, we ate it for dinner, looked like a white fish and tasted not bad.

Emily with Alex, a family friend of our host who tool us Paua fishing. Paua is similar to abalone, a sort of clam/mussel. We went snorkeling around some rocks off the coast and chizzled the paua free. We then made a bon fire on the beach and cooked them in their shells, they have a similar taste to Calamari, very cool. Paua shells are very popular here especially for making jewelery out of.

Cooking the Paua

Let the Lion transformation begin. Phase #1

Nicole doing what she does best

Phase #2

Is that John or is that a mean old Lion arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Emily's turn.

Emily the Lioness

I could really go for some gazelle right about now arrrr haha

Following our sporting effort with the Lion make over, Nicole asked Emily if she would become a Christmas table Lady. Emily was paid to hand out candy to people at a mall. She was wearing roller blades, giving the effect that she was floating. 3hrs of work earned her a cool $150

Emily with some face painting ferries. The one in the purple is Nicole's daughter Myrthe

Emily spreading Christmas cheer to all

Emily and I are heading to the south island on Monday the 12th. We will take the interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton, a journey of 3hrs. Once on the south island, we will do the abel tasman hike, which will take us between 3-5 days and then following that we will make our way to Christchurch for Christmas. We wish we could be home for the holidays, we miss you all quite a bit right about now. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, we will be thinking of you all. Enjoy the cold suckers haha just jk . Kind of missing the snow right now. Take care for now