Category Archives: Locations

Places around the world

Abel Tasman Caves

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Today we head to Abel Tasman, which is in the NW side of the South Island.  There are a bazillion places to explore here but we have our hearts set on four places: Rawhiti Caves, Wainui Falls, Harwoods Hole, and the Mussel Inn.

We take our time along the windy road as we enjoy the beautiful views and lookouts making this a 2.5-3 hour drive to get to Abel Tasman. 

Hawkes Lookout

Just as we enter the Abel Tasman National Park we see a look out point called Hawkes Lookout – so we stop to check it out.

A quick 10-minute walk through a forest opens up to a rather large lookout point.  Truly breathtaking views.

In the middle of nowhere we ran across a lovely fruit stand where we picked up some blueberries and apples.  I couldn’t resist taking a photo of their funny tomatoes.

Our next stop is the Rawhiti Cave.  It is kind of in the middle between the Wainui Falls and Harwoods Hole.  They say that this is a moderate hike that should only take 45-60 minutes to get to the caves.  However, I beg to differ.  The first part of the hike is a lovely, flat path that runs along the dry creek.  You cross over the rocky creek to the other side and that is where it goes straight up a small, muddy path (maybe 1′ wide).

The track is steep and rugged as it zig-zags along the mountain and cliffs.  But we all arrive safely to one of the most marvelous caves we’ve seen.

The stalagmites were spectacular with huge curtains hanging precariously off the ceiling.  We had the entire cave to ourselves as we admired the immense beauty of the Rawhiti Cave!

The way back was a wee bit easier as it was mostly downhill, but it was super slippery and muddy.  My motto: slow and low paid off more times than I can count.

Wainui Falls

We left Rawhiti Caves and pointed the car toward Wainui Falls in the Takaka region of Abel Tasman.  The trail to Wainui falls claims to be an “easy walk 1.5hr” walk round trip to the 20m waterfall.

On the way, we pass a field of young cows who were super curious about us.  We also went under a pretty cool rock tunnel.

We were so disappointed to learn that the Wainui Falls were closed.  Evidently, the last flood took out part of the trail making it unsafe.

It was fast approaching 1400 and we were super hungry so we headed to Mussel Inn, an iconic New Zealand place for green mussels.  Many of you know that I am not about to eat a mussel, but it did not stop me from dragging Matt and Wayne there for lunch!  Check out their cell phone memorabilia tree. 

One last stop at another look out and the boys just could not give me a serious photo.

  • Hotel: Beachcomber in Nelson
  • Kilometers Traveled:  420km
  • Total Travel Time:  2.5hrs each way
  • Kilometers Walked: 6.1km

Events from this blog post occurred at the end of February.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Did you see our last blog where we flew over the valley in a Skywire?

Nelson: Skywire Experience

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One of the main reasons we came to Nelson is to do the Skywire Experience at the Cable Bay Adventure Park.  But how did we get here?

The Interislander ferry took us from Wellington to Picton, but it was really late – like 9 hours late!  So, we unfortunately, did not get to see much of Picton as we arrived at 10pm, checked into the Aldan Lodge, and left the next morning at 0730 for Nelson.  We had a short 2hr drive through more rolling, green mountainsides covered in gorgeous trees.  There were low flying clouds that added a certain air of mystery,  We rolled through Marlborough which is one of New Zealand’s famous winemaking locations.

We eagerly head straight to the Cable Bay Adventure Park.  In addition to the skywire experience, they also have mountain bike excursions, paintball, petting farm, ATVs, and more.  It is a true adventure park.  But we are here for the Skywire experience.  

Skywire Experience

This is one of the world’s longest Flying Fox experiences and is an incredibly unique one.  It is similar to ziplining, but yet totally unique.  Up to 4 people sit in a 500lb stainless steel contraption that zips us 1000 meters above the pristine native forest.  Our top speed was 85kilometers going forward and backward.

Each person has a triple harness that is padlocked.  Yep, padlocked so you cannot possibly accidentally undo your belts.  We are given protective eye glasses and sent on our merry way zipping down the cable.

It was truly exhilarating and loads of fun!  I actually preferred the backwards portion because the wind wasn’t smacking me in my face, but overall it was spectacular.  Can you see us in the distance?

Nelson Classic Car Museum

We had a bit of time before lunch so we stopped in to the Classic Car Museum in Nelson.

This private collection was super impressive with cars ranging from the early 1900’s to 2021! I really liked the old cars.  And all of the cars were in pristine condition!

So stylish and sophisticated.

And some a little odd – check out the little BMW (top right corner)!

Commercial vehicles back in the day.

Classic Jaguars!

They even had a DeLorean (like Matt’s) and a GTO Fastback (like Wayne’s)

We ended the day at McCashin’s “Stoke” brewery for lunch.

  • Hotel Picton: Aldan Lodge
  • Hotel Nelson: Beachcomber
  • Kilometers Traveled:  151kilometers
  • Travel Time: 2 hrs
  • Kilometers Walked: 6.9km

Events from this blog occurred toward the end of February.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events.   Did you see our blog post on the capital of New Zealand?

The Capital of Wellington

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We leave Waitomo and drive 6 hours to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside with rolling green hillsides full of cows, sheep, goats, horses, and even alpacas!

First, a quick stop at our hotel, The Trinity Hotel, to drop off the car and our bags.  This is a large hotel just off the wharf.  We had one room with double and single beds which did not leave much room for our bags.  They did have a small refrigerator and a nice bathroom.  In addition, they had a beautiful rooftop deck which served drinks.

We explore for a few hours down by the wharf. The parliament building is affectionately called “The Bee Hive” which is no surprise when you look at the building (top right photo).  We did not have time to do the tour, but we did enjoy walking around the grounds.

We find the famous 385lb stainless fern globe estimated cost of $210,000NZD!  It truly is beautiful and fills the civic square sky perfectly. Not sure what is up with the ugly hand sculpture, but it made it into the photo anyway.

We find the college district with lots of bars and eateries and end up meeting one of Matt’s friends.  Matt and Chris worked together at Pluck and had not seen each other in 10 years.  We met him in this super funky little back ally bar called Gildings Free Dive.  It is covered in Star War’s paraphernalia!

Wellington has their very own locks of love wall where couples hang a padlock to signify their love.

Wellington Museum

The Wellington Museum is located down by the wharf and is FREE!  Sweet. The museum is in a beautiful, old building and consists of 4 floors.  It is a short snippet of history including models of old ships, old television studios, and more.  A little something for everyone.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Dozens of people told us to visit the Te Papa museum and it did not disappoint!  A massive museum that could have easily taken a full day to explore, but we only had a few hours.

One of the main reasons we came to this museum was to see a new gallery called Gallipoli The Scale of Our War.  This exhibit is told through the eyes of 8 ordinary New Zealanders and it is heart wrenching and moving.

The Gallipoli exhibit was very impressive with displays that were more than 2.5x human size!  The museum joined forces with Weta workshop to create the sculptures that are incredibly life like with pores in their skin and hair on their hands, legs, arms, and faces.

Look up close to the lower right photo to see the amazing details of these sculptures.

Toward the end they have a beautiful poppy display that allows the visitor to leave a remembrance of a loved one.

Te Taiiao Nature Exhibit

The next exhibit is a nature exhibit and the effects on the land.  They had more replicas of the giant Moa bird and lots of kiwis.

They also had the largest squid in the world – which was really kind of creepy.

On another floor they had the history of Maori culture with a large waka (canoe), community center, and a cow made of corn beef cans.

Wellington is known for having lots of earthquakes.  One of the cool features installed in most of the buildings is the earth quake proof system they have installed.  So, we venture down below the Te Papa museum to check out their Quake Braker.

It truly is a magnificent museum.  My photos and brief description don’t do it justice, but I just couldn’t capture all of the amazingness of this place.

At the end of the day we drove onto the Interislander Ferry which took us across the Cook’s Straight to the South Island.

  • Hotel:   Trinity Hotel
  • Kilometers Traveled:  525km
  • Travel Time: 6hrs10min
  • Kilometers Walked: 6.4km

Events from this blog occurred during the end of February 2023.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Don’t miss our last blog post when we abseil 100m into the earth to visit The Lost World.