Internet access has been difficult to get
due to time, cost, and/or simply availability…
so my apologies that I haven’t been responding to emails or keeping up
with this blog! Let me try to get you
all up to date…
On December 28th, we left
Auckland, went a few hours south to Taupo and set up camp. At this particular site we pitched the tents
in great weather, bbq’d dinner, enjoyed a drink while the kids explored the
outdoor playground.
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| Campsite at Lake Taupo Holiday Park |
The holiday parks in
NZ are really the way to go. You can camp
in tents, stay in bunk rooms or in basic cabins with a few more amenities. There are communal kitchens, bathrooms, TV
room/communal social room and outdoor play areas for the kids. If you prefer more luxuries, maybe this isn't
the place for you but for us, it’s absolutely perfect.
Lake Taupo is the largest lake in New
Zealand and like most things here resulted from a volcanic eruption. We spent
some time exploring the nearby river and falls, watched kayakers paddle through
the rapids and took a walk along the lake where we found pumice rocks that
floated!
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| Paddler in rapids of Huka Falls |
Our drive from Lake Taupo to Wellington was
rather miserable in terms of driving conditions but the views, scenery were
breath taking. Wellington was
unfortunately a wet mess but we only had time to sleep there before catching
the ferry to the south island (I think I have already touched on this subject).
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| Our home in Blenheim |
We spent the afternoon of New Year’s Day at
a couple vineyards – details in the wine section of this blog. Blenheim, to put it simply, is a wine lover’s
paradise! Mom & Dad – I think we may
need to make sure you get some time here.
Lisa organized a most amazing adventure in
Mistletoe Bay. This is in the Queen
Charlotte sounds, just a short water taxi drive away (maybe 45 minutes?) from
the Picton harbor/marina (which is about 30 minutes from Blenheim). Mom – I wish you had more time because we
could have hiked a 71km trail, over the course of 4 days. You’d love it. Mistletoe Bay is a self-sustainable campsite nestled
in one of the many bays in the sounds. We
didn’t set up tents here. Instead we shared
a small cabin / bunk room. The nice
thing was we had our own private shower and toilet and the communal kitchen was
great. Our two days there were filled with
hiking, sea kayaking and good old fashioned fun in the sun. John, Ben and the kids all jumped off the
dock into what was rather ‘refreshing’ water and we saw lots of stingrays as
well! We were all impressed with the
little resort’s self-sustainability.
This is a concept we could all learn more about – New Zealand is very
focused on recycling, sustainability and taking care of “New Zealand”. I find it very impressive.
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| Water taxi to Mistletoe Bay! |
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| Leaving Mistletoe Bay... hope to return one day!! |
We found ourselves back in Blenheim to
regroup for two days. It was good to get
our laundry done, squeeze in a much needed run and get a chance to see a few
more vineyards before heading west to Nelson.
Nelson is a fantastic resort town on the ocean. We had three days here and again, stayed in a
holiday park – in small bunkrooms with kitchenettes. The beaches were great for walks, beach
cricket, beach golf, making sandcastles, etc…
We ALL swam in the ocean this time – the water was a lot warmer than
Mistletoe Bay! On our first afternoon in
Nelson, Jake was the first one in which we all had a good laugh at! He had, at one point, said he wasn’t swimming
in the ocean. Needless to say, he
probably enjoyed it the most!
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| Beach near Nelson |
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| Mr. Whippy ice cream |
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| Making sand angels! |
Nelson is an artsy place and on weekends it
has a big market that we spent Saturday morning at. The fresh fruit available right now is
awesome and includes plums, blueberries, raspberries, boysenberries,
cherries… it makes for tasty snacks and the
most incredible fresh fruit ice cream.
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| Fresh fruit ice cream at Nelson market |
Another highlight of the trip was going to
a local jazz festival in Richmond, a small and very beautiful suburb of
Nelson. The festival was nestled in a
lovely little park! The music was much
more ‘blues-like’ than jazz, reminding us a bit of home in Memphis. We were able to get food, fresh fruit ice
cream, beer and a bottle of wine all for an unusually reasonable price. Things here are quite expensive so that was a
nice surprise! Sofia took John out
dancing and then came back and said “You have to come dance because all these
husbands and wives are dancing” – so I joined them and the three of us had a
good boogie.
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| Jazz festival - Richmond |
We didn’t have time to get to the Abel
Tasman National Park but I guess that just means we’ll have to come back. We did find a ‘golden sand beach’ called
Little Kaiteriteri relatively close to the Abel Tasman which was gorgeous! The weather didn’t cooperate after a couple
hours and we found ourselves getting cold and wet. We packed it in and on the way home, we
stopped in at probably the nicest vineyard to date… The kids were troopers, yet
again!!
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| Golden sand beach - Little Kaiteriteri |
We left Nelson today after fixing a flat
tire (in fact, we have four new tires)…
We got back to our “home” in Blenheim, did an intensive house clean
since tomorrow we leave here for good.
We had just enough time to squeeze in one last vineyard…
We are now preparing for our final short
trip with the Dysons. We’ll have a
couple days in Kaikoura which is on the east coast. We will then part ways. The Dysons will head home to Auckland and we
will head to the west coast and work our way down to the southern part of the
south island. We’ll be back in Auckland
on January 26th and will be looking for a car and a place to rent
for the next three months… School starts
January 31, so we’d like to be settled by then.
Stay tuned for more details!
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