Golden Bay Trip

2016-05-29

So today we finally went to the place where we always wanted to go, Golden Bay. We decided to go yesterday night when we were having party and games. Which is why there were only 3 people including me on this trip. The other two being Aaron and MayMay. We always wanted to go there because we kept on hearing people saying about how beautiful is that place, how stunning is the view, how magnificent is the beach... Therefore before we hopped on the trip, we already had an rough idea where to visit.

We started the trip at 8am. It was a near two hours drive from Motueka until we reached the Flat Triangle car park, where we took a track to the Pillar Point Lighthouse but realised that we took the wrong way after 30 minutes. We were walking in the Farewell Spit beach, but it was low tide so we couldn't see the shape of the spit at all, which is why we didn't realised we took the wrong way. By the way it was such a coincidence because there were only one car parked at the Flat Triangle car park, and that belongs to one of our housemates. We left a note at her front mirror for a prank haha.

We studied the map and drove to the Wharariki car park because it was a shorter track from the car park to Wharariki Beach. It was just around 20 minutes from the car park to the beach, plus 10 minutes walking from sandy beach to the sea. The beach is huge, like HUGE. The rocks there are also huge. It was something I had never seen before in my life, those beaches I had seen were not even close to this one. The sands were so fine and your feet sink for about 15cm for every step you take. This beach is just, stunning. But unfortunately, the weather is so bad so the photos I took were not good at all.

Walked back to the car and drove to the Cape Farewell car park. 5 minutes walk from the car park and we reached the northest part of the South Island, Cape Farewell. The view from there is also great but again, the sun is right in front and the sea is like all-white. No good photos either. We took the Hilltop Track toward the Pillar Point Lighthouse, the expected time needed given by the notice board is 45 minutes but after 45 minutes of walk, we were not even close to the lighthouse. We had to walk into sheep farm on the way, all those sheep were dodging us haha. From far view, the lighthouse was not as nice as we thought, just a small structure, unlike the lighthouse we usually imagined. So we turned back and went back to the car as we still had other places to go. This lighthouse didn't worth those time. 

The next place we went was Farewell Spit Cafe. This was probably my first time dining in a cafe in New Zealand. But for the view of Farewell Spit from the cafe, it's worth it. I had mocha for the first time since I came to New Zealand. We could also use the free binocular in the cafe to have a closer look at the birds and Farewell Spit too. It was around 3pm so it was already on high tide, we can clearly see the shape of Farewell Spit.

Finally we went to The Grove Scenic Reserve. There was a 10 minutes return track in the reserve. It was like a walk between big rocks, or limestone I'm not too sure. Well, there is not much to write about this track but the views inside the reserve is cool, especially when it was almost sunset. 

We had a stop at a organic milk shop before we went home. It was advertised as the best real milk in New Zealand. It was an automated store, you enter the coins, you get the milk, for $2.5 per litre. 

One of the reasons I don't like winter is that the sun sets at 4.30pm, unlike summer when the sun sets around 9pm. You just don't have enough time to play in a day. If I were to come back New Zealand for travel in the future, I will definitely come at summer. 

`

A walk at Farewell Spit beach.

First time getting this close to a peacock and apparently it didn't give a shit for humans around. At Wharariki car park.

Views from track from Wharariki car park to Wharariki Beach.

Having fun at Wharariki Beach.

Views from Wharariki Beach.

Views from the northest part of South Island, Cape Farewell.

Views from Hilltop Track to Pillar Point Lighthouse.

A cup of mocha at Farewell Spit Cafe.

Farewell Spit from sea level viewpoint.

Views in The Grove Scenic Reserve.

Village Milk, a.k.a. best real milk in NZ. So modern.

Hike to Mount Arthur

22-05-2016
Before the hotpot party yesterday night, I had no plan for today. I was thinking how to spend this boring day before I heard our friends from other house talked about hiking tomorrow. I asked to join since there are one more place. Luckily. But I didn't knew where will we go until this morning when I got in the car.

We departed from Motueka around 7.50am and arrived at Flora car park after one hour driving including 7km drive on harsh gravel road.  We started our journey at 8.56pm. It wasn't as steep as we expected but rather quite easy for us at the beginning. But still, it was very windy.

On the way we met a kiwi bird population research team of two. They told us about how the kiwi birds sound, how big are them, where to find them, the size of their egg and so on. We continued our journey all the way to the Mount Arthur Hut, took us slightly more than 1 hour to reach there.

Just a few meters before the hut, we saw a small pile of thin-layered snow beside the track. And honestly this is the first time I actually touched snow. It's like a dream came true. But I didn't eat it, I forgot to do so. Beside the pile of snow, a wild Weka bird appeared! I thought it was kiwi bird at the first sight lol. Apparently they are not afraid of human at all.

There were a lot of people at the hut. I heard that there were 11 people staying overnight at the hut yesterday. While we had a rest at the hut a lot of people told us not to continue further as the wind were too big, and it's too cold to continue. It's dangerous. We decided to go and have a look.

As expected it was very windy after 5 minutes from the hut, as we reached the peak of mountain. But it is still 4.7km to the Mount Arthur Summit. About 2.5 hours. We gave up and went back to the hut instead. Stayed there for almost an hour as we met a Malaysian couple there and talked together for a long time.

Reached home at 2.30pm, too much earlier than we expected. It was supposed to be 8-hour hike. If it wasn't for the weather. But this is probably the best hike I ever had. This is the first time I touched snow, the first time I experienced such wind and coldness, and the first time I seen a Weka bird. Didn't have the luck to come across kiwi bird.

Weka bird!

Kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park

It's Sunday again! That means we are out for some fun again!

This time we went to kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park. 8 of us went to Marahau to rent the kayaks. There are 29 people there all together, most of them are from the same packhouse as us. Therefore, it's super crowded when we arrived there at 9am. It takes us 2 hours of briefing and explanation of rules and regulations before we actually hopped on our kayaks and started having fun.

We planned to go to the Split Apple Rock but we were told that we wouldn't have enough time for that if we wanted to kayak to Adele Island. So we changed our mind and kayaked straight to Adele Island. The journey took us around 90 minutes from the departure beach to Adele Island for our lunch by the beach. We didn't stayed long there as we still had a lot of beaches we wanted to go to.

After that we went to Observatory Beach, Apple Tree Bay and some other beaches I couldn't remember the name. We finally went back on time at 3.30pm before realising we were the last batch to return haha. Even though we had all the waterproof vests on we still get all wet especially our pants. Water still leaked into the vests. And the sea water is cold as hell.

On the way back everyone got crazy and used the water pump to pump the sea water to each other. All of us went back onshore like we fell into the sea. Lol. Got home around 5pm after we went to the 15-minutes track to see the Split Apple Rock from the beach. It's been a long time since I felt this tired haha. What a day.

Kayaking was the first thing I wanted to try when I first arrived in Motueka more than 2 months ago. Now I finally had the chance to do so! Satisfied.