NZ Day 16 - Westport to Nelson

We stayed in Westport the previous night. It wasn't the most picturesque town (though it did have some nice cafes & restaurants) so I didn't take my camera with me on my morning run. We hit the road early & before I had even had time to have a coffee we had hopped out of the van & headed off to check out the Lyell Walkway. We weren't planning to do the whole loop, just up to the Dray Road. But first we reached the creepiest cemetery ever.

It was totally Stephen King.

The forest had taken over most of the graves.

From the cemetery we continued on & the track became quite difficult, climbing & winding & being generally slippery & unsteady underfoot. The bro commented just before we got to the top "this had better be worth it". I'll let you be the judge - here is Dray Road. It's just a sign.

Having almost frozen to death that morning on the Lyell Walkway, it was a strange experience to emerge from the wilderness into the glorious sunshine of Golden Bay. What a truly magnificent place. We had lunch at the Shoreline Cafe in Kaiteriteri. This is the view from our table. We could have been on the north coast of NSW.

Continuing into Golden Bay, we started the original & best long and winding road - 25km of switchbacks, winding road and crazy horseshoe bends over Takaka Hill. Though the driving was difficult, it made for some nice views over the bay.

Shortly after reaching the bottom of the hill is Te Waikoropupu Springs (Pupu Springs for short). These are some special springs. Here are the stats:

• NZs largest freshwater springs (90th in the world)
  
• Reputedly the clearest water in the world
  
• 14,000 litres of water discharged per second
  
• They also have massive spiritual significance to the Maori

The water flows very fast, but you can still see how clear it is.

Here you can just see the small whirlpools being created on the surface from the water surging up from below.

They are a beautiful aquamarine blue colour - it makes you want to dive in for a swim. But that would be silly, because there are signs everywhere telling you not to touch the water or even go near it.

The smaller Fish Springs nearby are equally as clear.

Our final stop for the day was the remote Wharariki Beach. The beach is at the end of a 6km unsealed road, then a 20min walk over private farmland. Right away we stuffed up, taking a wrong turn & missing the short 20min track to the beach & taking the 3km route instead. As it turned out, we would have missed some pretty cool scenery if we had taken the shorter track. Like this lonesome tree.

And this second lonesome tree. Considering that we were perched on the edge of NZ, the wind was predictably crazy. As you can tell by the 2nd lonesome tree almost being blown away.

Finally we reached a sign. It seemed wrong to me that there could be a beach within 5 minutes of this rolling farmland.

But, we climbed the hill, and there it was.

About 10-15mins later (we got a little bit lost again), we reached the wildest beach I had ever seen.

I loved the massive rock formations.

And this massive cave.

And the generally wild feel about the place.

Look, you can tell how much I love it. Right after this photo was taken my hair did a great impression of a mosh pit by flying into my face.

On the walk back I couldn't stop marvelling at the juxtaposition of the tamed farmland with the wild coast.

These sheep have a pretty awesome view.

Although I generally prefer wild environments, manmade ones can be just as nice sometimes.

Sheep!

Look at this little dude. He's all like "who are you?". "What do you want?". "You want to cut my beautiful wool off?". "You want to strip my skin & wear it as a boot?". "You want to eat me?". "WTF?". Then he ran away. I would too, if I knew what humans were thinking about doing to me. That's why I'm vegan.