Golden Bay 2014

We hiked to Wharariki Beach, a beautiful hike.  This was the third year that we visited Wharariki.  This year, we were treated to an amazing surprise.  There were twenty very young seal pups who had  found a pool of water on the beach during low tide.  We were mesmerized for 45 minutes watching the pups swim and play.  They played tug-of-war with a string of seaweed and sometimes stopped to climb out of the water to view the audience.

Happy to be hiking to Wharariki Beach 

Seal pups playing with seaweed at Wharariki Beach

"Are you my mother?" checking out B's New Balance.

Pool left at low tide provides hours of play for seal pups

View on return trail from Wharariki Beach

Stone arch islands at Wharariki Beach

First night view from our rental house in East Takaka 

This possum was a daily visitor

Weta in the front garden searching for a place to lay its eggs.

Pied piper John leading the cows to a new paddock.

Night sky in our back yard in East Takaka

The night sky in East Takaka is pretty spectacular.  Alpha and Beta Centauri point to one of the stars of the Southern Cross The Milky Way spans the sky. The Clouds of Magellan which are really far away galaxies can been seen clearly when the moon is near the New Moon phase.  Below you can see the colors of the stars in the Southern Cross.

Alpha and Beta Centauri pointing to the Southern Cross 

Golden Bay has many excellent walks that we repeated from previous years.  Photos of many of these walks are shown on previous Golden Bay postings.

Perfect day on a private beach in Abel Tasman NP

Low tide Wainui Bay 

Amazing veggie burgers at the Fat Tui in Marahau after a walk at the start of Abel Tasman NP

The infamous fat tui

Back to the Langford Store for tea and scones.

Visiting John and Betsy's dairy farm.

 John, the owner of our accommodation, invited us over to see his dairy farm and forestry business.  The best way to see it all was on 4 wheelers, so off we went.  We spent nearly 3 hours bombing around fields as our guide taught us about the various aspects of dairy farming and forestry in New Zealand.  We got an up close and personal experience walking among the cows getting milked.  Genie got a hickey on her thumb from the milking machine.  Too funny.

1/4 million dollar bridge John had to build to
keep the cows out of the river.

Oranges we picked at John's house.

Stopped to play checkers on our walk in Milnthorpe Scenic
 Reserve (one of many interesting sculptures in this scenic
reserve)

The following are a couple examples of the Kiwi sense of humor:

Caption reads "100 years of Global Warming"