The Storm that Never Came

We were warned about a big rain storm coming in overnight so we were wary about hiking in Abel Tasman today. Waking up early to check the weather, dark clouds loomed just off shore so we decided to go back to bed and sleep in.

For some reason, for lunch I only had two kiwis, a chocolate chip muffin and chocolate ice cream cone. I paid for this in a headache in the afternoon until I ate some chips in the car.

On the recommendation of our host we drove north to check out the biggest and clearest fresh water springs on the continent, Pupu springs.

It was a bit of a long drive out there for a half hour walk, but it was interesting to see the thousands of liters of crystal clear water well up from a couple of springs in a lake. Unfortunately, the wind had picked up rippling the lake and obscuring the clarity and colors beneath. Some of this water had been underground for 2-10 years and the clearest next to a springs found in Antarctica.

Along the way, we made a side trip to Harwood hole, and sink hole almost 200 meters deep. I was seriously thinking about turning around because the gravel road was so rough, narrow and windy, but we eventually made it. The walk turned out to be great starting off with Lord of the Rings like dense silverwood trees giving way to acid rain carved marble rocks that gave the trail a bit of a challenge. Eventually, the path opened up to this huge drop into the abyss.

While driving, Shannon and I decided to start focusing on doing things here in New Zealand that isn't available in Canada. The countries are just too similar with tons of nice hikes and walks that you just can't do them all. Also, because it is difficult to do some things without a guide, it starts eating away at the bank account.

Even if we were to rent kayaks at Abel Tasman, we would have saved maybe $20, so we decided to do the guided tour. But maybe because of the season, mediocre weather and lack of wildlife, it definitely wasn't worth $320.

We looked at our calendar, read through the rest of the AA driving guides and figured we can cut some time out of NZ and consider possibly going to the Philippines for a couple weeks instead.

For those interested in budgeting, our expenses in CAD not including flights in each country so far is

Los Angeles: $2268 (6 days, $378/d)

French Polynesia: $6336 (14 days, $453/d)

NZ: $4604 (18 days, $256/d)