Takaka, Golden Bay and Abel Tasman

Hello. I know it's been a while, and I don't have much excuse apart from I've been enjoying not being connected to the internet for a while and having fun. I'm in a bit of a scramble at the moment looking for work for accomodation, but I'll explain about that in the next post!  

So this post will cover just after Shambhala, the two other weeks I spent in Golden Bay and the couple of days at Abel Tasman National Park.

Two weeks in Takaka, and I only have 46 photos. Hmmm.....

 Ok, so I didn't take that many, and my camera decided to randomly delete some. It's nice like that. You might have to put up with more words than pictures to tell you about the last couple of weeks. I'll try to give you nice word pictures.

 So I was once again working for accomodation in a lovely little hostel called Barefoot Backpackers (you could wear shoes!), doing some gardening, painting, lawn mowing, general outside stuff, and on the odd occasion checking someone in. This is probably my favourite hostel so far, because it felt like a home. I say a home because it's obviously not my home, but I felt like it could have been:

The Kitchen. That's Henrietta by the window, one of the owners

The Lounge, and Jono, Henrietta's husband and the other owner

Fife, the tamest and most gentle dog you'll ever meet.  Took her for some walks,  didn't really need the lead.

The deck area

The view from the deck one way...

... and the other way

 So working for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week took up alot of my time, with some little trips inbetween.  I mostly enjoyed being lazy and relaxing, and enjoying the chilled out atmosphere of Takaka. It's a beautiful little town, with some amazing cafes. Be warned. There's one called the Dangerous Kitchen, which does amazing food (best pizza in NZ so far). I think it's called dangerous because you can spend so much money there!
 
  So the little trips. Like I said my camera did delete some photos, including the Wainui falls walk which was really beautiful. Half hour bush walk over loads of different terrain, including this awesome bridge;


 
 Very bouncy and fun to walk over! Then it was a scramble up and down some river banks then through some more trees to the falls. The waterfall itself wasn't that impressive, but it was worth the trip for the walk alone!
 The Falls were about half an hour outside of town (I borrowed one of the other wwoofer's car), and on the way back I raced the rain and did a few other stops as well;

Tata beach before it started raining (See it does rain!)

Abel Tasman memorial (I'll explain about him later)

The view from the memorial

  On another day off, I went to the Puru Springs, the largest freshwater Spring in Australasia, if not the Southern hemisphere:

The ripples on the right hand side are where the spring bubbles up.

It was quite murky water though....

  In my last week I spent a lot of time at the workshop of Mr. Chris Bones, a bone and wood carver carving my own little piece out of some cow bone. It was brilliant just spending time in the workshop to be honest, as Chris is a Character. Loads of people would come in and out throughout the day, and he told me loads of stories about the area and the people in it, as well as his history of carving worldwide.
 While he did some of the cutting and fine engraving work, the following is my own design, and a hell of a lot of my filing and sanding!

 I was pleased with the end result!

So I had a great few weeks in Golden Bay, and met some awesome people. I was sad to leave, and have promised myself that I will be heading back there at some point in my life.

 A trip back over a big hill to Nelson, a night in the same hostel I was at last time, and then back on the Stray bus (With a driver from Wrexham!), and then we headed to....

 Abel Tasman National Park

 This is one of the smallest national parks in New Zealand, but apparently one of the most beautiful. Abel Tasman was a Dutch explorer who discovered the Golden Bay area, but he orignally called it Murderer's Bay. When they first landed, the Maori tribes attacked and ate some of his men, which Mr. Tasman wasn't best pleased with!
 The reason that it's called Abel Tasman national park is hilarious though (I've heard the same story a few times, so I'm going to believe it). The New Zealand government were going to develop and cut down alot of the bush area (this has happened to so much of the country; it used to be about 85% bush, it's now 20%ish). A woman whose name I can't remember decided this was not the best plan, so wrote a letter to the Dutch government pretending to be the New Zealand government, along the lines of;

 Dear Dutch Government,

 It's the New Zealand government here. We are creating a national parkland up near Golden Bay (The name changed to make it more appealing), and we would love to name it after the honourable Abel Tasman, in recognition of his discovery of the area. Please let us know if you support this desicion,

 Yours Sincerely,

 The New Zealand Government.

 The Dutch government of course loved the idea, and wrote to the actual Kiwi government to give their support, leaving them with no other option! After doing some walks, I think it was the best decision. I'll let the photos give my side of the argument;

Baby Quail (Kiwi Quail)

That's all for this time, I'm starting a bar job for a couple of months tonight, so when I figure out what my kind of schedule is, I'll update you some more!