Abel Tasman

  

 Our first big destination on the South Island was the Abel Tasman National Park,

a gorgeous coastal trail on the North West side of the South Island.

  

Marie and Roelinda charged the walk to Anchorage,

Sabrina and I were getting over being sick so we took our time,

took pictures, and explored all of the bays up to Stillwell.

 

 This shot is just along the beginning of the coastal trail.

The silver fern on the left is the national plant of New Zealand.

There are so many types of old ferns here that it feels prehistoric at times.

 

Porters Beach

We explored a few bays, ate lunch with the gulls at Apple Tree Bay,

and lounged in the sun in our bikinis. 

 

 Sabrina is way better at handstand photos than me!

We started feeling adventurous and decided to explore the coastline because it was super low tide. We were able to boulder around so many more areas than would be accessible otherwise. Finally we came to this large rock with no safe way to climb over.

 

 But the view from this large rock (above) revealed a tantalizingly inaccessible beach with no trail outlet. Being so excited to find one scenic place in NZ not absolutley trampled by tourists was too much to resist, so we improvised.

  

We bushwhacked!

We made a 40 minute boulder and climb to get to this beach, with no clear promise of success or escape route, and arriving there felt so rewarding!

  

 It looked as though people hadn't been here for a long time. There were animal tracks and shells strewn everywhere. It's so rare to find a beautiful place that's not completely touristed out. It felt really special to be a part of one.  

Cool rock formations. What do you see??

I see skulls, Jesse sees eagles.

Fortunately we were able to boulder beyond this cove to get to Stillwell Bay and trail access again so we didn't have to bushwhack all the way back!

 

 After lounging around and exploring Stillwell Bay, we took a leisurely walk back up the trail we had skipped around.

 Mushroom!

Eating this results in one of two things:

1: you hallucinate like crazy! or 2: you die.

I didn't try it.

More pretty shots of the walk back:

 

 

 There was a really cool sculpture garden at the end of the trail.

 

  

  

  

Ha Sheep! These are everywhere in NZ

Interislander Ferry

 We took the beautiful 3 hour ferry ride from Wellington to Picton in style, wearing our green wigs, blasting dance music and dancing in the camper-van boarding line as we waited for sunrise. Once we loaded up the van and boarded the huge ship, I climbed to the top decks to watch the sun rise over my last glimpse of Wellington.

This is from my seat in the viewing lounge of the sunrise as I wrote my journal :)

A short video from the back of the ship.

 The beautiful Cook Straight.

Empty already?

 I loved seeing the Sound,

it was so beautiful to zoom by the landscape.

Wellington and St. Patty's Day

Marie showing off our parking-space-saver. This came in real handy.

We arrived to Wellington just in time for St. Patrick's Day weekend. There were a lot of festivities going on. Fortunately we found an amazing free campsite right on the beach at Balaena Bay. This was basically a parking lot full of campervans only a 40 minute walk from central Wellington!

  

Here we are at our getting ready to go out our first night in Wellington.

We partied in the parking lot with all the other camper vans and then headed into town.

  

This was right before arriving in Wellington... it's just a super cool shot!

Wellington is the home of the amazing free museum: Te Papa (translates to: Our Place).

It's full of excellent displays showing the culture and history of New Zealand so well.

 

Me and NZ in Te Papa.

Kiwi Bird!

 

This is a Kiwi bird skeleton showing the real size of their egg...

How the heck do they get it out of there? Or fit anything else in there?

P.S. they have no arms.

 

This "Colossal Squid" was found in Antarctica and gifted to Te Papa.

 

This museum installation was so fun!

It was a music game that let you DJ different instruments

in a song depending on where you placed your hand in the grid.

The weekend we arrived was also Dragon Boat Race weekend.

Many boats were racing each other in the Maori style of paddling.

This capital city has a lot of style.

There's so many fun sculptures and artistic installations all over.

I had to get the feel of this one.

Another fun sculpture.

  

Huge fountain!

  

Being camped 40 minutes walk away, we eventually got lazy and decided to hitchhike.

This was my first time doing this,

and with 4 of us on a holiday weekend it felt pretty safe.

Did I mention it was St. Patty's Day?!

I love dress-up! Roelinda and I bought wigs and masks and walked around Wellington all day in them. I've never seen so many people smile at me in one day. It was sensational!

 

 The World Cup!!!!

It happened to be on tour around NZ and was in Wellington at the same time as us.

What NZ trip is complete without a rugby game?

 

We have spirit!

The Hurricanes are the Wellington team.

If you've ever wondered what happens when

your team mascot's shoe comes untied, wonder no more.

 

We arrived to the game in St. Patty's green, only to realize that the opposing team's color was green.

We had to cheer extra loud and wave our yellow flags around to show the crowd our intentions :)

  

 Hurricanes from Wellington Vs. Highlanders from Dunedin.

Highlanders won... BOOOOOOOOOOO.

 

 Party Pills for sale.

Apparently you are able to buy legal forms of ecstasy in Wellington.

 

Caught! Yes, this is a penguin.

There were penguins that came out to play every night right by our camp spot on the ocean.

Who's been feeding the penguins party pills?

Every night between 3-6am, this is what the penguins sound like.

Wear your earplugs, they're right outside the window.

The Weta Cave!

Weta is a digital and physical creation company responsible for great films such as Lord of the Rings and Avatar. Though it was very small, this place was incredibly inspiring to me. It's full of LOTR armor pieces and little books and collectibles. But most inspiring was the 20 minute exclusive movie that shows the behind the scenes of who does what and how at Weta.