A quick update from our trip. We have left the South Island and are currently on the North Island. In our last days on the South Island we wanted a little bit of a summer beach holiday. We were debating if we would visit the Tasman Park or the Golden Bay.
The Tasman park apparently is very beautiful, but not as easy to explore with young kids. You would need to take water taxi’s and do some serious walking. So we opted to explore the Golden Bay. An area that is popular with locals who spent their summer holidays here and in December and January the beaches and camps are packed. But we travel in the off-season and we had the place almost to ourself. The weather was still warm, so we had great fun playing on the beaches and in the sea.
From there we travelled to Picton where we stayed the last two days of the South Island. En route to Picton we made a quick stop in Nelson to enjoy fine dining that Nelson is famous for. We found an excellent vegetarian restaurant that made great meals and could cater for all dietary wishes.
The ferry crossing to the North Island leaves from Picton and it is also a nice place close to the wine region of New Zealand and filled with viewpoints over the Queen Charlotte sound. Also just sitting on the quay side and watching the boats go by was fun. We crossed the Cook Strait on the same day that the tropical storm Pam hit New Zealand, so we were expecting a rough crossing, but luckily the storm was still in Northern North Island and we had an easy sail to Wellington.