Pupu Springs & Wharariki Beach

Back in February, I was lucky enough to have two good friends from home visit me. First came Katie. It was so nice to have a friend come in and visit me at the cafe, and I was glad to prove to my co-workers that I really did have friends!!! For the first few days of Katie's visit, she got into the slow groove of Richmond life, and had plenty of time to sleep off her jet lag. We spent evenings riding bikes, getting junk food from the corner store, just like when we were little kids, and staying up way too late watching chick flicks. I thoroughly enjoyed this laid back girl time, and David was probably happy to be off the hook to be my fill-in girlfriend, haha! As much as we enjoyed vegging out and pigging out, my time off work couldn't come soon enough, and we didn't waste any time getting out of Richmond to do some exploring.

First, Katie, David and I went to Golden Bay, where we stayed in a little cabin on the beach. It was raining the day we got there, but luckily we had quite a bit of nice sunny weather over the next few days. One of our first stops was Pupu Springs, which boasts some of the clearest water anywhere in the world. The vents at the bottom of the springs produce thousands of litres of water per second, which looks like water coming to a boil at the surface. The springs are spiritually significant to the Maori people, and it really is a breathtakingly beautiful place.

Our second stop, and the main reason for our road trip, was Wharariki Beach. To get there, you have to hike through sheep paddocks on rolling hills, which I loved, and had I not been prodded to keep moving, would have happily spent half the day making friends with the sheep! I was glad I followed the group though, once I saw the massive sand dunes that led to the gorgeous sandy beach and amazing rock formations. We spent a sun-soaked day lounging on the beach and channeling our inner children doing cartwheels, (some better than others) and speeding down the dunes on a plastic disc we found. A pretty steep climb, but so worth it!

 
We explored the rocky caves while the tide came in, which made for an exhilarating game of ducking and running to avoid the sometimes massive waves, being careful not to get trapped if the water got too high. In the open sandy areas, I was mesmerized as the waves rolled in, bubbly and sparkling in the sun, washing over our feet and swirling all around us. Magical!

Just in case we needed more beach time, we stopped off at the Abel Tasman track, and hiked to Apple Tree Bay on the way home, where we sunbathed and had a picnic lunch. :)

Apple Tree Bay