Nice Hiking
Here in the northern part of the South Island we stayed a few days longer at one place to relax a bit, in total four nights in Parapara at the Golden Bay area. We did some daytrips to the different places in this area. We went to the Abel Tasman National park for hiking, to Farewell Spit for a walk on the beach and visited Takaka and Collingwood, really lovely little towns.
This time we had more luck with the weather, it was most of the time nice, sunshine at around 20 to 24°C during the day. In the Morning and evening it gets cooler, and when the wind was blowing, it really became cold. In Abel Tasman National park you can really have a nice hike, we walked through beautiful forests, beaches and rocky coasts. The bays and beaches are really beautiful, although the water temperature is pretty cold, we didn´t went into the sea to swim. In general we walked for about 5 to 6 hours and made a distance of 15-18km. It was really great to walk there, the weather was good and the landscape beautiful. We actually wanted to do kayaking as well, but for us beginner the waves was strong and we decided not to do it yet. Also in Picton we wanted to do kayaking but also here the waves were too high for us. Instead we went also hiking in Picton. The mountains around Picton are great to walk and you can get a beautiful view over the bays respectively the “Queen Charlotte Sound”. In Picton we stayed in total two nights.
For us the journey in the South Island is over. We will take the ferry from Picton to Wellington and continue our journey in North Island. We will again rent a car and travel around. As usual we will keep you updated.
