So I started my trip around New Zealand from Wellington and I decided to get the tour bus to the South Island first. I chose to explore south as I was aware that with winter looming it may be a better idea to get it out the way as the north would not get the chills until later. First stop, aside from the Interislander ferry, was in Nelson, where we had just under an hour to get some food from the supermarket before heading off to Kaiteriteri in the Abel Tasman National Park. I wish I had to opportunity to stay in Nelson and see what this place had to offer but unfortunately it wasn't on the bus itinerary. I guess in hindsight I could do longer stops in these areas but as I was new to the whole thing I jsut went along with it.
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| Going through Marlborough Sounds again. |
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| Driving past some vineyards. |
The weather was lovely and it was very exciting knowing that I was finally doing what I had been planning for so long to do. Watching the rolling hills as the bus drove through the beautiful countryside I could only guess what was in store for me for the next however many weeks!
One of my concerns was that as a lone traveller, I won't like anyone on my bus or vice versa but that seemed to be an unfounded fear. I made friends immediately and managed to meet more and more on every bus and town I went through.
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| New friends! |
Kaiteriteri
We arrived at Kaiteriteri after a full day of transit. It was late afternoon, early evening. After checking in to the hostel a bunch of us went for a walk around the very scenic location. A walk to the look out point and we could see how remote our location was and take in this beautiful place. We were also anticipating the hike we booked ourselves to do the next morning.
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| Arriving at Kaiteriteri. |
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| Kaiteriteri. |
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| Meeting more people from the bus. |
After a nice evening walk, it was dinner and... drinks. Good way to break the ice and get to know people. Really enjoyed this evening and probably too much as I felt pretty rough the next morning!
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| With free super greasy prawn crackers. |
The next morning we got up and headed to the beach to get our water taxi across to a secluded area to do our hike. I say "hike" but it was not really that much of a hike, more a little walk from on beautiful beach to the other side over a hill. Before getting to the beach, the water taxi did stop by the iconic split apple rock.
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| We were hopeful but... not our water taxi. |
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| Split Apple Rock |
I was a little off colour from the night before but survived and the views from along the walk as well as from each beach was absolutely breathtaking. The weather was pretty warm with clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine. Exactly how you would want a place like this to look. The only downside of this walk was the SANDFLIES. So many of them and I didn't think do bring any repellent. My bad! How I suffered for weeks to come! They are the worst bites I have experienced in my entire life. So freaking itchy and they last for what feels like forever! Aside from annoying sandflies, this place was beautiful. We sat on the beach and basked, paddled in the waters and just chilled until the water taxi arrived to pick us up again.
On the way back the water taxi took us to an area where we got to see some seals sunbathing and swimming around. A little too far away but it was still cool to see.
When we arrived back at the hostel, we had just enough time to check out and hop back on the bus to our next stop! In hindsight, I would like to have spent more time here but I was keen to meet people and so stayed on this same bus. I think it would have been a nice opportunity here to do a longer hike and kayak around the place.
- Sherin a-din-din x
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