After much anticipation we finally made it across the Cook Straight to get a taste of the South Island. We had the good fortune of traveling with Sarah and Danny, some good friends who are much loved by both of our kids. While Amy and I packed the bags, Sarah and Danny cooked up a fantastic meal with some native mussels and some steak from our man the butcher.
We started our journey the next day on the Interislander ferry. This is a memorable way to get from one island to the other as the views of the Queen Charlotte Sound (on the South Island) are amazing. A cargo truck managed to delay our departure by catching on fire -before it boarded the ferry, fortunately- but the Kiwis handled it with their usual aplomb and off we went.
Our initial plan was to spend the first day driving to the sunny, bohemian town of Nelson. We ran into our second and more substantive delay, though, when a massive landslide closed the motorway. Ergo, a surprisingly pleasant detour took us through beautiful wine country and left us in Havelock, the "green-shelled mussel capital of the world." There isn't much going on in Havelock aside from mussels, but everyone agreed that life's really more about the journey anyway so we drank some beer and ate some mussels and took off the next morning for Nelson.
Above: I've had worse detours.
Nelson was a really neat town. It's about as laid back a place as you'll find in Western civilization; one place we considered staying is actually "clothing optional" during certain parts of the year (sorry, the fun doesn't start until February and we didn't stay there anyway). The town is full of artists, galleries, and other relaxed folk and it boasts the best weather in NZ.
The next day we finally made our way to Abel Tasman national park. Tasman was a Dutch explorer who was the first European to visit the area which still bears his name. His employer, the Dutch East India Company (remember that one from your history class?) wasn't too thrilled with his discoveries but they should have taken a longer view of things because the area now attracts hordes of travelers.
People flock here with good reason: the park is like something plucked out of a daydream. There are loads of bays and coves where rocky cliffs open up onto sandy beaches. One of New Zealand's great walks meanders through the park; sections of rainforest replete with waterfalls alternate with stunning views of the shoreline below. If I'm sounding like a travel brochure just skip to the pics and you'll understand. You can't drive to most locations in the park but water taxis make traveling around fairly easy.
After pondering the pile of gear needed to camp with the kids we decided to cheat and had our bags dropped off at the campsite by a water taxi. The hiking was still nothing to scoff at as the children are getting pretty heavy and we had seven hours of solid hiking spread out over the two days we were there. All of our efforts paid off, though, as we found ourselves camping here with practically no one else around:
Above: if you click on the pic you can make out Amy and Sarah walking with the kids. Below: more frolicking on the beach.
After hiking another beautiful section of the track the following morning, we sadly had to part ways with the Van Ormans. They camped again that night in the park and are currently somewhere on the South Island enjoying themselves immensely. It was really great to get to spend some time with good friends in such an amazing place.
On the trip home we discovered that Amelia's previous bout of carsickness wasn't a fluke, but at least we had views like this whenever we stopped for a break:
Next up: Tahiti and Bora Bora with the Lovelaces, followed by another trip to the South Island to tap into the local trout fishing. I felt a pang of guilt while typing that, but it vanished when I thought about what the exchange rate has done to my salary.
