Thursday 20 March 2014

Wharariki Beach and Arrival in Picton (19.3.2014)



Before we made our way to Picton to stay the night in order to catch the early ferry over to Wellington to start the second part of our journey, we made our way about an hour further north to the top of the Golden Bay and Wharariki (spoken Farariki) Beach. We were told the Beach is the most beautiful in the region and if lucky one can see seal babies playing at it (We didn't see any).

Since Isi has not received a satisfactory amount of beach time, we set off to go there... and sit in the sand and... wait, I guess... I have to say that I am not a fan of sitting at the beach. All the things I like doing, I cannot do there, so I tend to be condemned to wait until everyone else is finished with... not sure what really... having fun lying around doing nothing... just lying there...

Anyhow, this time to a certain extent it was fun. When we arrived at the car park from which it still is approximately 1 km to get to the beach, we were greeted by two peacocks of all things. They seemed to be loitering there (malicious lingering anyone?) and are used to getting fed by people... Why peacocks though? They are not indigenous to NZ (unless I have missed something). Strange...

To our surprise, the sky was covered in clouds with some light showers (despite the forecast's assurance that it would be sunny), but we had faith and went ahead to the beach anyways. Our way led us through grassy hills, the grass were cropped all the way to the ground it can only be done by herds of sheep (one of the things I learnt in bonnie Scotland) and no surprise, they were everywhere... so were the sandflies ;)

However, after we bested them, we finally arrived at the beach and it certainly is a very pretty beach. There are rock formations called the archways, where the sea flows through onto the beach. It is hard to explain unless you've seen it. Luckily, during our time there, the sky also cleared up eventually to give a bright blue sky. I quickly started rubbing the sun lotion on... Why am I telling you this? Because Isi's statement was: "I don't need it, I am already tanned." The same Isabel, my darling wife, that mocked me for getting a sunburn on my nose the second full day we were in NZ. But I'll get to that later ;)

We spent the next couple of hours reading (The Bourne Identity; fantastic book and nothing like the film strangely), walking into the water or using the gorilla pod to make funky and strange pictures. My sequence of forward judo rolls towards the camera is such a fail, it has to be shared :D

We tried to put it off for as long as possible, but at some point we needed to go towards Picton. Nothing much happened. It was a very uneventful 4 hour ride over winding roads and mountain passes that was just not nice. We hired a cabin on a camping ground for a very cheap price in Picton and were very surprised to find a basic, but clean cabin with tidy and clean facilities. To give you an idea, the horrible place in Fox Glacier cost double what we are paying for the one here per night.

As we'll be off tomorrow, we'll hit the sack early, but not before I put what feels like an entire bottle of après sun lotion on Isabel... I will not specify a body part as pretty much every uncovered part except the arms is "frazzled". I on the other hand only missed out on the backs of my foot which are lightly red ;) Justice has been served :)


This sea gull played the old "If I look away, you can't see what I am doing"-game with us for the best part of 2 hours trying to steal Isi's shoes

This is one of the peacocks at the car park. It was essentially already walking into our car looking for food

Wharariki Beach

Trying to lunge my gravity-ridden ass into the air

 Stomping to see if you guys can feel it on the other side ;)

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