NZ3 West Coast, Abel Tasman,and Marborough Region: Days 165-173

Next we headed up the west coast and stopped to see the famous pancake rocks in Punakaiki. We then headed to Totaranui at the northern part of Abel Tasman National Park. The park has a long walking track that takes 3-5 days to hike with huts along the way for camping. Since we have a sleepervan and we don't have camping equipment, we decided we would just do a couple day hikes. The first day we spent six hours hiking along the amazing coast line. The next day we drove down to Marahua, at the south end of the park, and hiked in to Apple Bay. Our next destination was Nelson. We spent an afternoon walking around downtown. Next we headed to Pelorus Bridge and did a couple of trails. We found a beautiful, clear river to take a quick swim. That night we headed out for a night walk to spot some glow worms. There were lots of them. The next day we drove through a town called Havelock, took a walk on the harbour and checked out the school Rutherford attended. We hiked a bit on the Queen Charlotte Track and then headed to Blenheim and Renwick and spent a day traveling around some of the wineries in the Marborough wine region. Our last stop on the South Island was Picton, where we did a little more hiking.

Pancake Rocks

Another view of the pancake rocks.

Another formation at the pancake rocks.

We walked down to the beach at the pancake rocks. There are supposed to be penguins around this beach but they only come on shore at dawn and dusk and we were there at noon.

Goat Bay at Abel Tasman.

View from the Abel Tasman Track.

Wainui Falls, near Totarnui.

Apple Bay

The water at Apple Bay was freezing. I could not believe so many people were swimming.

Sunrise at our campsite in Marahau.

Heading out of Abel Tasman we stopped to see Split Apple Rock. This rock is the symbol for the park.

Cathedral in Nelson. There was also a really good beer pub in Nelson.

We drove from Nelson to the Pelorus River Bridge. From there we hiked to the top of Trig K outlook. 

The Pelorus River.

Swimming in the river. It was cold.

Cold but very clear water.

From Pelorus we drove through Havelock on our way to Blenheim. Ernest Rutherford was from here and the old school house where he studied is now a hostel.

View from Queen Charlotte Track

At the Spy Valley Vineyard.

The reason it is called Spy Valley. Just a few kilometers down the road from the vineyard is this complex. Apparently a joint US/NZ intelligence effort monitoring satellites and/or aliens.

We had lunch at the George Michel vineyard cafe.

Lots of grapesvines.

At Picton, before we took the ferry to Wellington, we hiked around the bay.

Looking back from the ferry ride at Picton on the South Island as we head to Wellington on the North Island. We have really enjoyed our visit to the beautiful South Island.