Dec 21-22: Arthur's Pass National Park

Arthur's Pass is one of the few highways crossing the southern alps and connects the west coast with the east.
Where we are working in Canterbury we are only an hour drive from the mountains, so on our days off we did an overnight trip. We visited Castle Hill, some amazing limestone rocks- you might recognize the location as it was the final battle scene in the movie Narnia.
Right in Arthur's pass there is a small village, and lots of hikes start from there. We visited Devil's Punchbowl falls, then found a great campsite in Hawden river valley, it was unusually quiet for this time of year- we think mainly because of the gravel road into the camping area.
There is a hiking route that follows the Hawden river valley, we walked it partway in the morning. But lots of knee-deep river crossings in ice-cold water!

Jilly Heaven...

Ever wonder what Jilly heaven looks like? It looks like this!

Dec 13-15: South Island- Kaikoura

The ferry left at 8:30am, and it was a nice ride. The ship is bigger than the ferry to Great Barrier Island, so its less bumpy/seasicky.
It also weaves through the Marlborough sounds, so it gets scenic near the end.
We arrived in Picton and drove down to Kaikoura, stopping to see seals along the way.
Kaikoura is a unique place in NZ, the mountains come right up to the sea and shoot straight down into the water, they have some of the deepest water close to shore- 1 km out its 1km deep. This is why they have one of the richest marine life environments in the country- there are whales, dolphins, and seals-o-plenty. They also have tighter fishing and shellfish restrictions because so many come to take advantage of the good fishing and plentiful crayfish, the country's favorite delicacy.

We did a nice coastal walk and Jill had to negotiate her way around a lazy sleeping seal that was in our way. He couldn't be bothered to even open his eyes.

We are only in Kaikoura as a 2 night stop-over on our way to start a new workstay at a farm, but I fully intend to come back to try fishing and diving for some fresh paua and crayfish.

Dec 11-13: Wellington

Wellington is the country's capital, and a nice city. They have good coffee, but no Tim Hortons.
Wellington's museum Te Papa was highly recommended, so we spent some time there- they have a giant squid on display, the only one in any museum in the world.
The new Hobbit movie just came out so we went to see it, they played a "thank you New Zealand" clip before the movie started.
Wellington was a good place to get our LOTR fix, the next day we went to the Weta workshop and did their shop tour, we got to see and handle some cool props from Lord of the Rings, District 9, and I spotted Hellboy's revolver on the wall. Of course they don't let you take pictures in the actual workshop because they are working on upcoming movie projects. So the only pictures we got are from the gift-shop part.
We felt like nerds, but felt a little more normal after seeing a tour bus of people dressed as hobbits and elves on the ferry.

In the evening we went to a mini-golf place I heard of called Carlucci-land. It was the best mini golf course ever, the place is full of junk-art and all kinds of traps and tubes the ball goes down, we had a blast there. There's no place like it.

This ends our tour of the north island, on the Saturday morning we caught the ferry to the south island.
 

Dec 10: Cape Palliser

Cape Palliser is the southernmost tip of the north island, famous for its seal colony and lighthouse. We would have liked to spend more time since it looked like a great place to free dive for paua and crayfish, but the weather turned bad- if it wasn't crazy windy it was pouring rain. So after a night we just headed to Wellington early and got a cabin at a holiday park to dry off.

Dec 8-9: Castlepoint

On the drive down the east coast from Napier toward Castlepoint we passed a sign that said "longest place name in the world", so we had to stop and get a touristy picture.
Castlepoint is a little out of the way, but a nice little scenic coastal town with a lighthouse and reef. We got a campsite right on the beach again.

Dec 5-6: Whirinaki Forest

Further up the slow, washboard road is Whirinaki forest- a reserve of old-growth forest that is different from others we've seen. Its very dense and damp, everything is covered in a thick layer of moss, with vines and roots everywhere- it's a lot like Mirkwood.
We did some more nice and fairly easy hikes through here and stayed at an amazing DOC campsite with its own waterfall. Its also the first campsite we've been that actually allows fires, so we were able to have a small campfire, some hot chocolate and really feel like we're camping in the woods!

Dec 3-4: Urewera National Park

Urewera reminded me a little of Algonquin park back home, its a couple big lakes set in thick, old-growth forest. Lots of people boating, fishing and kayaking on the lake. There are endless walks around this area, and several waterfalls. Lake Waikaremoana is the big lake that gets the most attention from Kiwis & travelers, but lake Waikareiti is the place to be! We did a nice hike into this lake which is smaller, but higher up in the hills from Waikaremoana. It is the most crystal clear, unspoilt lake we've ever seen, we had a nice swim in this lake when we got there, ice cold but still very nice with its white sand and clear water.

Dec 1-2: Tolaga Bay

Tolaga Bay is another place we camped right on the beach. Famous for its 600m long wharf, and also happens to be where captain Cook first landed on New Zealand, the walk to "Cooks Cove" was very scenic. There's also the famous "hole in the wall", a hole in the limestone cliff that opens right onto the sea.

Nov 28-30: Hawkes Bay & Napier

Hawkes Bay is home to some very pretty beaches and nice weather. At a lot of the campsites we were parked right on the beach. Supposed to be good fishing, but all I could catch surfcasting was a couple small Kahawai at Mahia peninsula.

Napier is a nice small town, something every NZ tourist should see. We just spent a day there, had a coffee and walked around to look at all the art-deco buildings. Napier was destroyed in the 1930's by an earthquake, and was rebuilt in the art Deco style.

Nov 26-27: Mangatutu Hot Springs

We feel like champs after climbing that volcano, no hike can scare us now! But we are sore, so the best thing to do after a hike like that, is to grab a case of cheap kiwi lager, and head to Mangatutu hot springs.
It was a long, slow drive through the winding roads with an hour of gravel at the end, including driving through a river, but Mangatutu is worth it- its a small, free campsite in the middle of rolling hills and forest, with a nice trout river in the valley below, and 2 hot tubs in the middle of nowhere on the side of a hill near the campsite. There is a natural hot water spring that flows down the hill, and someone put the two tubs there and directed some the hot water into a pipe that flows into the tubs, and the excess goes out the overflows. The temperature is even adjustable, there is a valve on the pipe so you can reduce the flow and let the water air-cool in the tubs, because they are VERY hot!  No lack of heat here, they are near boiling most of the time when we showed up. A couple nice evening soaks under moonlight is just what we needed.