De South Island à North Island

A un moment donné, j'ai du quitter l'île du Sud pour avancer vers le nord. Claudia m'a emmené jusqu'à la ferry à Picton. La ferry m'emmenait à Wellington ou j'ai passé une nuit. Ensuite, je me suis envolée pour Auckland afin de passer ma dernière semaine tout au Nord de la Nouvelle Zélande.

La ferry qui m'emmène vers le Nord

... le dernier rocher de l'Isle du Sud. On remarque les nuages que je laisse derrière...

...et le regard vers le Nord: Moins de nuages...

La station de train à Wellington: Il y a des billet pour chaque destination.
Il suffit de choisir la bonne couleur...

Et pour les fans de Harry Potter:
La plateforme 9 3/4 ne se trouve pas à Londres, mais à Wellington !!
J'aurais du prendre un billet pour le Hogwards Express !!

Et enfin arrivé à l'aeroport de Wellington. J'arrive (comme demandé) 2 heures
avant mon vol au guichet de JetStar: Il n'y a personne !!
Ils arrivent peu après, ça reste bien calme.

Marlborough Sound

From the Abel Tasman National Park it was not a big drive to get to the beginnign to the Marlborogh Sound. Claudia and me, we had decided to book a room in a lodge in a remote part of the Sound. She was brave enough to drive around the coast line. Since in the weeks past, there were serious floodings, parts of the road were still not repaired and needed a bit more attention.




Road around the Marlborough Sounds, partly restored.




Mussle Farm. The intersting bits are under water of course....





And I was rewarded by these nice hardshell clams
when I was groping around in the sand at low tide. 




That is what remained after dinner.



The Hopewell Lodge, a great little place in paradise...



...lazy places in the corner of the garden...




...great flowery surroundings...



...and of course with a place to socialise and cook...

Good bye to this part of the Sound

We had booked only for 2 nights in the Hopewell Lodge, as it was booked out afterwards. We would have liked to stay, but no space was left for us... So again, Claudia drove us all the way back to civilisation.


...past timber storages...


... and to another place called Anakiwi. Here, all the rooms were named according to their ancient usage. With two french people, we ended up in:

"The old shed"

It was probalby not meant to house 4 people, but we never went in there apart from sleeping. The living room and the surroundings of the place were very comfy and much nicer to hang around.

Having some time out in front of the Hostel...

... and taking the kayaks out for a little discovery tour !



A little curious visitor on our paddeling break!






Golden Bay and Abel Tasman

From Kaikoura I took a bus to the Golden Bay area. I wanted to be as remote as possible so I took a bus to a place called Collingwood. From there someone came to pick me up to bring me to a hostel called the Innlet. This area had been flooded the previous week (remember all the rain I wrote about? It all came down also here) and it was just since a few days, that the roads were usable again.The hostel was really in the middle of nowhere. Great, exactly what I wanted: Flower beds in the backyard, a nice lawn to lay on and surrounded by forest. a couple of hundred meters to the beach and a little stream running in the backyard.



Backyard of the Innlet hostel: Nice lawn, great forest near by.

 

View from the seat of the outhouse: a fully ecological sawdust WC !

In this hostel I met Claudia. She had a car and took me to the far north, the Farewell Spit. This is an amazing part of land, if it is not hiding in the haze...

Farewell Spit: This piece of land is very narrow, but 27 km long...

27km is a bit too long for a hike, especially if the feet are not too happy about long walks. So we turned the other way and walked along the coast. Have a look how different views you can get in a single day walking slowly...

The typical green grass and - of course - sheep !

Which way does the wind blow??

This place was less accessible than it seems. Great place for a small rest !

The coast

... and then from lush green to dry sand dunes...

... rocks and water



... more rocks and water...

...and a visitor on the beach... well, actually we are the visitors on his beach !

On the way out from the dunes to a parking. We were thinking about hitching a ride from some people when Claudia met two women she knew... New Zealand is small...

Natures' painting in the sand...

... these traces are mine...

The hostel was fully booked, after 2 days, I had to leave it. Claudia left too, so we spend another couple of days together. Sharing her car, fun and company we moved on to the Abel Tasman area.

Low tide: this is fully covered in water at high tide...

...somebody left traces....

One of the many (for us) nameless places on the way...

The great Abel Tasman National Park. Green water, as announced by every postcard.

The sun at its best: dressed up with a halo !

The split apple

We went along the Abel Tasman coast with a water taxi. We were lucky passing by a seal that was in the process of having his lunch...

The best ice cream in the world: home made berry ice !

The continuation of my travel pictures

... will need to wait for a while...

I can't get a good internet connection fast enough to make the uploading of the pictures not a nightmare...

Also, there are so many things to do and see that you just have to be patient.

Greetings from Nelson...

Kaikoura

My first impression arriving in Kaikoura: Beach and mountains

The town of Kaikoura consists of restaurants, hotels, hostels, shops, tour operators... So I rather keep on taking pictures of the area around it.

Loads of birds as everywhere...

... and seals ! They are quite happy to just lay in the sun and don't think about all the tourists that pass by...

Impressions around the seals' resting places...

...more impressions...

While walking around, we met a retired man who still goes on with his passion: research the birds.  He measures their limbs and keeps statistics: This species is slowly reducing its size over the years.

Another little seal, happy to be there !

The sun in slowly settling down.

 I had one of my best and also one of my worst experiences of this holiday at Kaikoura: I went swimming with the dolphins and it was a great experience. They are so curious, they come to you, swim around you and just have fun with you... I just was reminded that I get seasick every time I get on a boat. So I had some bad time hugging the bucket... Still the good memories prevail !!

Ready for the dolphin swimming...

The seagulls on the beach were feeding their youngsters...

The last day of the year. We had a little party with some people from the hostel.

Green lip mussels: yummy !!