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.
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Backyard of the Innlet hostel: Nice lawn, great forest near by. |
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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...
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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...
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The typical green grass and - of course - sheep ! |
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Which way does the wind blow?? |
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This place was less accessible than it seems. Great place for a small rest ! |
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The coast |
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... and then from lush green to dry sand dunes... |
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... rocks and water |
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... more rocks and water... |
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...and a visitor on the beach... well, actually we are the visitors on his beach ! |
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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... |
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Natures' painting in the sand... |
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... 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.
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Low tide: this is fully covered in water at high tide... |
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...somebody left traces.... |
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One of the many (for us) nameless places on the way... |
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The great Abel Tasman National Park. Green water, as announced by every postcard. |
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The sun at its best: dressed up with a halo ! |
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The split apple |
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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... |
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The best ice cream in the world: home made berry ice ! |