These last few days have been all about adding to the already amazing adventures we've had and beauty we've seen while in this incredible country. I hardly know where to begin. First, a reminder of the beautiful places we've been even before we took off on our current adventure to the northernmost part of the South Island. Mount Cook (twice), Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Kaikoura, Mount Taranaki, and of course, a healthy dose of our own beautiful Kapiti Coast. And now....we add our current trip, which so far has included beautiful glass and incredible beauty.
We've been looking so forward to our long awaited trip with our dear friends the Garvey Bergers (who also happen to be our hosts, landlords, and social coordinators!). From the time we arrived and began planning our short four months together, we knew we'd go on one family trip together, and it somehow evolved into this trip to Nelson, Abel Tasman National Park, and Golden Bay. If you look at a map of New Zealand, it's the north coast of the South Island.....land until recently relatively little visited, not quite so trumped up as places like Milford Sound and Mount Cook, and in some ways unassuming. In recent years, however, it's become one of the most popular places in all of NZ to visit, largely because of its relative accessibility, fabulous weather, and breathtaking scenery. We got a dose of all three. But I must go back to the beginning.
The trip began with a family sleepover at the Berger's lovely new house (the one they recently moved into, allowing us to move into their other lovely vacated house which we're currently calling our temporary home) because even though it was only Wednesday, we needed to leave our house spic and span for the Sunday open house--hard to do when you have to catch a 7:08am train! After delicious pizza from the wood fired pizza place where Rob works, we sat around laughing until we were too tired to laugh anymore and retired to bed. The night was filled with the sounds of whipping winds caused by a fierce, cold Southerly (they name their wind directions in NZ!!!) accompanied by torrential downpours. An ominous start to a vacation. At 6 the following morning, we dragged ourselves and the five kids out of bed, ate a little breakfast, poured ourselves into the van and drove the short 2 minute drive to the Paekakariki train station (yep...still raining). A few muffins and cups of coffee later, we found ourselves boarding the Interislander Ferry which would take us across the Cook Strait to Picton...a 3 hour tour. Although it began bleakly, the weather broke part way across the Strait and the remainder of the trip was lovely, if a bit choppy (read, can't stay inside) and cold (read, not much fun outside either).
Shortly after 1pm, we picked up our fancy rental cars (a white Toyota Corrolla and a white Mazda something or other), and were off. First stop, a lovely little winery cafe where we dined in the "Boardroom"---I think they saw the five loud children coming and promptly gave us a private room! Still a bit cold and windy, but we enjoyed a very nice lunch amidst the grape vines. Back in the car, we drove an hour or so before coming to the Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve, where we went on a lovely walk to a raging waterfall. When we were on the South Island just a month ago, they were in drought condition, but recent rains have changed all that! We finally arrived in Nelson around 6pm, checked into the very cool newish Accents on the Park Backpackers and off to buy breakfast and lunch supplies and to enjoy an absolutely delicious dinner of Thai food.
Next morning after my VERY hot Starbucks coffee (yep, that's right, Nelson has one), we ventured off an a little exploration of the town. We ended up having the most unexpected pleasure of the trip when we happened on a little glass blowing studio and Jennifer talked me into doing a little "blow your own glass" adventure. It was one of those things that I would never have done on my own but enjoyed so thoroughly. I've always loved looking at blown glass objects, and now I can say that I've made one myself! The owner-artist helped us take the molten glass out of the 1000 degree celcius oven, place it onto the end of a long pole, dip it into the colored glass chips, stick it all into another hot oven to melt the chips together and blow through the pipe into the colorful molten glass to form a bauble. It was really cool, and the kids loved watching us do it.
We've been looking so forward to our long awaited trip with our dear friends the Garvey Bergers (who also happen to be our hosts, landlords, and social coordinators!). From the time we arrived and began planning our short four months together, we knew we'd go on one family trip together, and it somehow evolved into this trip to Nelson, Abel Tasman National Park, and Golden Bay. If you look at a map of New Zealand, it's the north coast of the South Island.....land until recently relatively little visited, not quite so trumped up as places like Milford Sound and Mount Cook, and in some ways unassuming. In recent years, however, it's become one of the most popular places in all of NZ to visit, largely because of its relative accessibility, fabulous weather, and breathtaking scenery. We got a dose of all three. But I must go back to the beginning.
The trip began with a family sleepover at the Berger's lovely new house (the one they recently moved into, allowing us to move into their other lovely vacated house which we're currently calling our temporary home) because even though it was only Wednesday, we needed to leave our house spic and span for the Sunday open house--hard to do when you have to catch a 7:08am train! After delicious pizza from the wood fired pizza place where Rob works, we sat around laughing until we were too tired to laugh anymore and retired to bed. The night was filled with the sounds of whipping winds caused by a fierce, cold Southerly (they name their wind directions in NZ!!!) accompanied by torrential downpours. An ominous start to a vacation. At 6 the following morning, we dragged ourselves and the five kids out of bed, ate a little breakfast, poured ourselves into the van and drove the short 2 minute drive to the Paekakariki train station (yep...still raining). A few muffins and cups of coffee later, we found ourselves boarding the Interislander Ferry which would take us across the Cook Strait to Picton...a 3 hour tour. Although it began bleakly, the weather broke part way across the Strait and the remainder of the trip was lovely, if a bit choppy (read, can't stay inside) and cold (read, not much fun outside either).
Shortly after 1pm, we picked up our fancy rental cars (a white Toyota Corrolla and a white Mazda something or other), and were off. First stop, a lovely little winery cafe where we dined in the "Boardroom"---I think they saw the five loud children coming and promptly gave us a private room! Still a bit cold and windy, but we enjoyed a very nice lunch amidst the grape vines. Back in the car, we drove an hour or so before coming to the Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve, where we went on a lovely walk to a raging waterfall. When we were on the South Island just a month ago, they were in drought condition, but recent rains have changed all that! We finally arrived in Nelson around 6pm, checked into the very cool newish Accents on the Park Backpackers and off to buy breakfast and lunch supplies and to enjoy an absolutely delicious dinner of Thai food.
Next morning after my VERY hot Starbucks coffee (yep, that's right, Nelson has one), we ventured off an a little exploration of the town. We ended up having the most unexpected pleasure of the trip when we happened on a little glass blowing studio and Jennifer talked me into doing a little "blow your own glass" adventure. It was one of those things that I would never have done on my own but enjoyed so thoroughly. I've always loved looking at blown glass objects, and now I can say that I've made one myself! The owner-artist helped us take the molten glass out of the 1000 degree celcius oven, place it onto the end of a long pole, dip it into the colored glass chips, stick it all into another hot oven to melt the chips together and blow through the pipe into the colorful molten glass to form a bauble. It was really cool, and the kids loved watching us do it. After a fabulous lunch of Mexican food (yes, that's right...fabulous Mexican food in NZ, which we've been told doesn't e(770) 455-1172xist, but we've found two of them so far!), we drove to Abel Tasman National Park and checked into our little chalets overlooking the Tasman Sound. We arrived just at sunset, and awestruck is the only word I can use to describe the scenery. I've seen a lot of beautiful places, but nothing of this kind. The mountains come right down to the sea, and looking out over the sea is to see a sea of islands and mountains shooting up out of the mist. By day the water is a clear turquoise like none I've seen before. We were lucky to wake up to a crystal clear (cold!!!) morning for our all day outing in the Park.
The water taxi took us out to a place called Tonga Bay, about a 45 minute boat ride or 7 hour hike from our chalets, where it dropped us off on a beach of golden sand. Actually, saying it dropped us off on the sand isn't quite right, because around here the tides rule, and depending on where the tide is when you arrive, the boat can't come all the way up to the shore...so off came the shoes and socks and we waded to shore. After drying our feet, replacing shoes and socks, peeling off layers of clothing, and organizing our water and food supplies, we were off....a very quiet parade of 9 people (NOT!). The day way idyllic....not a cloud in the sky all day, perfect temperatures, and 5 children who walked about 8 1/2 miles with complaining only a few times when blood sugar was low. We were all a bit tired on the boat ride back, and now I sit here in bed at 9:30, ready to close my eyes.Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but I'm feeling pretty happy and satisfied at the moment. I'm trying not to think about the fact that in less than 5 weeks, we'll be leaving this magical country where we've adventured, relaxed, made new friendships, strengthened existing ones, and gotten lots of perspective on our lives (or I have anyway!). I think I'll focus on today for now.....
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