Ferry to the South Island; St. Arnaud & Nelson Lakes National Park

December 29-January 3

Ferry to South Island

It's a 3 1/2 hour ferry ride, some of it over open ocean, from Wellington on the North Island, to Picton, on the South Island:

Waiting to board the ferry

Wellington Harbour

On ferry near Wellington (Looks like the videos won't play, for some reason. Sorry. I will try to fix them)

On ferry looking back toward Wellington

Just off the ferry in Picton, we saw this homemade RV, named Puff Inn.

Bush Hideaway Bach, St. Arnaud, NZ

One of the lessons we quickly learned as we booked apartments in New Zealand is that really nice, self-contained ones were few and expensive. So we were thrilled to find an entire cottage (or Bach, as New Zealanders call them) for a reasonable price available near a National Park not too far from where the ferry landed at Picton. The Bush Hideaway bach, as it was called, was up on a hill outside a small town called St. Arnaud, itself located on Nelson Lake, in Nelson Lakes National Park.
Explanatory note: The word bach, we think, is derived from 'bachelor', like bachelor pad...at least that's what we were told. It's like a basic cabin out in the boonies. We spent 5 nights there and quite enjoyed it. We loved having a full-sized fridge. Most accommodations have bar fridges, which required us to kneel to use the fridge, a literal pain for Leah, with her bum knee, but this was an entire cabin, fully equipped with everything, including a washer and dryer. The deck had a nice view of the countryside, although it was partially blocked by the abundant greenery. And it was quite isolated and very quiet, just the place to spend New Year's eve.

View from the deck of our Bush Hideaway bach

On the deck, apres shower

Coffee on a rainy morning

Leah's knee didn't allow her to hike, but I got to do a 5 mile hike up Mt. Roberts, in Nelson Lakes National Park:

Part way up...

Near the top...

Panorama from near the top...

Video from the top. Nice hike. (Sorry, it looks like this and the other video won't play for reason. Will try to fix.)

Nelson Lake, itself, was quite lovely, and we did some walking around the shore, as well as through a kind of rainforest that led from the town of St. Arnaud to the lake.

At the pier...

Hike partway along the shore...

A kind tourist offered to take our picture.

Rainy (but enjoyable) hike in rainforest near Lake Nelson

Interesting long grass. Such rich texture and colour on an otherwise grey day. I've rarely enjoyed walking in the rain this much.

Here's a photo of a Tui, a small bird that drank the nectar from the flowers that overhung our deck. It sports an interesting iridescent color when the sun hits it directly, and a distinctive white 'ball' on its neck. I spent quite a bit of time watching both the Tuis and the bees that also drank the nectar.

Tui pausing after a drink of nectar

Our checkout day at the Bush Hideaway was now looming, and we began to get excited to move to our next Airbnb, a motorhome in someone's yard near Mapua, NZ, the closest place we could find to Abel Tasman National Park. It is one the premier draws of the South Island. I'll post about that experience next time.