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Wakefield, South Island – April 4 to April 9, 2017
Another day we headed to Mapua Wharf (along the coastline of Tasman Bay and at the mouth of the Waimea Estuary) for a some great fish and chips at The Smokehouse and then a short ferry ride across the estuary to Rabbit Island.
Rabbit Island has pine plantations for logging on it, but it’s also got lots of walking and biking paths and a nice beach. After walking along one of the inland paths for a bit, we decided to walk along the beach instead.
G and L saw some driftwood forts along the beach, so they decided to collect some pieces and make a small shelter. 🙂
The beach was long and beautiful with lots of interesting waves coming in at different directions and a view of Nelson off in the distance.
The tide was low, so G and L had fun walking out on one of the sandbars. Nothing better than the sound of the ocean waves and a beach to yourself…see video below, too. 🙂
Before we knew it, it was time to hop back on the ferry!
– Wakefield, South Island – April 4 to April 9, 2017
We had another long drive from Hanmer Springs to Wakefield — this time with a bit of rain here and there, so we broke it into a few segments. Our lunch stop was a cafe in Murchison that had a small playground — good for burning off a little energy (and a big lunch)! 🙂
In addition to the rain, there were lots of construction slow downs, which were fine with me…the slow part. 🙂 As we drove along, there were some beautiful views of the hills and mountains in the distance. I actually managed to snap a couple pictures from the car.
We arrived in Wakefield around 5ish where we stayed in a red barn that had been converted into a house with beautiful views of hills, sheep, and the mountains in the distance. The kids were excited about having bunk beds, and we all were surprised and excited to see a spa (hot tub) in the yard! 🙂
The big house behind the spa is the original farm house. The owners of the rental house live there.
There was also a friendly little cat named Milo. 🙂
The next day we had a nice walk around the town and then headed down a path that brought us to a really nice picnic park with a great zip line (flying fox).
We continued walking up the path and found our way to the to the top of a high hill with amazing views all the way to Nelson!
We’ve seen these pretty pink flower clusters springing up in lots of random places, but we don’t know what they are.
On our way down, we followed another path that took us through a really wooded, steep area, but it had a nicely groomed trail. We walked back through town and then up another street beyond our house to St. John’s Anglican church, which was built in 1846 and is the second oldest surviving church in New Zealand. The church and its cemetery are situated on a hill overlooking the countryside and town. We spent a little time roaming around the cemetery and reading headstones, not quite as old as ones we found in the U.K. but still interesting.
That evening, we played a couple rounds of petanque (like bocce ball), had hamburgers and corn on the grill and relaxed in the spa for a bit.
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In the interest of making the world a little smaller, I suggest you take a look at the weather we’re experiencing. New Zealand is a small country (about the size of Colorado, but long and skinny) with only about 4 million people. But they get far more than their fair share of natural disasters. There are lots of earthquakes every day, Cyclone Debbie flooded a big portion of the North Island last week, and now Cyclone Cook is hitting today, adding even more water where there is room for none.
Long walk down to the sea.
We’re safely in Picton, NZ in the north central part of the South Island. Cyclone Cook will hit us about midnight (7am Minnesota time), they even cancelled the ferry runs between Wellington and Picton, which seldom happens. We’re far up a hill from the ferry port and bay and should be safe and sound, high and dry.
All the road closures and horrible rains have kind of messed up our (very loose) plans to visit the North Island, but we’re enjoying the South Island and the people here and all is well.
We’ll report more here and on Facebook tomorrow, I’m sure.
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Hanmer Springs, South Island – April 1 to April 4, 2017
It was a long drive from Akaroa to Hanmer Springs (a little over 3 hours). After about an hour and a half, we’d made it back through Christchurch and Pegasus, so we stopped in Amberley, a rural little town, for lunch at The Little Vintage Espresso Café.
We continued on our journey and made it to Hanmer Springs around 3pm. The first thing the kids noticed (after the cool mushroom outside the gate) was that there was a trampoline in the yard! (It was a fun surprise for them as we didn’t mention it to them ahead of time.)
After getting settled, we walked into town to check things out, especially regarding the opening hours for the hot springs/mineral pools (which we were looking forward to going to the next day) and got some groceries. Hanmer Springs is famous for its thermal pools, including rock pools, sulphur pools, and various jets and bubbles all at temperatures ranging from 96 F to 107 F! In addition, it has a lazy river, two great water slides, and a SuperBowl (that spins you around a few times and then shoots you through a slide).
Needless to say, we spent the entire day at the springs. The kids and Mike did both the slides and the SuperBowl as well as the lazy river and hot pools. It was a great day of swimming and relaxing!
The three hexagonal hot pools.The SuperBowl!The green and beige hydroslides!The lazy river!
A couple of the rock pools with the Southern Alps in the background!Lunch break!Heading to the SuperBowl!A view from the top of the slide! Mike was positioned to video the kids in the SuperBowl!
The next day was quite a bit more chilly and a little rainy, so we were glad to have spent the day at the pool the day before when it was warmer and sunny! A good day to lounge around a bit.
We spent a little time at the friendly library, too, and then had Mommy/son and Daddy/daughter lunch, which ended up being at the same place — a picnic table with $7 fish and chips from a food trailer! 🙂
L found a copy of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” to read. Appropriate, eh? 🙂
Earlier in the day, I foolishly told G and L that we’d forgotten all about April Fool’s Day on the first, so the kids were SUPER excited to get back to the house and work on something…hmmm…whatever could it be? When I couldn’t find the coffee anywhere, they played innocent and then pointed out that it was sitting right on the shelf! (They’d snuck it back on the shelf after filling it with crushed up chocolate chip cookies!) Happy to have “found” the coffee grounds, I proceeded to make myself a cup of coffee, which they could hardly wait to have me try! 🙂 Surprisingly, it wasn’t horrible! Maybe they’re onto something!! 🙂
