Lazy Day in National Parks

Today was my lazy day. I wanted to lie around and do nothing, so today I went to many beaches to do nothing.

Location scouting…that’s what I feel I’ve been doing in the Golden Bay. I drove this morning to Farewell Split and walked for about 2.5 hrs on the north most part of the South Island – at least what’s allowed to walk on without passes. I remember seeing it from the plane when I flew into Queenstown.

The farewell split is gorgeous and I had the perfect day for walking there; it was somewhat overcast so the sand was not too hot or burning my feet. I took way too many pictures of that magnificent scenery and wish I had a DSLR camera the size of my phone – someone needs to invent one soon!

The farewell split is the northmost section of the South Island, here is a view from my plane ride from Auckland to Queenstown.

I walked over sand dunes, through farmland next to sheep and through a low tide area. I was incredibly amazed with the scenery: the ever changing New Zealand scenery doesn’t cease to impress me. One second it felt like I was at a Northern France beach in the springtime, the next I felt I was getting close to a tropical rainforest. At one point I even felt I was walking through England’s farmland.

After visiting the Farewell Split, I went to Wharariki Beach. To get there I walked over farmland and eventually had to walk over massive sand dunes. The wind was very strong and the very fine sand kept hitting my skin. I dipped my toes into the ocean water but it was too cold for me, those ocean waters are constantly fed with glacier water. I took a nap, but the wind was too strong – not enough for a sandstorm, but enough to hurt and cover me with the dust. I eventually left, stopped at a café at the entrance of the trail and rested on a hammock while I drank an apple, mango, and orange juice. What a sweet deal.

I drove a few minutes down the road, found another beach and relaxed some more in the sand for 30 minutes or an hour. I then decided I wanted to make a carrot and lentil soup for dinner and returned to Takaka the town where I’m staying. I entered the grocery store, filled with all sorts of people but I noticed many barefoot dreadlocked backpackers. I guess this area attracts the hippie-like backbacker who is ready for yoga class – it must because next week there is a music, arts, and yoga festival and in the lobby of Annie’s Nirvana Hostel there are at least 4 brochures about different yoga retreats.

Once I stored my food in the hostel, I decided to drive to the beach east of Takaka: Tata Beach. There, the bay water was a bit warmer – I managed to get in up to my knees. The sand had an orange-like tint to it and the grains were very coarse. I rested there for another hour.