Ocean Lodge Motels Nelson

... our time to double check if the Marlborough wine region is all its cracked up to be. Of course we snubbed the (in the UK) popular Cloudy Bay vineyard as these wines are on sale in UK supermarkets. Instead we visited their neighbour Herzog, which is a small boutique vineyard run by a perfectionist Swiss guy and only sells its wines to upmarket restaurants around the world. Their restaurant is apparently very well known ...

... a beautiful place this is!!!<br><br>We navigated around the nearby island and found some young New Zealand fur seals. The young ones are curious and hop into the water to swim around our kayaks. They swim underneath our kayak from side to side, surfacing to take a look at us from on top of the water, before submerging again to do a few tricks underwater. They are so fun to watch. I drop my arm underwater and try to catch them swimming under us, but they are ...

... the area. With no free Wi-Fi we had to make do with a few hours in the local internet sorting out the next phases of our travels (an admin day) but we treated ourselves to a movie in the small and funky cinema (we went to see the boat that rocked) Aside from that it was a quiet night doing more admin for another early start to Picton. To be honest the only thing I probably would have wanted to do would be ...

... nous offre, on s'endort bercé par le murmure de la mer... Abel Tasman étant une réserve naturelle, on a eu le plaisir d'observer de nombreux animaux: des otaries (avec leurs bébés), des pingouins (c'est tout petit, c'est tout mignon), des mouettes (wahouh!) et un tas d'autres oiseaux dont je n'ai pas retenu le nom (pour ma défense, c'était des noms anglais, ce qui compliquait la chose...lol). Et, fait ...

... to start a trek along the northern part of the Abel Tasman Coastline. Since the tide was in, we started our trek up on the cliff rather than along the shore. It was a pretty shaded 5 hours of walking, with occassional glimpses into bays and paths down to various beaches along the way. We ended up leaving out the last bit of the walk as we had misjudged our time (actually, the guys in the kayak shop told us the wrong times), so we ...

The next few days were a whistle stop tour of the NW corner of the South Island. We had pre-booked a ferry crossing to the North Island and also needed to meet Chris's mum and Aunt a few days after that, so time was precious. We left Franz Josef and headed for Punakaiki, home of the 'Pancake Rocks'. The formation of these rocks is still a mystery to the people who ponder these things, but for the rest of us it is quite an amazing site. It looks as though lots of ...

... a couple of hours later that we were actually booked in for the camping site rather than the hut. This did not affect our mood at all! On the contrary, we set up our tents and lit a fire to warm ourselves up a bit. In few minutes most of the campsite's guests gathered around the fire and we spent the rest of the evening chatting and trying to keep warm. Having picked a good spot for our tents, the shadow allowed us to sleep until 11:30 ...

... she should walk by whether we could still see the top of her head or not! Mummy was going to ask the people behind us to take a picture of us, but unfortunately it was Cheryl and her husband and they were FAFFING, which they did all three days, so she thought better of it, we might have lost the camera! We got to the lodge and considering it is in the middle of no-where with no TV, internet or phone woth supplies sent in by boat it is amazing. Really posh ...

... washing done and out on the line drying before we go for a walk through the park and maybe have a picnic somewhere. While we were out looking for an internetty place we found a bar / restaurant that does Gluten free food! Result. So, we're going to follow instructions from daddy and eat out tonight. Its only round the corner from the hostel so not far to walk home afterwards and its got a lovely warm fire sit next too with my chilli.

... 11km walk back to Marahau. The only uphill was at the beginning of the walk up from Anchorage Bay, but the views from the top were incredible - one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen - turquoise water sparkling in the sun, all sorts of green forest on the land and postcard perfect views of islands. I was blown away and really thankful I went for the sailing trip, as otherwise I would have had to walk along the coast and would never have ...