Abel Tasman National Park:1

The weather turned as we left the sounds, and headed northwest towards the Tasman and Golden Bays.The weather forcast was a week of solid rain and as we passed through Nelson and headed toward Takaka Hill, we found ourselves driving through the clouds and rain. We ended up on a narrow rocky road winding through pasture, and forest, toward Abel Tasman National Park.

Sheep in the mist

The road through the forest

Looking back towards our camp

We camped at the inland side of Abel Tasman National Park. We spent nearly a week here all told, enjoyed the many hikes in the area and the lambs that were grazing in our campsite. The forest here was dark and mossy, with large beech trees and ferns. The plains and outcroppings were either boulders of black marble, white granite, or the most amazingly shaped stones we'd ever seen.

DANGER! Sheep grazing in the forest

White Granite

Black Marble

Moss covered nearly everything

For our first hike we made our way into the mountains to reach Moa Park, an alpine basin in the ranges north of our campsite. Here are some of the scenes from that trip:

On the hike to Moa Park

The forest canopy

The view on the way to Moa Park

Moa Park

heading in the opposite direction from Moa Park, was a hike to the largest vertical shaft (hole) in New Zealand and lookout across the beautiful Takaka Valley.

The track's beginning through beech forest

A lake along the way

The forest as we neared the hole

The best we could do to capture the shaft, which went several hundred feet into the ground and out of sight

The lookout

These amazing, mountain shaped boulders were strewn everywhere

Gorge Creek on its way to Takaka

Proof we were there!

We'll save the next update for later, as this one turned out a lot longer than we thought! Thanks for reading and hope you're all well!

South Island

After spending a few weeks touring the westside of the North Island, we finally made the leap and caught the ferry two weeks ago for the South Island. The ferry took three hours and went a little over 90 kilometers. About an hour or so was spent getting out of Wellington Harbour, an hour in Cook Strait and an hour coming into the sounds and to Picton. We thought we'd share a bit of our ferry ride with you all!

Waiting to load Murple onto the boat in early morning hours

Leaving the narbor, looking back on Wellington

The view while were in the Cook Strait

Coming into the sounds

More views of the sounds

After arriving in Picton, we made our way to to our first campsite, in Aussie Bay. We had two, wonderful days of near total sunshine (it had been raining for most of the previous two weeks) and enjoyed being outside and relaxing by the water.

Our camp by the water

The water was cold, but very clear and still

North Island Tour with Cait: The Finale

We spent the last week of our trip in Wellington, New Zealand's capitol. There was no shortage of things to do. We spent three half-days at Te Papa, the national museum, in addition to visiting other museums, the expansive botanical gardens, and generally wandering around this cool city.

A modern marae, designed to be the centerpiece of Te Papa. The figures on it tell the history of the country from mythic times to today.

A typical street scene: lots of funky old buildings and good pedestrian areas


The view overlooking the city and beautiful harbor, on a rare sunny day


We rode this old cable car up to the botanical gardens...

where the TULIPS were in bloom!

One of the highlights of our time in Wellington was getting the explore the World of Wearable Art. The official museum is in Nelson (on the South Island), but the 2009 awards show was in Wellington the weekend we were there so the winning costumes from the past 15 years were on display all around town. We spent a half a day just walking around and admiring these wild creations set up in shop windows, city hall, and museums. Check out their website at http://www.worldofwearableart.com/ to see more : )

If you look closely at the silver parts you can see that they are made of fine, hand-twisted wire

***

Whew! That catches us up to the present, where we are about to leave Auckland and our home base in the Waitakares with Sue and Richard to head south (again). We will soon be saying goodbye to the North Island and crossing the open sea with Murple to begin a new adventure in the South. We enjoyed our holiday with Cait so much that we are going to put off wwoofing for the moment to explore more of this gorgeous country.

North Island Tour with Cait: Part 8

About thirty minutes from Whakapapa village is the National Park train station which picks up the Overlander train at its mid-point between Auckland and Wellington. The train ride was 6 hours and dropped us off in downtown Wellington.

It was great to not be driving. And, as it's spring here and the train passes through many farms, we were pretty much entertained by baby lambs and great views the whole way there.

The historic 1904 station

Our Chariot

Ruapehu

North Island Tour with Cait: Part 7

You might recognize this volcano as Mt. Doom...

After spending most of the last 6 months in the rainforests and farmlands of the northland, we couldn't believe what we saw here. Tongariro National Park sits in the center of the North Island, south of Lake Taupo and is made up of three major volcanic mountains, Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. The land here is so diverse, with rolling hills cut by rivers and waterfalls, beech forests, alpine bogs and grasslands.

Grasslands with Ruapehu hidden in the distance by storm clouds

Alpine Bog


Beech Forest


Ruapehu


Ngauruhoe

Many of the plants here look as though they have been shaped by the volcanoes; the flax has tinges of oranges and yellows, many of the grasses are reddish orange, the moss range from neon yellow to blood red and even the water changes from its normal aquamarine to shades of gold and white.

Colorful mosses


Silica Rapids -- the rock is coated with yellow-white mineral deposits

We camped near the base of the largest mountain, Ruapehu, at Whakapapa Village. From our base we did several of the short but beautiful hikes around the area.

Taranaki Falls

Us with Ruapehu in the background

Admiring a different type of Cabbage Tree


On the hike to Silica Rapids


One of many river crossings


The view from our campsite!