Off to the South

Wellington welcomed us on December 31st with roaring winds and drizzly weather, but for once we didn't care, because we had booked two beds in a hostel for New Year's Eve. This meant that after 3 months in the car, we finally got to sleep in a real bed with a roof over our heads. We shared our 4-bed room with a Dutch couple, with whom we would later celebrate the New Year together. But first, they invited us to have Oliebollen, a traditional Dutch pastry for New Year's Eve, which they had baked in the kitchen. After a few beers and together with two more Dutch people, we made our way to the city, where a concert with fireworks was supposed to take place. Despite the stormy wind and drizzle, we made ourselves comfortable by the water, enjoyed Olliebollen, and were excited to be the first to celebrate the New Year. However, since the whole city was a liquor ban area, we had to do without further alcohol and only sipped from a shared bottle of sparkling wine shortly after midnight. When the fireworks ended and a few naked people had jumped into the water, the crowds quickly dispersed and moved on to the city's bars. We followed the hustle and bustle for a while, but since we had to wait in the rain for at least an hour at every bar, and hundreds of German teenagers were singing Ballermann hits in the streets, we decided to go to McDonald's and then back to the hostel. We had to get up early the next day to catch our ferry to the South Island.

So the next day, we boarded the ferry with our home, which was supposed to cross the strait between the North and South Island. Although one might think that the distance is not very long, it took us 4 hours and the rough seas made me quite sick. We were both very relieved when we finally arrived in Picton and could look for a campsite for the night. We found one right by the sea in the Marlborough Sounds, where even a little penguin paid us a visit in the evening. So our journey through the South Island got off to a good start! The next day, we continued towards Nelson. On the way, we visited a filming location from The Hobbit. The barrel scene, in which the hobbits fled from the orcs in barrels, was filmed at a rather inconspicuous section of a river. But you probably have to be a true Hobbit nerd to recognize it. When we finally arrived in Nelson, we were somewhat surprised to find that the freedom camping site is located right in the city center. Starting at 5:00 p.m., the city actually provides its municipal parking lot for free to all campers. Even though it feels a bit strange to sleep in the car amidst shopping stores and not exactly get the typical New Zealand outdoor feeling, we were glad to have a few nights of free accommodation here. We had already booked our camping stays for our first Great Walk through Abel Tasman National Park a few weeks ago, so we had to kill a few days in the region. To prepare for this 3-day hike with nights in tents, we had planned a 2-day hike (the Nydia Track) beforehand. This was supposed to lead to a beautiful bay in the Marlborough Sounds, where we would spend the night in our tent and then walk back the next day. So after a few days in Nelson, we set off for the starting point of our "trial hike". We set off full of motivation and reached our destination already in the early afternoon. After setting up our tent and Toni taking a few laps in the turquoise water of the beautiful bay, we started preparing our dinner. Rice. Of course, that wasn't the most exciting meal, but after a few exciting rounds of Mau-Mau, we were looking forward to simply sleeping. However, this turned out to be not as easy as we thought. Due to our youthful carelessness, we had only bought two sleeping pads to spend the night on the hard ground. After a sleepless night and with aching bones, our mood was only moderately good the next morning. At least it made us realize that we urgently needed to buy air mattresses for our Great Walk. With stiff bones, we set off on the return journey the next morning, and when we finally reached our car, we were incredibly happy to be able to sleep in it again.

A day later, we set off back to Nelson. From here, we wanted to explore the remaining northern part of the South Island before starting our Great Walk. In Nelson, we first bought two inflatables for the water, hoping they would last us for the two nights in the tent, and Toni finally bought his long-awaited fishing rod. Well equipped, we continued north to Collingwood. We stayed for one night at a nice campsite, where the owner showed Toni a few tricks with the newly acquired fishing rod, and where we saw our first wild seal in the evening. The next morning, we wanted to drive further to a beautiful beach with a seal colony and to Farewell Spit, a land spit that extends far into the sea. This would also be the sad location where more than 300 whales would strand two months later...

After exploring everything here, we headed back south to Kaiteriteri, a small town on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park, where we would start our Great Walk the next morning.