roadtrippin

sadly, my adventures in murchison have come to an end and i am now starting a new adventure, by myself. Right, you say, what is she doing now?
well let me tell you! I have rented a car in Nelson (which was cheaper then taking the bus) since i have sold my car (mary) for a ridiculous cheap price, and am currently roadtripping round the south island. I have made no plans what so ever, except for a few people i'm meeting on the way and i am loving it!
saying goodbye to Murch was sad, and as i hate goodbyes, i am pretending i'll see them all again. and you never know, i might see them all again!! The world is not as big as it might seem. yes i know, wise words of the day..
so your probably itching in your seat, wondering what i have done so far, to you i say: WAIT YOUR PATIENCE!

My journey started to nelson at 6.30 tuesday morning where i picked up my lovely white nissan rental car. She is a beauty, and i must say, i would never rent such a flash car to someone like me! it even has manual gearing (which i love), so i am glad to announce that the car and i get along very happily together. We drove off to the wonderful town of Takaka, which is over a very big hill that takes about 30 min to drive to the top of. At the top of these hills there is lots of caves, and i got a guided tour through one of the oldest caves. Its about 3km long and a constant 11 degrees year round and pitch black. They have found lots of bones from the Moa (a very big bird that almost looks like "big bird" on sesame street, and now is extinct) and let me tell you something interesting about the Moa, it had first of all no wings at all and second it ate stones (called gizzard stones) to crush its food in its stomach do to the lack of teeth.
after this interesting tour i kept going to Takaka, which is an awesome hippy-town. Full of organic stores and cafes and lots of atristian clothing stores. There is lots going on in this town at all times, most of it has something to do with art, as a lot of people that live in this area are artists. I stayed here for a while, had some lunch, before leaving towards Collingwood. Collingwood is even smaller than murch, and has nothing but a postshop and a foodstore/ bakery. It does however have a chocolate store, where they only make home made chocolates and everything is like it was back in the 1800's, even the person behind the counter is dressed in old clothes. And oh lordy, they had good chocolate!!!
After eating my chocolate, there wasn't a hole lot to do in collingwood, and so i got back in the car and drove to farewell spit. It is the most northern point of the south island and plays a very big part in the migration of birds and so has a very big wildlife, it is also very common to have whales strand there because of the 27 km long beachline. I went for a two hour walk along the beach, watching the tide go out and the sun set. It is an absolutely beautiful place!
By the time i got back it was dark and so i camped up my car for the night. I must admit the back seat is not that spacious.But it was still a good sleep.

Wednesday morning i woke up to sunshine and the beach. Went for a quick run on the beach before driving back up to the farewell spit lookout for a spectacular view in the early morning. The ocean is a clear blue as far as the eye can see.
I decided to say goodbye to the northern part of the south island and start making my way down. I went to Waikorupupu springs, which is the worlds clearest natural freshwater spring. The only water that is clearer in the world is under the antarctic glaciers. You can see straight to the bottom of the springs everywhere and it looks like blue lagoons, just really pretty.
I also decided to go salmon fishing, yes i miss real fish too much and the urge got the best of me. There is a salmon farm a little ways after Takaka, and they put their "home-grown salmon" in a "home-made-river" for people to fish. You don't pay anything for the fishing, only the fish you catch. I know its quite the scam and wont taste as good as fresh salmon at home, but honestly where in the world does fish taste that good??? i just need fish in my belly!!!
I fished for an hour in the sun, and ended up catching myself a nice 1.1 kg salmon. They filleted it for me for free as well, nice! By the late afternoon i had arrived in Motueka and spent a lot of time finding a good place for the night that was next to the beach. I finally found the place, and spent most of the evening reading and cooking myself a lovely piece of salmon for dinner. It was not as good as the wild salmon, but man it was delicious!!!
I fell asleep with a smile on my face and a full belly. And yes I have figured out my sleeping arrangements, the front seat of the car is much more comfy!!

what will happen next? i don't know! exciting!