Golden Bay

We logged a lot of distance in our rental car over 48 hours!

After arriving in Motueka on Sunday night, we spent Monday exploring Golden Bay. We drove the stomach-churning switchbacks out to Takaka, then continued to the northern tip of the South Island.

Along the way we stopped at:
- some lookouts on Takaka Hill

- Pupu Hydro Powerhouse, which is a hydro station that fell into disrepair in the 70s but was restored by the community
- Te Waikoropupu Springs

- Wharariki Beach, which involved walking through some farmland before arriving at the stunning beach (with seal pups!)

- Farewell Spit, though the beach was closed due to a recent mass whale stranding

We tried to fill up on gas in Collingwood on the way back, but the credit card machine at their single gas station wouldn't read any of our cards and the station was no longer staffed, so we had to continue onwards. We made it to Takaka with the fuel light on and the dashboard showing 24km to empty, which is a little closer than we wanted to cut it! Thankfully their gas station was able to read Neil's chip-and-pin card (it was ~8pm so none of the stations were staffed). We ate a delicious dinner at the ominously named Dangerous Kitchen (but it was great! no danger at all!) and decided we didn't want to drive another hour back to Motueka. At the recommendation of our waitress, we checked in at the bar of the local hotel - which was hosting pool night for the locals - and were surprised to discover that a) they had availability for the night and b) it was very reasonably priced. The hotel dates back to the early 1900s and looks like it hasn't been updated in the last 30 or so years, but it did the trick and we were very pleased. And the cafe served up a mean coffee in the morning!!

Today we checked in early to our campsite and dropped off all of our stuff, returned the rental car and spent the day casually roaming around Nelson and planning the next few days on the Great Taste Trail