We spent four days just outside of the township of Haast at the Haast Beach Motel. We had our own little apartment and we stocked up on food ahead of time, which was good because there was only one small grocery store and a couple of restaurants in town. On Sunday we drove towards Jackson Bay, about 40 minutes south of Haast Beach. We stopped at a beach where the hotel owner had said you can often spot Hector’s dolphins from the shore. And he was right! We saw a ton of them swimming back and forth, quite close up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any photos of them because of the angle, but it was very cool! Such magical, peaceful creatures to watch.

From there we drove to Jackson Bay where we ate lunch at the little food truck there and then took a walk through the forest to a beach. The beach was beautiful but the sandflies were not! Sandflies are a huge problem in the West Coast of New Zealand and it really sucks. They are super small and you don’t necessarily feel them biting you, but the next day you have super itchy bites all over your body. We bought bug repellent that seemed to have no effect on them at all. That was a big bummer during our stay in Haast and definitely hindered our desire to explore the area.

We wanted to do one more walk, to Lake Ellery. It was pretty much the same story–beautiful walk through the forest, gorgeous view of the water and then the attack of the sandflies. Hannah was wearing sandals and came home with 20 bites on one foot and 15 on the other! She said they were the most painful bug bites she’d ever had and couldn’t sleep for three nights. Nothing helped!

An on our drive back to the motel…

The next day, it was time to start school again. A two-week holiday can just fly by when you’re relaxing and swimming with dolphins and seeing some of the most beautiful scenery! 🙂 Our mornings were once again spent working, leaving just our afternoons free for exploration. But it also means everyone is a bit sluggish in the afternoons and not always eager for a big exploration, so one afternoon we set out at dusk in search of penguins at Monro Beach (no such luck but we did find a million sandflies again) and the other afternoon was spent relaxing at our place.