Golden Bay

The past two weeks have been pretty crazy, so I’ve been neglecting the blog. It’s about time I covered Andy and my trip to Golden Bay. It deserves a few installments, so let’s just start with day one.

To make things a bit confusing, Golden Bay is on the South Island but is actually north of Wellington. Here’s a map of Takaka, the town where we stayed, in relation to Wellington.

Here’s a closeup of Golden Bay, which looks uncannily like a kiwi.

So we went north to the South Island. Andy was at a conference for his job during the week, and I flew down to Nelson to meet him on Friday afternoon. The flight to Nelson is the shortest one I’ve ever been on. You basically prepare for landing just as takeoff has finished.

We met at the airport and grabbed our rental car before setting out on the two-hour drive to Takaka. We got in just before dark and got some fish and chips at a shop in town before settling in at our bach by the sea.

The next morning dawned a bit cloudy, but we weren’t daunted. We headed out to nearby Tarakohe to check out the limestone cliffs.

This time of year, the place was entirely deserted, which made it all the more impressive. I especially liked the part of the road that tunneled through the rocks.

Up close, the cliffs were even more incredible.

We headed off the road to explore a path that lead up through the bush to more cliffs.

Andy pictured for scale reference:

Apparently, this area is pretty popular with rock climbers, and I can see why.

Andy and I headed further down the road to see what was around the next bend. I definitely didn’t expect what we found…

At first, it seemed like some creepy scene from the first season of True Detective.

But turns out it was just a pirate book club…

Never did I expect to stumble upon a literary pirate club by the sea, but it was a lovely surprise.

We continued on despite the increasing rain and made for the Abel Tasman Memorial.

Old Abe sure found a great spot. The super popular Abel Tasman National Park begins just around the bend from here. I can’t wait to check it out in warmer weather.

The weather clearly wasn’t planning to improve any time soon, so we headed back along the coast towards the car.

Even on an overcast day, the color of the water was mind-blowing.

As we returned to the parking lot, I had to get a shot of a wonderful dilapidated ship anchored nearby.

We decided to drive a bit further up the coast to Wainui Bay, the last roadside bay before Abel Tasman, which can’t be accessed by car.

Again, there was not a soul in sight, and we followed a sandy path to the shore.

The scenery was incredibly vast and made for amazing photographic material.

I really loved these plants that creeped over the sand.

After this stop, we headed back to Takaka to warm up with some mochaccinos at a great local cafe. The rest of the day we spent indoors, but I did manage to get a shot of a rain-drenched tui out of our window.

We had dinner in town at the same cafe that we’d visited earlier (Takaka is quite small), which was really delicious. The weather looked promising for the next two days so we had a lot planned.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of the glorious sunrise the next morning, which I was lucky enough to wake up and catch purely by chance.

Just a sneak peak of the glorious day to come.