Back to Te Waipounamu: Blenheim, Abel Tasman National Park, and Last Day in Wellington
10/22-10/26
On the 22nd, we took the ferry back across the Cook Strait to the South Island. We landed in Picton, drove to Blenheim, and then got pizza for dinner at the Yard Bar. On our one day in Blenheim, we had breakfast at the hotel before picking up our bike rentals. We rode around the countryside, stopping at different wineries along the way for Mom and Dad to do tastings. We went to Hunter’s and Hans-Herzog first and then rode along the riverside path. We stopped for lunch at Giesen’s, where Mom and Dad did a tasting and we got a cheese plate and a charcuterie plate. There was all the normal stuff, plus smoked salmon mousse, garlic butter, beetroot chutney, and even chicken liver pate. I tried everything, even the pate, and it was all delicious, like the lemonade. We went by Wairau River and Farmer’s (haha, yeah, just like our name; hilarious) for the parent’s last tastings. We freshened up at the hotel and then went to the Lemongrass for dinner, where I got chicken and steamed vegetables fried rice.
We woke up really early in the morning to finish packing our packs and had breakfast again. It rained on the car ride, but it had stopped by the time we got on the water taxi. The water taxi took us to Anchorage in Abel Tasman National Park. On the way, some dolphins fell in behind our boat. They would swim right behind the engine in our wake and jump out of the water so close to us. The skipper told us that it might be a superpod. It was like they were everywhere; if you looked out, you could see them coming up for breath in all directions. We started our hike to Bark Bay once we got dropped off at Anchorage. We took the low-tide track across Torrent’s Bay. We eventually had to take our shoes off to wade across some water, since the tide hadn’t gone out all the way. We got our boots back on and then the path steadily climbed up. There were some really great lookouts over the Cook Strait. We got to Bark Bay and hung out on the beach for an hour until the other water taxi came. It was a pretty rough ride to Awaroa, where the lodge was. At the lodge, Jackson and I played some checkers and Monopoly before dinner. Dinner was amazing Marlbourne salmon for me. We played a round of Hearts and then went to see a glowworm cave. They were bright blue, not at all what I expected, and looked like neon stars in the ground.
For our last day in Abel Tasman, we went to breakfast at the lodge, where I got the baked eggs and beans on toast, which was the perfect portion size. We went on a kayaking trip for the morning. We got to see a lot of NZ fur seals (kekenos), which are actually sea lions. One came right up and swam around, under, and between our boats. They’re so graceful and sleek in the water; our guide said that they feel superior and safe in the water, so they will let themselves be curious. There were a lot of cormorants and ‘tree penguins’ out on a point. We kayaked out to a beach to take a break. There was a large seal on the rocks next to the beach and some adorable pups behind him. Back at the lodge, we changed and had a snack of feta and herb scones. We caught the water taxi back to our car and then took off to make our ferry. We got to the landing and found out it was delayed, so we got dinner down the street. We ended up getting back to Wellington at around 11, so we got to bed soon.
On our last day in Wellington, we kind of just hung out at the house. I posted my blog for Christchurch and then got my hair cut. We hung out for a while and then went to Currizza for dinner. It was a curious combination of curry and pizza, but was actually incredible; it had some heat but was so different. We watched some of the Voice and then watched the All Blacks lose to England.
“The poetry of earth is never dead”