Eh Up Downunder: Travelling NZ

We leave Napier early as it's a 4 hour drive to Wellington.

A random wee stop off where there is a museum where Andy had to take a photo of jack.

Then it starts pissing it down...

But looky!

Double rainbow :)

A sign we passed on route in Palmerston North of a Tui Brewery.

We made it! Wellington is pretty pretty.

Lunch by the sea.

Jack and Andy fed the birds...

...and then more came...as usual.

Jack and pube beard.

Mount Victoria lookout.

I love this picture...

Our home for the evening...all 3 of us shared a room hahha.

They had a fluffy!!! Really fluffy!

The museum of New Zealand. This was awesome and also free!

There was a massive section on the Gallipoli war and it was really interesting. These statues/pieces of art were amazing I had to take pictures. Their about 4 times as big as us and the detail is incredible.

You can kind of see the size here compared to the person at the entrance.

A fancy cannon.

Panoramic view at the top of the museum.

Out on the town.

People dancing salsa.

Andy looking fly in a vintage shop. It was starting to get quite cold and we knew it would get even colder as soon as we hit the South Island...so me and jack got a big coat for €20 each. We basically wear them all the time. Andy didn't buy this goggle-hat contraption unfortunately.

Happy hour at bad grannies pub.

Again, we went for the cheaper option of takeaway style food. Thai this time...yum.

Next morning we had a very early ferry trip over to the South Island via the cook straight. The cook straight connects the Tasman Sea and the South Pacific Ocean which means when you reach it the waves are pretty insane...I did not like that trip.

Andy taking pictures of machinery while we wait to board. They actually look pretty cool...even if it is a weird hobby.

Now, I stood outside most of the time (about 3 hours) because it was the only way for me to feel better! But it was bloody cold. However the views when we got closer to the South Island made everything better. Sorry for the amount of pictures here, but I couldn't choose.

Coming into Picton.

We arrived into Picton and started our drive to Golden Bay. We must have stopped at least 20 times on this drive just because of how bloody gorgeous the scenery was. I can't quite explain it and the pictures definitely don't do it justice but my god the South Island scenery is incredible.

We chose to add an extra hour or so to our journey by driving along the coast. By doing so it probably added an extra 2 hours the amount of times we stopped.

Lunch with a view.

The scenery and the sun made us a bit excited.

A place called Linkwater.

Cutie.

Starfish!

Another stop off...a viewpoint near Riwaka.

Great view but couldn't seem to get a good picture!

SNOWY MOUNTAINS...our first sightings. So weird for it to be hot and so so green everywhere and then snowy mountains start appearing.

We made it to our Airbnb in Takaka. This was an awesome little house. We had it all to ourselves and there was a big wood burner. We ate dinner and chilled for the evening...it had pretty much been a 10 hour day of travelling.

Next day we explored golden bay. This is Collingwood beach.

On our travels, we saw a sign for Te Waikoropupu Springs...on Pupu Springs Road..haha. These springs "are the largest freshwater springs in New Zealand, the largest cold water springs in the Southern Hemisphere and contain some of the clearest water ever measured".

You used to be able to swim here, but out of respect no contact whatsoever is allowed with the water. This is a very treasured place to the local Maori held with high spiritual and cultural regard.

Look how clear this is...we all really wanted to go for a swim.

Tata beach lookout.

These Takahe birds are everywhere.

Jack found this place where you could fish for salmon then get it cooked. Anataki Salmon fishing. Jack and Andy hadn't had a chance to fish yet so they jumped on this...even if it was a farm and very easy to catch one. Andy said it didn't count.