The Golden Bay Adventure
After the rain and the west coast, we drove up through Richmond and up towards the Golden Bay area. During the drive inland towards Richmond it dried up a bit. The drive up to Golden Bay was really scenic and the sun was finally out until we got to the Takaka hill (aka mountain). This was no ordinary hill, and seemed to be even more twisty and windy (with no guardrails) than many of the other twisty and windy roads that we’ve been on so far in this country. But none the less, Eero was still able to drive the beast of a handling van over the pass. However, we still couldn’t see much from the top of the pass because it was still raining and foggy. We made it down the hill though and met up with Andrea and Paul again in Pohora, which is in the Golden Bay area north of Abel Tasman National Park. They had ditched us in Queenstown to get up the coast and hopefully escape the rain.
Andrea had arranged for us all to rent a couple of kayaks and go on a two day paddle out to Able Tasman National Park. We picked up the kayaks from Nigel at Golden Bay Kayaks, who was also nice enough to lend us all the necessary camping gear that we didn’t have. We then went and paddled out to the Tata Islands and had lunch on Little Tata Beach. After that we went exploring the small rocky islands which are home to hundreds of shag birds. There were also a couple of small blue penguins which were swimming in the water and a little fur seal that was trying to sleep despite the fact that it kept getting splashed by waves. We then continued to paddle along the coast out to Taupo point, where we beached our canoes for the evening. The beach at Taupo Point was really nice except for the few dead shags and pengiuns that had washed up with the tide. Since we got there early in the afternoon we had set up camp in the very rustic campgound which had room for about 3 tents. Then Eero kept busy by fishing, and he caught a fish using the mussel that I had killed for bait, but it was too small to keep. We spent most of the evening hanging out playing cards, exploring our little beach, examining the rocks, shellfish and hermit crabs and discovering a new snail that we had never seen before (looked like a little army turtle). At night we swear we heard a wild pig running outside of our tent.
The next day we set out early to paddle back to Pohora. Along the way we saw some more little blue pengiuns. One of them seemed to be playing hide and seek with us and following us a bit. We took lots of photos since they are so small and cute. We also saw a big fur seal sleeping on a rock. We got back to Pohora in good time and then headed further up the coast to find a new campground closer to the Mussell Inn restaurant. It was the restaurant’s 15th birthday so there was supposed to be a big bash. Eero was excited since they brewed their own beer there.
After cleaning up at the campground and doing some much needed laundry we went to the Mussell Inn and and had a great meal and great drinks. The crowded atmosphere was electric, well it could be described that way but the bohemians (”hippies”) might have dissagreed. The area of Golden Bay is very bohemian and all the locals seems to be artists. The next day we planned to go on a horse trek at Farewell Spit at the top of the Golden Bay peninsula. On the way Eero and I stopped in Collingwood for some good chocolate at Rosy Glow’s Chocolate shop and for a delicious lunch of wild pig and kumera (like sweet potato) pie at the Naked Possum restaurant. The horse trek was amazing. Gail took us up a ridge overlooking the Tasman sea, Farewell Spit and Golden Bay. Afterwards we went back to the Naked Possum for dinner with Andrea and Paul. I tried the rabbit and potato pie and Eero had the goat burger, both were delicious. If you are ever in the area we definitely recommend the Naked Possum! We then had to say goodbye to Andrea and Paul since they were heading off to get to the North Island.
That night we took a stroll along the beach at our campground and had a bonfire and chatted with some kiwis that we met. The next day we went into Takaka and joined WWOOF, which is Willing Workers on Organic Farms. We haven’t been too successful yet at finding a farm that can take us, everyone seems really busy with Christmas guests. The idea behind it is that you do some work on a farm in exchange for accommodation and/or meals plus the experience. We also went to the Anatoki Salmon Farm where we went…you guess it, salmon fishing! I cought a 700g salmon, a small one, on my first cast. It actually only took about 2 seconds after my line hit the water. Eero caught a 1.2kg salmon about 5 minutes later by the tail since it jumped when his line hit the water and caught him by the tail. His struggle alot but we finally got him in. We called it quits after that since you can’t catch and release there and you buy what you catch for $14/kg. So we got our Chinook Salmon filletted and 3/4 of it smoked and took the other 1/4 fresh for supper that night once we got into Nelson.
So now we are in Nelson. We have been kicking around here for a few days. We endured the more than 24 hours of constant rain they had, which Vanna didn’t like since she has a bit of an incontinence problem (she leaks a bit). We have finally dried out and the sun is out. We bought ourselves a Christmas present yesterday, a new camera, which is a little fancier than the one we have now. So we should be taking some nicer photos I hope. We have started looking for jobs. Not sure when we are moving on, depends on where we find a job. We’ll keep you up to date though.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! (hard to believe Christmas is in 5 days!)
