Mum and I went on a road trip to the Golden Bay, first we had to contend with some very wintry weather and played for a bit in the snow on the top of the Takaka Hill.
Next up was the Pohara Beachfront Motor Camp, gorgeous campground with our unit right on the beach and we fell asleep to the sound of waves lapping on the shoreline.
The beach itself was stunning with lots of examples of the native wild life, sand crabs, scallops, sand sharks and a mean looking barracuda (reminder to self forget all about this when I next go there in the summer!).
We spent the next day walking, walking and walking some more a particular highlight was the Pupu Hydro walkway, the brochure mentioned a narrow boardwalk nothing prepared you for the narrowness of it or the sheer drop on the other side. The Pupu springs themselves were not what I expected right next to farmland and the water was running really fast into the rivers.
We went on some more walks in the Kahurangi National Park (no sand flies, what a pity) and the Abel Tasman National Park as well.
We collapsed for the night after the most scrummy meal at the Penguin Cafe (fully recommend this).
The next day I had arranged for us to go on a horse ride (surprise, surprise) right out by Farewell Spit (the longest sand spit in the world) and along a beach called Puponga, we saddled up and went with Gael for a canter or two along the beach. Along the way we were shown a resident of the deep that had taken a wrong turn and ended up on the shoreline, a sun fish, if you ever get a chance to see one of these it’s really hard to imagine them swimming in the sea.
Afterwards we went to Whakariki beach, beautiful area of New Zealand and I had no idea that the west coast of the south island could have such golden sand. Then it was back over the hill and time for civilisation
