In Queenstown, we visited Paradise... while the
name was aptly chosen. It is a beautiful place, but I think they should have
really given it to this place here. Now it is stuck with something as lame as
"Golden Bay" ;)
In addition, the Maori names of the places here
suggest to Germans the toilet, to be honest. Pohara beach (where we are) is a
part of Takaka, the biggest township around here. To get from Pohara to the
center of Takaka, we need to take Motupipi Street and today, we looked at the
Te Waikorupupu Springs, short Pupu springs, and we also did the Pupu Hydro Walk
4 km away from the Pupu Springs. Not sure how it sounds to a native
English-speaker, but Kaka, Pipi and Pupu sounds to us like a small child trying
to convey to his/her silly parents that it needs the toilet.
Funny names aside, we really are in Paradise
here. The peninsula covering the very large Kahurangi National Park and the
much smaller Abel Tasman National Park has everything a tourist can dream of.
Sandy beaches, expansive forests and mountains, all this put together with very
well maintained walking routes makes this a tourist's... well, paradise.
We started slowly today by, as already
mentioned, going to Te Waikorupupu Springs in the Kahurangi National Park. When
you look at the pictures, you will understand why I rave about it so much. You
walk through a gorgeous piece of rainforest through which the sun shines in
parts illuminating the clearest stream water I have ever seen. The highlight
comes at the springs itself. I did not take the time to find much out about it,
but it looked like a lake of about 5 meters with clear water that let you see
to the very bottom. At various places you could see the water surface being
disturbed by what must have been underwater vents that constantly stream new
water into it.
I spoke with an American who was present there
as well and we guessed, that it must be rainwater collected in the near
mountains and streaming down underground and coming out there. It was quite
breath-taking. The water was really inviting you to take a dive in. We resisted
and later we found out that it was good. The springs suffer from an algae
infestation that the Kiwi government is trying to get the upper hand on. Any
contact by a human with the water would have resulted in a fine of up to 100
000 NZD or even a prison sentence. Yep, there is always a flaw...
This walk only lasted about 30 minutes, so we
decided to take on the Pupu Hydro Walk 4 km further on, as well, before we
(mostly Isi, I am not much of a beach fan) enjoy the beach near our place a
bit. It turned out that the walk was supposed to be 2 hours which was a bit too
long for our liking as it was already past noon... For some reason, we decided
to try and speed walk it and I am glad we did. It was a very cool walk first
going up and on top a narrow wooden walkway followed a so-called water-race
which was harvested by a power station... We did it in one hour flat... with
pictures :)
Sweat-drenched we then made us ready for the
beach, just to be stopped by a herd of cattle. Yep, random, huh? I loved it
though. The moment some sort of feeling of hectic came up, this country stops
us in our strides by sending a herd of cattle to slow us down. We had our lunch
in the car, switched of the car and waited 15 minutes for the herd to pass us
by. Relaxation supreme.
The rest of the day was spent on the beach or
in our place 2 minutes away from said beach reading, walking in the slightly
too cold water or dozing off. A good change to the hyper-active start of the
day.
Tomorrow, we'll hire a double Kayak to make our
way down to the Beaches in Abel Tasman, leaving Golden Bay briefly to see what
that ole Dutchman has in stock for us.
A wannabe hardass picture
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