Looking back, moving forward

So after you have returned to the real world, unpacked, sorted the pile of dirty laundry and waded through the many photos of your travels (ok, so technically I'm still doing this, but 3000 photos are a lot to get through!), what comes next? Why, planning the next trip of course! My adventures in New Zealand were very much a 'highlights' tour, and there are many places I'd like to go back to, plus visit a few places we missed - and that's just on the South Island! So, here is what I'll be looking to do on my next trip to New Zealand, along with a few tips and recommendations for places to go and things to do...

Marlborough Sounds - like many visitors to the South Island, our experience of the Marlborough Sounds was limited to the ferry ride into Picton and travelling along the Queen Charlotte's Drive. But the glimpses of hidden inlets, golden beaches and lush, forested hills has put it firmly in my top 10 of places to go and explore properly. Our of season, the Queen Charlotte track is open for mountain biking - and with the lack of crowds that flock to Abel Tasman, what are you waiting for?
Nelson Lakes National Park - definitely one of the remoter parts of the South Island - head here for some solitude and a good old tramp!
Golden Bay - a place to relax, take life easy and escape from the world for a few days
Arthur's Pass - the TranzAlpine train journey is supposed to be one of the most spectacular in the world, but sadly we didn't have time to fit it in. Though if the weather was good, I'd also want to take in the views from the summit of Avalanche Peak
The mountains - ok, that's a bit generic, but I'm a mountain girl at heart and boy, did we drive through a lot of mountains... The beautiful drive through Mt Aspiring national park, and our all-too-brief time round Mt Cook reminded me of alpine adventures and the magnificent views you get from mountain summits - I was down in the valleys but longed to be on top of the mountains.

And places not to return to?  Well, we didn't feel our heartstrings tugging when we left behind the grey gloom of Bluff and Invercargil...but perhaps we were just there on a bad day.

Don't miss!

In no particular order, my top 10 Trip highlights:

1. Swimming with dolphins in the Catlins
2. Trekking the Routeburn - great track, fantastic views
3. Floating through pitch-black caves with thousands of glow worms overhead with Underworld adventures
4. Golden Bay - the wild expanse of Wharaiki beach with its nursery pool of baby fur seals, followed by the tranquility of Shambhala and the nearby, lively Mussel Inn
5. Sunrise over Milford Sound
6. Sea kayaking round Abel Tasman National Park
7. Swimming in Scorcher Bay followed by great coffee and lunch at Scorch-O-Rama
8. The West Coast - desolate, beautiful beaches, weird rocks and tongues of ice- trapped between the mountains and the sea, this is one place I would definitely like to explore more
9. Mt Cook National Park and Lake Tekapo - beautiful moutains, stargazing and hot pools - what more could you want?
10. Wine tasting in Marlborough country

A day in Paradise

Our current accommodation, situated at the entrance to Abel Tasman National Park in Marahau, is advertising for 'Woofers' to work for a few hours a day in exchange for living in 'paradise'.  On arrival at the hostel in question last night, I thought this rather an exaggeration.  Having spent a day in and around a park, I think it is possibly an understatement.  Due to the high cost of wifi at the hostel here, I have no photos for you yet, so you will have to google to see how beautiful this place is!

Abel Tasman is New Zealand's smallest National Park, but as they say, good things come in small packages.  We started off the day with a couple of hours sea kayaking out from Kaiteriteri to Split Apple Rock - a unique rock formation, which looks like someone has taken a giant chisel to a large sphere of rock.  Paddling gently under the morning sun, on a calm blue sea takes some beating.

So in the afternoon we got a water taxi along the coast to the north of the park, up to the seal colony at Tonga island.  Unfortunately for us, the seals had better things to do than wait around on the rocks to be snapped by tourist paparazzi, and the best we got were a few cute little pups at a distance - they really looked rather like black slugs...  We got dropped off on a beautiful beach at Tonga Quarry, for a 'two hour' hike to Medlands Beach.  The track was really good, and wound its way up and down through the forest.  There are so many different types of vegetation, it is overwhelming - every shade of green imaginable, with the tall, native ferns dominating.  We dropped down into Bark Bay and took the longer, high tide route round the back of the bay, for fantastic views of the expanse of the bay and river which runs into it.

As the 'two hour' walk took us an hour and ten minutes, MizHB decided to take the opportunity to have a good swim whilst waiting for the return boat.  I walked further along the path, and took a side road off to South Head for expansive views of the Abel Tasman coastline - a truly beautiful spot.  I was then tempted to head on further and took another side turning down to Sandfly Bay.  Fortunately due to a slight breeze this did not live up to its name (more on Sandflys later...) but gave another beautiful beach with some great, granite boulders.  After a few photos, I sped back to Medlands Beach and ran into the sea for a short swim and cool off before we got the boat back along the coast.

The day finished with a good dinner and bottle of the Torrent Bay Riesling - truly a perfect day.