How's it going?
I am very very good and after I had visited my penfriend in Dannevirke, I was just back in Nelson, when I got Matt's invitation to come to Takaka and Collingwood (Golden Bay) with him and his parents.
As you know, my schedule was quite full for these holidays but it just fitted in - between my visit in Dannevirke and my Flying Kiwi trip around New Zealand. =P
From my point of view now, I am more than glad that I did this because I saw so many new things that I had only heard and read about before! But also, this trip was made so agreeable for me by Matt and his parents Jeremy and Leonie who are such a great family to spend time with!!
Matthew, Jeremy and Leonie - and of course Zac, their dog! =)
On the 13th April, I came back from Palmerston North at about 6.30 pm. Matt asked me if I wanted to sleep at their house for we would have to leave early in the morning to be able to use the day to travel around in Golden Bay. So I got a few things ready and then, they picked me up. I can tell you, guys: New Zealand's people are likely to be the most spontaneous and flexible people in the world - and if you just admit to it, you can be sure that your life is going to be an adventure!
And so was our trip: on our way to Takaka, we stopped at a carpark and went for a little walk to a lookout. And this is the view from there:
It was quite windy up there - Matt almost lost his cap!
On our way, we also saw a sign "Ngarua Caves" and once we were there, we went into the Caves.
And this was the scenery waiting for us at the other end of the caves when we came back up:
Have you ever heard of the "Pu Pu Springs"? Probably not, but they're said to be the purest waters of the world. Every day, some 2,160,000,000 litres of water come out of this rather small lake in the area of Golden Bay and flow towards the sea in a big river. Because of avoiding the spread of Didymo, a plant, people are neither allowed to swim in nor to drink the water anymore! Here are some pictures:
The water doesn't seem as deep as it actually is: you can see the ground clearly, as in a tropical reef. Guess how deep it is!
Around 2-3 metres?
Wrong!
These waters are approximately 7 metres deep, the temperature is always around 11 degrees.
After this, we went straight to our campsite in Collingwood which is directly at the beach. In the afternoon, the light was just right to take a nice picture:
This is a huge river-mouth, therefore the water is quite fast-flowing! We saw a lot of birds and even a seal!
Farewell Spit, where we went the next day, is a long dune which is located in the north-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is about 30km long and from above, it looks like the head of a kiwi-bird:
We couldn't go right to the end and $80 for a bus ride there would have been very expensive. We "just" went over to the west side of the spit which offers a great view and the most lovely beaches you can imagine!
The Wild, Wild West... eh, Coast!
And here, you can see why Golden Bay is called Golden Bay. A stop on our way back to Nelson:
I had the most wonderful time with you guys and if you ever want to come over to Germany, you're invited to do so! Thank you so much!
Right, guys, that's my post about Golden Bay and there's still much much more to come!
Talk to you later,
Chris...tian
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