Sorry we haven't written in a while, to be honest we're just lazy. Currently I (Katie) am sat in a motel rubbing my fly bites with a washing up brush…. I shall explain why later, so let's update you. It will take a while as we haven't updated for two weeks so make sure you have cup of tea ready (mum) and Pauline your glasses lol.
After waking up at ridiculous hour in the afternoon on our first day at my Aunties due to the bed being way too comfortable, we had breakfast (pancakes!!) and chilled out for the morning. We went for a walk on pahara beach, no one was around which was nice and the weather was nice and warm too. Dean has been wearing his shorts with Jesus sandals all week, even if he has 3 jumpers on, the shorts and sandals come out. This has resulted in him getting many many sand-fly bites, little b*****s love us English and I'm surprised I'm not anaemic yet the amount of blood they have taken from my ankles!! Anyway, we had a nosey around the area and had a drink in the local pub sat outside watching the sunset and went home to a fantastic Sunday lunch! Throughout the week we have been spending time out and enjoying eating 3 meals a day with no noodles and spending time with the family. We realised in the north island we did too much at once and too much driving around, we were just nakerd all the time. We've been on a lovely walk to Wainui falls which is a small windy forest track. In the middle of the walk was a huge swing bridge were only one person was allowed to cross at a time due to the weight limit which was a little concerning after having thirds during last night's tea and a good hearty breakfast.I'm sure I was over the single person allowance. At the end of the walk was a fantastic 60ft waterfall which was incredible. We got slightly moist but I had my faithful 20 pound Matalan rain mac and dean had his "tissue" so it wasn't bad. However it did add to the atmosphere seeing as though we were in a jungle like area.
We've been to a spring called pupu springs which are probably the cleanest and clearest river I have seen, if fact it is some of the purest water to be found in the world. Again a lovely walk with beautiful scenery and a little walkway through the stream on a high rise platform where you can see the fresh spring water bubbling up through the pools.
After lunch in town at the wholemeal cafe my aunty and uncle treated us to a trip to rosey glows chocolate shop. A little tiny pink house in a wee village that makes and sells homemade chocolate J…. it was a very exciting moment in my life, as all chocolate experiences are!! The small town it is in is called Collingwood and is tiny and a bit like a ghost town but even so it was originally meant to be the capital of New Zealand!! For tea that night we went to a tiny little restaurant called the muscle inn. It serves food as well as playing live bands. The 3 meals that were on the menu have been the same since it opened 20 years ago; veg lasagne, steak and a fish dish. We both had the steak which was gorgeous. The act that was playing was an Irishman from Liverpool playing guitar/country folk. He was very good indeed, we had a right laugh eating our Pavlova for dessert singing away to some of his songs played, and having a little boogie afterwards as he came to our table to play for us.
One of the highlights of last week, apart from having a homemade carvery: going to a little chocolate shop, and making and eating homemade chocolate mousse with my aunty was the fact that we got to go on Marks (my uncles) motorbike woooooop! (I have just noticed that the latter references were all food related, wow I'm a fatty!) Anyway, yes we both had a ride on marks motorbike which made me feel very cool J Dean got a ride on the way up to the beach which was about a 30 minute ride. After pick-nick on the beach with soggy sandwiches, as it started to rain and watching 3 escapee sheep experiencing freedom run across the beach which amused me highly, it was my turn on the way back.Scary to start, but Mark makes you feel very comfortable indeed. I definitely want a motorbike now too. That night we had spaghetti Bolognese, the nicest I have ever had (sorry mum) tasty tasty and Dean rambled on about motor bikes alllllllllllll night, so I slept well J
Thursday we actually found heaven, No we didn't die, but Aunty Julie and mark took us to the most amazing beach there ever was. I won't describe it as I'll just make it sound like any normal beach so you will have to look at the photos. It was like something out of a calendar shoot, in fact most of the pictures and photos for calendars and brochures are taken at this spot. It was on farewell spit right at the top on wharariki beach; White sand beach, nothing or no one around, high sand dunes and crystal clear waters. With it being a windy day the sand swept across the floor in the sunset with the feeling of being in the dessert, utterly amazing. As I said I didn't make it sound all that amazing but the pictures will show you. Well only some of the pictures will show you as we only had the camera for half the day. This was due to dean dropping his camera in the sand and getting very annoyed indeed. We nearly had tears but he held back. There were caves in the cliffs and when exploring inside one of the caves we noticed a seal perched up top on a rock. This particular area is very common for fur seal and so she must have come in with the tide and was happy enough sleeping soaking up the sun until the tide came back in.
Bertie (named after my best friend) the next door neighbours 1 week old lamb is doing well, so adorable. Dean keeps singing lamb chops songs whenever we walk past!!!! She can stand up now and does a good bum wiggle - amuses me for a while at least anyway.
Dean was furious to find out that auntie Julie and mark had never lit their chiminea and decided this had to be addressed as soon as possible - We had a bbq the next night. It was lovely to sit around the chiminea under the stars with family eating perfectly toasted marsh mellows by mark, as he is the perfect marshmallow toaster. I did however get a little annoyed with the amount of bloody sand file bites that I accumulated on my legs!! I would appreciate it if the sand flies would buger off now and leave me to use my blood to live.
Next day my aunty and mark were busy in their office working hard so me and dean decided to have a walk into town; all ten shops of town, it's not very big but very quirky. People walk around the shops with no shoes on, many have dreadlocks and are hippie type looking, so we blended in, all extremely friendly and lovely people.
On the way back we were highly regretting not accepting a lift home. The sun was scorching hot, dean was sweating and I was frying. The muffins which we bought were melting and we still had at least 45 minute walk back on the roadside. Hitchhiking is extremely popular here and easy to do, but we chickened out trying it. With 25 minutes left we heard a beeping from behind us and someone pulled up alongside us, we soon realised it was Tui, Marks business partner and jumped into the truck without hesitation!
We went for a pick nick on my aunty and marks friends boat the next day. We sailed out for about an hour and anchored in the middle of a muscle farm.On top of a few of the buoys were seals sleeping. We got very close to a few of them, and they were just the sweetest of things. Some swam off; others lazed on top of the buoys eyeing us careful and rolling about on their tummies. I so want a seal… And a baby lamb, and calf, as well as a baby goat too, the baby foal which has just been born in the local paddock would be nice too, Oh and the local pig eeee I want a farm! Anyway the pick nick was lovely with Angie and Andy my aunt and uncle's friends, the weather was perfect for it and we were extremely tired when we got back. Never the less we wanted to have a look at Tui's (marks business partner) photos as she has just come back from a trip to Kenya and showed us her lovely photos of all the animals she had seen. After a gorgeous chicken casserole we watched a movie by the fire with me and mark scoffing lots of chocolateJ.
We went up to Cobb reservoir which is in Kahurangi national Park, in the Tasman Mountains. Very high up, again silence, you could hear a pin drop, nothing bar birds swarming around, and Dean's belly whirling away!!! So on that note we ate another pick nick, this time in the car as it started to rain, which made all the mountains disappear and we ended up inside the clouds. Me and dean decided to cook tea for My Aunt and uncle and it didn't go too bad; Luke warm steak, mash, burnt onions ( I called them caramelised) and veg with hot pineapple for afters, not a noodle in sight! We watched another film with more chocolate (yep I have gained half a stone already!) and then off to our sleep out.
Another trip, this time up to up to Patarau beach where Dean and Mark challenged each other to clay pigeon shooting with rocks and we occupied ourselves for a good while throwing rocks, yep we have come all the way around the other side of the world to throw rocks! We travelled up to Anatori River, on the way up yes you've guessed it I saw baby cows! And OMG they were days old and so squeezable, I will put the pictures the up. On the subject of rivers- you cannot see a river in nz without seeing white baiters! They are everywhere and sit with their little nets by the riverside for literally days at a time. Some of them camp on the banks and are a little cult like. Who knows maybe we are missing something and it is actually a hoot a minute but I doubt that very much!
Over the weekend we stayed on Mahalia My aunties and marks boat which is moored up in Nelson. We got there on the Friday and spent the day cleaning and scrubbing the boat to get her ready. She's a 43ft long yacht which has been down to Antarctica and all around the world used as an expedition boat for Marks photography, so she needed a good clean! Once everything was sorted and ready for the morning we went for a pizza in town cooked by some extremely hot Italian chefs and watched a film in the cinema. You can drink beer in the cinema - dean liked this! On the way home we watched a light show which had been put on as part of the world cup festivities. That night we slept on Mahalia; me and dean in the double bed at the rear of the boat and my aunty and mark in the bunks, extremely comfortable.
Next day we were ready to sail but the weather, although glorious and hot and us all having to wear sun cream prevented us sailing due to the extreme wind. So we spent the day asleep on the deck and woke up quite burnt! That night we watched another film in town and slept.
Next morning we were up early and eager to go and see some dolphins. So after breakfast we set off, the weather wasn't at its best but it didn't appear to be too windy, how wrong we were! Once out the harbour it was a mini gale, my aunty soon had her handy peanut butter jar in hand as sea sickness was approaching, and we were drenched on deck with the rain and the wind.We didn't get to see much in the way of sea life as it was misty and very cloudy but it was all fun. The boat was swaying us to and fro but there was no way of me going below deck or I would have needed the peanut butter jar too. We anchored up in Torant bay on the north coast in Abel Tasman national park. Here we lowered the dingy on the back of the boat and due to the motor being broken on the dingy Mark and Dean paddled us to shore on the national park itself with their little wooden spoons.We walked around the bay itself a wee while, which had lovely scenery and caves in the cliffs, played around on the beach for a bit and paddled back to shore. Back on board we had put together a feast of cheese and crackers on deck in the moonlight and then spaghetti Bolognese. Felt a bit strange bobbing around on the waves whilst eating tea especially when you go to sleep and wake up rolling back and forth but absolutely loved it. I would love to do it again, so much fun.
Next morning we had one of the most fantastic days ever! It started up waking to the sight of a duck in the water right next to us with several ducklings' only days old, so I made sure they had a good breakfast of bread. I perched myself right at the front of the boat on the bow sprit, dangling my legs over the front ready for the journey when we spotted an albatross. A Huge sea bird with a wing-span of nearly 3 ½ meters, a huge bird, and the type we saw is extremely rare to see in New Zealand. We then saw a couple of blue footed penguins swimming around the sea diving for food, cute tiny little things. We then were lucky enough to see some fur seals swimming around the boat looking for fish and playing happily. Dean really needed the toilet and chanced not seeing anything else exciting while he ran down to the loo…2 minutes after he went we saw dolphins ha, so I shouted below deck and dean came running up all rushed and confused zipping up his pants while clinging on to his camera! Made me chuckle! We decided that the dolphins must have liked whatever it was Dean was pumping out the back of the boat! As we got closer we realised more and more were coming towards the boat. These dolphins were hectors dolphins and can only be found in New Zealand. They were ducking and diving around the boat and were tiny, one of the smallest types of dolphin. As we carried on we saw more dolphins, hectors again and then a little further on we saw some dusky dolphins. These came right up to the boat and wanted to come and play and ride the waves. They were swimming under the boat and jumping out right beside us, quite incredible. These dolphins we saw were called common dolphins and these are the ones which love to play and were chasing the waves in front of the boat. You could hear them all talking to each other, then out of nowhere more dolphins came, and seals, and gannets and there were just swarms of animals all around us, it was just incredible. Mark has a hydrophone which is a speaker which goes into the water so we could hear under water noises such as the clicking of the dolphins and other animals under the sea. At one point me and dean thought we saw a whale and started shouting to stop, when in fact it was just a seal resting on its back with its flippers together like a tale of a whale, ha, little b*****. After what was one of the most incredible days of our life we sailed back and headed for home, I sat in my little chair right on the front and relaxed with a cocktail served by mark and nothing but the calm sea in front. The wind picked up a little so Mark and dean put the head sails up, luckily they remembered I was sat leaning on the head sail at the front leaning on the sail pole as they nearly forgot and if they had tried to put it up with me on there I would have definitely fell in, not cool! Neither was it cool when I tried to get down an hour later as the waves were getting a little concerning for me where I was sat and when I tried to get down I got stuck! Mark had to help me out as dean couldn't do anything for laughing which made me get mad, I literally had to swing both legs over board and shuffle along the rails with the waves bobbing me about everywhere to get down! Anyway I steered the boat back into the harbour, obviously mark took over the parking malarkey, too much for me to cope with. Was a neat experience steering the yacht as it was such a big boat and so difficult to keep under control, but I definitely did better than dean ha-ha. (please note: dean strongly disagrees! Dean)
We had a rush to drive back as that night we were watching the all blacks (New Zealand rugby team) at the local cinema. We got there just in time for the doors to open; there was hot dog stand on the street outside and a bar where you bought your food and drink to take in the cinema. In the cinema there were bean bags and old sofas people had donated and there was a local band playing on stage warming up the viewers, it was very strange indeed. It was a great experience though watching the home team win and watching it with all the locals, some were dancing around doing the hacker, kids running round the seat every time the blacks scored, it was definitely interesting.
We were nakerd the next day so like you do we had a rest for a while then went gold panning. Yep, we met Alan; a friend of Marks and my aunts at his house, he had offered to take us out to look for gold. I'll do anything to get moneyJ. Just before we headed out he introduced us to the pet sheep he has in his back garden which was his neighbours who was 4 week old and was being bottle fed by the neighbour. He let me and aunty Julie feed and stroke the little lamb He came galloping over towards us baaaing away to meet us all excited shaking his little tail, I nearly stole him to put in my bag! So sweet, I've never stroked a lamb before. Alan drove us round a few several places and taught us how to pan for gold in the rivers. Hence the reason I am now bloody scratching my fly bites with a scrubbing brush (it feels so gooood). We tried panning for a couple of hours and Alan found 1 fairly big flake in this time. He was good at the art of panning where Dean and I kept dropping all the stones out the pan as soon as we put water in the pan, and I was rubbish, anything that looked remotely shinny I thought was gold, but just turned out to be dirt!We put the flake Alan had found it in a little box to take home with us and by the time we got home, the flake had mysteriously disappeared. Not impressed. It was good fun though sifting through rocks with gold pans I felt like a true hillbilly ha. After a couple of hours and 600 fly bites later he dropped us off home. With it being our last night we decided to have a BBQ outside and roasted marshmallows and ate Marshmellow squished in hot chocolate digestive biscuits which were very tasty indeed. We had our last night sleep in our sleep out ready for the week ahead of us on our travels around the south island.