North to South

After a very drunken last weekend in Auckland with Max, thanks to lots of free drinks from Sebastian at the local Belgium pub on the Saturday night, which didn't help with our plan of winning enough money at the casino to fund the rest of the trip....the fact that we could barely stand may have had something to do with our much lighter pockets at the end of the night... Anyway, our time at Bamber House, on the North Island and with Max came to an end on the Monday morning when we left to travel down to Wellington to catch the ferry across to the South island.

We were quite sad to leave all of the above for may different reasons:

The North Island because it was our first destination of our travelling expedition, not to mention the fact that it's a gorgeous place & we've visited so many amazing places and some great times. Some of the best being -

• PIHA - we spent our first month here pet sitting. It is by far one of the most stunning places on the N. island with the KiteKite Falls, Lion Rock, Waitakere Ranges....also our first experience of a long drop loo!
• AHIPARA - and Endless Summer Lodge...lazy days baking, cooking, eating, drinking, surfing (kinda), meeting lots of new and now good friends. Definitely the best hostel so far with great hosts Anna and Blaine, not to mention the funniest pets - Billie and Jamie. Our day out for a picnic and sandboarding was one of the funniest yet!
• Bay of Islands - We had a lovely couple of days here with Kirstin & Alec - again another gorgeous place.
• Coromandel - Best beaches of the North Island - Hahei, Cathedral Cove and the crazy Hot Water Beach.
• Mount Maunganui - a bugger to climb but well worth it when we got to the top! Late night BBQ on the beach with friends Katerina and Nao.
• Rotorua - bubbling mud - what more do you need??!!
• Napier - Sunniest place on the North Island. Our first week there was cool starting with the cycling wine tour for Matt's Birthday. Also our first experience of stacking shelves in a supermarket which wasn't so cool!
• Taupo and Tongariro National Park - Volcanoes, sailing, Huka jet and superloos....

Then to Bamber House. - our first experience of managing a hostel, and not a small one at that. Although it was long days and quite tiring, we met lots of friendly backpackers and the work was actually very rewarding (we got good bonuses for a full house!!). We also got to live in the flat, which although was very small, it's the most comfort we've had since leaving home with our very own kitchen with fridge!!
It was also the place where we got to spend an ace few days with our lovely newly wed friends from home Rach and Mat - we miss you guys!

The last of the above brings us to Max.... Since meeting him back at Endless Summer he's been a big part of our North Island travels and has become a good friend. We had lots of fun times and created many happy memories of our travels so far. A fair few of them involving Max 'Brewing up' (meaning of the tea variety, not the 'pull my finger' kind), namely at 2 in the morning for us when we finished our night shift at Pak'n'Save! The rest of them involve food, drink, films, coffee shops, magazines and lots more food and drink. So thanks Max, it's been a pleasure!

Anyway, back to the matter in hand..us travelling to the South island...

The ferry crossing from Wellington to Picton is renowned for being pretty rough, but lucky for us we woke up to a perfect day which meant a nice smooth crossing & stunning views from the sun deck of the Marlborough Sounds.

Not thinking it could possibly get any better, we followed the Queen Charlotte Track from Picton on our route to Nelson, which proved us wrong - we just wished the pictures could do it justice.

We stayed with Mags and Gavin in Nelson for our first night and went Quad biking the next day. Razzing round a Muddy track with amazing scenery and a picnic half way through - nice!

That night we went to our destination for the next 3 weeks - the White Elephant backpackers in Motueka, just on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park where we're working for our accommodation.

We're just coming to our last week now and have so far managed to see most of the Abel Tasman, which again is gorgeous! We went sea kayaking to Split Apple Rock with Kirstin and Alec last week, which was a tad scary further out in the rougher water but still pretty cool and we managed to see the seal colony at Tonga Island from the water taxi.

A couple of weeks ago we had our first outdoor cinematic experience. The local park in nelson was showing 'Rebel without a Cause' starring James Dean which was good fun. We went with Gavin, Kirstin and Alec and everyone took along blankets, picnics and alcohol, one group even took a sofa...!

We've now got one week left here at the White Elephant before we get to stay with Mags & Gavin again in Nelson ready for the Marlborough Sounds wine festival (free wine, food and entertainment...), then we'll be travelling down to Christchurch ready for the arrival of Matt's Mum and Al on the 14th February - Can't wait!

For more pics...