Caught the morning ferry from Wellington down to Picton on Saturday!  The ride was 3-3.5 hours and it was a much bigger ferry than I thought it would be! I woke up way earlier than normal so I spent the first half of the trip inside sleeping and then the second half (which of course was more exciting as we got closer to Picton) up on the top deck.

Once the ferry arrived in Picton I found my bus that would take me to Nelson where I met a few other friends.  I arrived in Nelson in the afternoon and met up my fellow TEAN’er Kim and her friends Mikaela and Anona.  From Nelson we made our way to Takaka where we camped out for the night.

The next day we woke up really early before sunrise and drove towards Cape Farewell and the Farewell Spit. At Farewell Spit we saw an incredible sunrise and took some epic pictures of the color clouds and sky…check ‘em out below!

After our stop at the Farewell Spit we made our way to the northernmost point on the South Island – Cape Farewell.

Cape Farewell is probably one of my favorite spots I have visited thus far in all of New Zealand! It is the one place that I felt as if I was literally standing at the edge of the world.  I was able to run atop the green rolling hills with the wind blowing and the never-ending sea at my side.  It was such an invigorating feeling!!!

 

After wandering around the area a bit we headed back through Abel Tasman National Park to Kaiteriteri.  On the way to Kaiteriteri we made a stop at Wharariki Beach were we stumpled upon a bunch of extremely playful seal pups!!!  It was incredible! They came right up next to us to play and let us pet them.  I put my hand down near the water and one of them even swam right over by me and then turned over so that way I could pet its stomach!  I mean, just look at the pictures below and tell me how you could not pet them!

Near Kaiteriteri we made another stop at Split Apple Rock and then continued driving down the road to Marahau where we hiked for a

bit down the Abel Tasman coastal track – which is a 3-5 day tramp along some gorgeous coastline; sadly we didn’t have enough time to do the track, but I was glad that I was finally able to see the area!

When I come back to New Zealand the tramp is definitely one of the top things to do on my list!

Once darkness hit and we could no longer continue on the Abel Tasman track so we drove further south towards the Nelson Lakes National Park where we set up camp for the night.

The next morning we got up early and drove to Lake Rotoiti – which was absolutely stunning!  We ended up hike around a peninsula of the lake to check out two different bays.

After the hike we drove to the top of the mountain overlooking the lake for lunch.  While eating the clouds came, obscuring our view but it was still cool!

 

After lunch we made our way to Blenhiem in the Malborough region to taste some of the areas wine by visiting a few different wineries.  At one of the wineries they had an adorable little puppy which I got to take for a walk and hold.  Made me miss my dog at home but it was so nice to play with the little guy!

 

After the visit we headed back of the Picton to drop of the car and to catch the ferry back to Wellington, where I chilled for the remainder of the week until my next and final trip in New Zealand!

Next stop, Northland & Coromandel!

– Brad