The Great New Zealand Outdoors

After our Canadian family returned home, we continued our travels around New Zealand. Our first stop was to Raglan, the childhood home of Edwin's Dad, on the west coast of the North Island. Raglan is a beautiful little beach town, where we played on the beach with Sophia and Leina, building black, iron-sand sandcastles. We also paid a visit to Granny's old house, and the site where her ashes were spread, near a creek in the lush woods.

Edwin and I continued on to the South Island, for a three-day kayaking trip around the Abel Tasman National Park. We had perfect weather and calm seas for our 3 days of kayaking. We camped two nights at kayak only access campsites. The first, Observation Bay was great - not too many sand flies, and a beautiful view out to the sea. The second was called Mosquito Bay, and we should have considered ourselves fairly warned. But, it also should have been called Possum Bay - when I got up in the middle of the night to look for the outhouse/longdrop, I was greeted along the pay by 3 sets of red eyes looking at me (daring me) to pass them in the trees. It was a tough call, but ultimately my bladder beat my fear, and I ran as quickly as I could back to the safety of the tent.

Our next stop on the South Island was Nelson Lakes, and a long (24km) walk around Rotoiti Lake. The scenery was beautiful - the lake was surrounded by steep mountains, and we saw black swans, and huge eels in the lake. We then returned to the North Island for a visit with Sara, a friend of Edwin's, who is now an Officer for the Department of Conservation on Kapati Island. Kapati is one of New Zealand's oldest nature reserves, and after years of possum, rat and stoat eradication, the island is now home to thousands of birds - kaka, kiwi, hihi, tui, little blue penguins, weka, and takahe. We spent the day with Sara, filling feeders for the hihi, climbing the steep hillside of the islands.

From Kapati, we went to Turangi, and did the Tongariro Crossing one-day trek. Although the weather was pretty bad in the morning, with cloud, rain, and winds up to 55 km/h, we still were able to have clear views to the Emerald Lakes and Red Crater. Our last week in New Zealand has been spent with family and friends, and preparing for the next leg of our journey - Japan and China.

Location: Auckland, New Zealand