A super moon, a king tide and the tail end of a cyclone...(no worries mum...all good)! We arrived in Nelson and headed to the information site, our routine stop as we travel through NZ. There we found weather warnings for Abel Tasman for the following day and we took the suggestion of starting our exploration with Nelson’s Historic Walk which took us through the city and familiarized us with the local sites/history. On Thursday the area did indeed get rain,...

Our first day in Picton was an adventure with an early departure into the Sounds to Ship Cove. The cove is named after Captain James Cook who started exploring the area in 1770. Our water taxi dropped us off to start our day hike of a portion of the Queen Charlotte Track. The total distance of the track is 71km and takes 3-5 days, there is a mountain biking option as well. There are many options for accommodations along the way, with water taxis delivering yo...

Our first impressions of Picton and the Marlborough Sounds would be that they are breathtaking! The ferry ride was uneventful...until we headed into the sounds...wow! Today we walked a section, 16km, of the Queen Charlotte track...Ship Cove to Endeavour Inlet. Pictures and more to come!

We have made our way to Wellington with a brief stop in Martinborough to explore the Pinnacles and Cape Palliser. Along our travels we discovered the Tui brewery, a craft beer of New Zealand, and their “Frank the Tank” beer...some good laughs in the brewery shop for sure! The Putangirua Pinnacles, located in the Aorangi Forest Park, are some very cool rock formations. For those that are Lord of the Rings fans you may recognize the backdrop!? We took the ri...

To finish off our visit in the thermal area of the north island we visited Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland. We started our visit with a viewing of the geyser, Lady Knox, that shoots water and steam into the air up to 21m. And then walked the thermal park visiting the various thermal pools and fumaroles. Water temps can reach 80 degrees celsius and the various colours are introduced by the oxides (purple/magnesium, red brown/iron, yellow/sulphur). The pool that s...