We have dear friends that lived in New Zealand for many years, so when they said Wharariki Beach could not be missed, we made a plan to make it happen. It was a 2.5 hr drive from our rental in Nelson, so we decided to have a field trip day and headed out early in the morning on Friday, December 12th. We made it to the parking lot and then took the short walk through the fields to be greeted by white sand dunes contrasted by deep blue skies and turquoise water. It was well worth the drive! We saw seals swimming and sleeping, jumped through the shallow waters and (some of us) practiced leaps and handstands. We spent some time enjoying the beach before we walked back to the car, this time through other sheep fields with incredible views.

From there we drove to Te Waikoropupū Springs, the largest cold water springs in the Southern Hemisphere with some of the clearest water ever measured. It was a short walk through a very beautiful, varied forest with wooden walkways and tree tunnels. Then we came around one last bend and saw the clearest, bluest water ever. It was spectacular!

One afternoon we drove over to Cable Bay for lunch and a quick walk up for some incredible Pepin Island views. I cannot get over the color of the water!

One day, Steffen and I decided we wanted to take a longer hike through Abel Tasman National Park, and gave the girls the option of joining or staying at the house to relax, bake, watch movies, etc. Charlotte chose to join us while the others stayed home, and we are so glad she came! The hike was about 12 miles one way (including a detour to Cleopatra’s pool) from Mārahau to Anchorage, where we took a water taxi back to Mārahau, where our car was. The trail was easy to follow and well-maintained, the views were incredible and it felt so good to get out in nature and move. One of my favorite days in New Zealand so far!

Another day we headed to Kaiteriteri for a short (beautiful!) walk from Stephen’s Bay to Little Kaiteriteri beach where we relaxed and some of us went on a little adventure walk. I had read that there are little blue penguins that live there. Once we arrived, we realized that they are out swimming/eating in the ocean during the day and can only be viewed at dawn or dusk. So after we had our fill of beach time, we headed back to our house to relax for a while before then heading to the beach again as dusk settled. Sadly, we didn’t see any penguins but we enjoyed a quiet, calm, beautiful evening at the beach with so many beautiful stars in the sky and time together.

Note: These photos are from over 2 weeks ago. We have been staying at a sheep farm between Christchurch and Kaikoura, on the east coast of New Zealand since December 20th. The farm is amazing on many levels, but unfortunately (and also fortunately), the cell service and wifi are unpredictable and slow. So it has taken me forever to upload all these photos! I think I won’t try to post again until we are at our next location (first week of January) and will just embrace the offline life. 🙂 Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!