down souf'

So, we have made it down to the South Island now! Since we last wrote, we had the briefest stint at Wwoofing known to man – one day. We decided that the lack of an accessible toilet after 9pm and the fact that we weren’t guaranteed a shower after work, plus the fact that we weren’t really being fed in the true meaning of what wwoofing is supposed to be about. Given that these were all the things we were supposed to be getting in exchange for working, we decided to leave. Given this we cut our time in Wellington short so we could keep on moving and see what all the hype about the S. Island was about. But, before we left, we fit a good drum & bass night in – it was nice to have a good night out in a city! We really liked Wellington a lot – there’s a lot going on there, especially compared to the rest of the cities in NZ, so we may head back there when we settle down and get jobs eventually…

We ferried our Gerald (car) across quite early in the morning, along with some confused cows that kept sticking there heads out over there containers and checking out the ocean… it all must have been very traumatic!! So we arrived in the south at Picton and promptly made our way over the twisty roads to Nelson, passing by many apple orchards that brought back some painful memories! After a blustery few days in Wellington, summer seem to back amongst us in Nelson… We explored the town and enjoyed our luxurious hostel that included a swimming pool, spa pool, sauna and volleyball court. Anywho, we soon got back on the road and headed for our next Wwoofing spot… in Motueka Valley. We stayed here for 5 days with a slightly intense German family of 5. Their children, ages 16, 12 and 10 were a little crazy, bar one of them (the youngest), which literally fell in love with us (as we’re sure she does with all their wwoofers). While we were there we completed such tasks as grubbing, apple picking, hazelnut picking and …. wait for it…. window cleaning!!! Wahoooo! Sarah however got to skive off from work for a couple of mornings as fortunately the mother of the family (who was also very nice) ran her own little clothing company, and she just loved having Sarah go into her workshop with her and help out! Apparently one of the garments Sarah actually worked on has now been sold at market – way to go!!! So after a few crazy days, lots of family and especially sibling arguing, and a little too many games of Monopoly… we decided to leave (yet again!).

We headed up the coast towards Golden Bay, and the very north western point of the south island. Here we had the chance to do a quite spectacular horse trek that took us onto Wharariki beach (one of the most beautiful beaches). The 3 hr trek caused many a hurt bum, but it was worth it as we got to canter across the beach, even Gary had a go, despite his disobedient (or just plain lazy) horse, Flick. The views were stunning and the rock formations on the beach were so interesting and unique! So after this we went back the way we came and headed towards Abel Tasman National Park. The next day we headed out on a 3 day kayaking trip that involved weaving in and out of the many many bays of beautiful white sand and amazingly calm, clear waters (especially considering it was the ocean!) We camped out for two nights and constantly fought off the pesky sand flies for 3 days straight. We enjoyed amazing weather pretty much the whole time we were there (sorry Carly) and we finally camped out properly in our tent and got to use our camp stove!!! Wooooo!! Highlights on the water included the baby seals and the two seal colonies we paddled up to. The seals were so playful they were swimming all around us and even bumped into our kayak at one point. They had the biggest, cutest eyes in the world… a look only ruined when they got grumpy and started squealing bloody murder, like a dinosaur, to be fed!! So after spotting some huge fish in the marine reserve area, and a stingray that frightened the hell out of us while swimming close to shore, we safely made it back without tipping over the kayak once!

So since then we returned to Nelson for the Farmer’s market (which Sarah loved) and ate Penguino’s gelato (the best). After stopping over on the way, and enjoying a pre-Easter Roast Dinner (ummmm!!), on Easter Sunday we visited the Pancake Rocks and spent the rest of the day relaxing in drab Greymouth! We’re about to move onto the Glaciers, which should be lots of fun… so we’ll try and update this after then!

Booyakasha for now (and happy easter!)