Over the months I've taken up surfcasting- a method of fishing off the beach with a 13ft rod. It was cheap to get started.
It took me a while to get the hang of it, but lately we've been having some good fish fry-ups.
It's been awesome to fish beaches in every corner of the country, and to taste different species of amazing fresh saltwater fish, some only found in this part of the world.
The species in the pictures in order: Snapper, Kahawai (Australian Salmon), Blue Cod, Red Cod.
It's seal pup season!
In the summer, the baby seals won't leave their mother's side, so you can only see them from a distance. But starting around may, the seal pups, which are now like seal teenagers, are old enough to go off on their own.
They are very playful and curious compared to the adults. One even jumped out to get a closer look at Jill.
We've seen cute pups in tide pools on the west coast near Farewell Spit, and at Abel Tasman while kayaking- but the best place to see lots of pups is Ohau Waterfall near Kaikoura. They hop up a stream 300m inland, up to a waterfall where they play in the pool. There were around 30 pups when we were there, but no adult seals allowed! The pups spend the winter playing up there in the stream and then return to the sea around November.
We drove a little further west from Abel Tasman, went through Golden Bay and on to Farewell Spit. Just south is Wharariki, a rugged, scenic stretch of beach that more resembles Britain. There were windswept trees, seals, and peacocks in the parking lot! We also found a load of Tuatuas (small clams) which make for a great meal.
For Jill's birthday we went to Hanmer Springs, a hot spring resort town. It was chilly, with snow on the surrounding hills- great time for hot springs!
We were only in Hanmer for a couple days, then drove Lewis Pass, over the Alps again, to the Abel Tasman region.
Abel Tasman is a national park on the northern end of the south island. It's sheltered by headlands on either side, so even though you're on the sea, it's flat and calm like a lake, without the swells you see at other beaches around the country. This, combined with orange sand/golden beaches, crystal clear water, and the warm climate, makes this area resemble tropical beaches like the Carribean. In the summer, people flock to this place, and its one of the busiest places in the country.
We left this area until Autumn on purpose, as its mostly deserted now, but the weather is still nice. We stayed in holiday parks and campgrounds with 1000+ capacities, yet only a few campers this time of year.
One of the best ways to explore Abel Tasman is by Kayak, so we rented a Kayak for the day and it was a great experience. We were given a quick instruction and then sent on our way. This place is all about secluded coves, and we also paddled out to explore a couple islands. We found some groups of seals, and lots of seal pups- so much fun when they swim under the boat and check us out!
The area surrounding Abel Tasman is packed full of places to explore, a place called "The Grove" was a short walk through limestone jungle.
Rawhiti cave was an open air limestone cave, with more stalactites than you can count.
We had another workstay booked at a farm just outside of Fairlie, which is near Tekapo and the Mt. Cook region. This was a large working farm, with 100s of sheep, cattle, and deer. But we were selected to work here for for a different reason, to build a garden playhouse for future grandchildren!
The project was built mostly out of recycled materials and with a curved roof (modeled after a birdhouse!) so it took more work than we originally thought. We had to come back after our trip for Jill's birthday to finish it off, but it was worth it, it turned out great and our host Lyn really loved it. I even learned myself a few new things out of this one!
We stayed in a beautiful self contained cottage separate from the main house. The farm was extremely scenic, with mountain ranges in the background.
We shared the cottage for some time with a couple French helpxers, they were on 1 year visas like us.
It was nice to share some travel stories.
Jill's job every day was to feed the 2 chickens, and feed Morgan the pig his slops.
They also had a friendly Jack Russel named George.
We've got another workstay booked on a farm in Fairlie, which is Canterbury, east side of the alps near Christchurch. So we left the rainy west coast in a downpour, and of course it cleared up as soon as we get to the dry side. It is noticably colder after leaving the west, the west coast is in some kind of microclimate and tends to be warmer than elsewhere.
We were in Arthur's Pass in December, but didn't go all the way through to the west coast. Back in December it was busy, I remember driving past Klondyke corner campground and it was full- this time of year there's only a few cars, so we pulled in to camp since it's just off the main road.
There were 3 resident Kea's here that love to play- you're not supposed to feed them, but they're a very smart parrot and you can give them things to play with. I put a tent peg in the ground and they took turns trying to pull it out.
From Wanaka, we took Haast pass, the southernmost pass through the Alps to the West Coast.
The West is like Fiordland, it gets hit with a lot of rain, and the Alps create a wall that prevents a lot of that rain from getting to the east side. Its amazing how quick everything changes when you cross the pass- when we left Wanaka it was sunny and dry, the hills were covered with yellow grass and tussock, and the beech and other hardwoods leaves starting to change color because its fall... then half an hour of driving and we're surrounded by lush green ferns, palm trees, dank mossy forest and its pouring rain!
The luck we had with the the rain in Fiordland didn't hold up for the West Coast- we spent close to 2 weeks there and it poured almost every day.
The west is cool because you're so close to the mountains, standing on the beach among the palm/fern trees you can see Mt. Cook from the west side. But of course with all the rain and clouds we only got a couple glimpses of the alps and couldn't get those picture perfect photos you see on postcards.
For most tourists, the West Coast is only about seeing the pancake rocks and the 2 glaciers and then rushing through to Queenstown. But if you can stand the rain, there's quite a bit more to see. We went all the way to Karamea, which is way off the beaten path, we were by ourselves there!
Highlights for us were Motukiekie beach, with its starfish colonies and endless fields of green-lipped mussels.
Hokitika is a nice town to visit, it happens to be the jade capital of NZ. There are several jewelery shops selling the stuff, and every 10 feet on the town sidewalks is a tile made of jade.
The over-hyped pancake rocks were ok, but I thought the nearby Pororari river walk was better with its palm tree jungle and limestone cliffs.
I caught another rig shark, so more beer-battered shark for lunch!
Charming Creek was a cool walk between the rails of an old coal-mining operation, and Karamea's limestone arches were nice.
But it was nice to cross the alps at Arthur's Pass to the dry side again!
