The Last of New Zealand

It has been another week so I thought it would be best if I updated you on what I've been up to. Since we finished bailing on Sunday, we were able to take a break from the farm on Monday. Bob brought us to Motueka early Monday morning to catch the bus that his son Locke daily drives up to the Tasman Ntl. Park. Having the connection to Locke got us a discount and sped us through the campsite reservation process in order for us to catch the water taxi that was waiting to depart upon our arrival. Connections are good. We rode the water taxi deep into the park, stopping to see the cormorant nests and seal pups on the way out. A water taxi is just like a land taxi only it transports people, usually those with money or small kids, to the best parts of the park via the ocean. After a day spent relaxing or hiking people usually take the taxi back to the entrance, but we took the alternative option and spent the night. Upon arriving at Tonga Beach, we realised that the campsite which we were registered to spend the night at was only a little over an hours hike away, and being that it was only 10am we decided to hike in the opposite direction. At the end of the beach our trail headed for the hills, but since it was high tide a salty river separated us from our destination. Nevertheless, we decided to forge on and crossed the river with our packs raised above our heads. Luckily the water only made it up to our chins. After hiking for a few hours amongst a constant buzz from the cicadas, we made it to our lunch destination, Awaroa Bay. After lunch, we headed back to the beach that we were dropped off at and to our astonishment the river which we had crossed just a few hours previously had almost completely disappeared. Our taxi driver was right when he said this park experienced the largest fluxuations in tides in all of NZ, with areas dropping and raising 4.5m twice a day (that's almost a 15' difference). We made it to the campsite at Bark Bay before five and set up our "tent" (check out the picture below). We then found our dinner, which consisted of NZ's famous green mussels (they covered the rocks which were exposed during low tide) and a paddle crab. The paddle crab wasn't that big but since it pinched Ian we had to punish it somehow. Later Bob told us that paddle crab is the best tucker that the ocean has to offer (that's coming from an ex-fisherman and mussel farmer). As the sun set, the sand flies came out in drones. They still were nothing compared to the mosquitoes back home though. Good thing we had our "tent", which the forest ranger described as original, to keep them out... not. The next morning we started early and made it to Torrent Bay by 11am. We relaxed on the beach here and made it back to the entrance of the park by 3:30. After our long hike we were happy to right away find a little burger shack called the Fat Tui. The burgers were unique but very delicious. Ian had their veggie burger option and said it was the best veggie anything that he's every had.

From Wed. - Fri. we helped out around the farm. We raked up stray hay mounds and collected bananaed bails from the paddocks. This all went into yet another compost pile. It has been fun driving a manual truck around and shifting with my left hand. Work has kept us busy in the mornings and relaxing and reading has made our afternoons go by fast. I forgot to mention, but Sunday night Bob realised that a neighbor's dog had gotten into the paddock where our sheep were grazing. It had attacked 5 of them, bitting their legs and rumps, and escaped before Bob was able to see it. He had to put two of the sheep down, which was very unfortunate since the hay was the last of his worries, but at least the other three were able to be saved. A picutre below shows me holding a lamb which was injured while Bob prepares to treat the wounds.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we plan on going to the local speedway at night for a demolition derby. Bob used to race cars here and still loves watching the races. Bob told us that he has a friend with pet eels, so we are planning on going to see and feed them on Sunday. Then on Monday we're going to say our goodbyes and head to the West Coast. Bob is giving us a lift to Westport, but after that its hitching for us again. Our tentative plan is to spend two days in Paparoa Ntl. Park and then either take a bus to Hamner Springs or straight to Christchurch to catch our flight on the fourth. We only have seven days left in New Zealand so we need to make the most of it. Though this doesn't seem like much time, we've only been here for three weeks, so there's still plenty of time to see more of NZ and try to stay out of trouble.

This was our first tidal pool crossing. Luckily it didn't get much deeper than this.

Ian was a little reluctant to eat the mussels. He was only able to find a few pieces which he deemed edible no matter how hard I tried to convince him to pop the whole thing in his mouth. We ended up boiling about ten mussels as our hors d'oeuvres and then used the shells as spoons for our pasta.

Our "original" tent (aka sand fly refugee camp). During the night we tightened our mummy bags as much as possible to limit the amount of skin that was explosed to the hungry beasts.

This lamb had what they call "Fly Strike". Since it had been injured by the dog, flies were able to lay their eggs in the open wound. We had to shave wool from the affected area and apply a poison to kill the maggots.