Anatoki salmon and Wharariki beach (Day 4)

For the first day of 2015 we decided to try our hand at salmon fishing at the Anatoki Salmon farm.

They offer you the use of free fishing equipment and in return you pay for any fish you catch. I was looking forward to fresh smoked salmon for our New Years Day picnic so we got up early and headed out to the salmon farm.

After almost 3 hours and no such luck as even a decent bite we decided to call it a day and left disgruntled but with some salmon we purchased from their cafe. Oh well! that's fishing for you! We did have lots of fun though and that place was absolutely stunning!

After I got over my fishing disappointment we headed out to Wharaiki beach, one of my good friends had told me about how beautiful this place was and I thought it would be the perfect spot for a New Years day picnic. 

It was a good drive west of Golden Bay past the Farewell Spit. Pretty soon after that the road turned into gravel and man! was it dusty and busy!  There were people everywhere! We parked but then discovered you had to walk for 25 mins to get to the beach. I soon realised carrying our picnic lunch in a chilly bin was not the wisest move, oh well!

Even though the track was pretty busy it was great because the scenery was awesome and the weather perfect! in fact there was not a cloud in the sky and it was so hot I could feel my sunblock melting. There was also the occasional cow or sheep lurking on the track which made for an even more interesting walk and I can honestly say I've never walked to so long to reach a beach before. Something about the anticipation along the way made the walk even more exciting! Every corner we rounded I expected to get a little peak of the water but no such luck and then after a good 15 mins or so we reach this little estuary bit and I could see the sand dunes.

Hooray! we made it and what a beach it was! I can see why it was so popular. HUGE sand dunes which provided sand surfing for some and running races for others. There were giant rock formations, fur seals, lots of sea caves and a rugged untouched beauty thats hard to beat really.

We spent a while exploring the beach and then found a picnic spot to rest and enjoy our salmon and fresh fruit. There was a few seals close by to us and every so often you'd hear one yawn or roll around which made for an interesting lunch eating experience.

Then it was time to venture back home, we stopped to look in the sea caves which made our voices echo and James took some arty sand dune pictures.

We called into a cute little cafe called "The Archway" on the way back where they had a fairy garden that was beyond adorable! I took tonnes of photos and sipped my coffee under a huge sweetly scented pine tree which was heavenly. To top things off they placed a little heart on my takeaway cup!

Home to our cottage for dinner and a pretty pink sunset, what a great start to 2015!

Golden Bay New Years Eve (Day 3)

The next morning we woke up to torrential rain and when I say torrential I mean the biggest downpour of huge raindrops I think I've ever experienced. It rained like this for the whole day not even easing off for a few moments, nope it was never ending or so it seemed.

After eating our breakfast and thinking "It'll probably ease off soon" we realised at 11 am it really wasn't showing any signs of stopping so we needed to either stay home or brave it.

I really wanted to go to this little cafe I'd seen advertised on the road. It was called "Wild Earth bush cafe" so we pulled on our raincoats and headed off into the rain.

After a slightly scary drive out to the cafe in the furious rain and wind we finally arrived.

This place was every bit worth the wet trek down a winding path into the bush. It was probably one of the best cafes I've been too (and anyone who knows me knows that a big call!)

Not only was the food and coffee delicious but it was presented in such a unique and beautiful way (with little daisys and leaves on top!) All of their cabinets were brimming with tasty healthy treats like wholemeal blueberry and chocolate muffins and gluten free organic chocolate brownie, yum!

We sipped our coffees and shared our treats with the company of the cafe's big brown Labrador and then retreated back into the warmth of our little cottage until 6pm.

Then it was time to hunt out some dinner. The rain had finally eased a bit and we celebrated the end of 2014 with a big pile of bbq ribs and some local beers from a nearby pub.

Golden Bay gets the big tick! Day 1 & 2

I thought it was about time I made a post on this blog and what better place to start then our holiday just gone.

For New Years 2014 we decided to rent a little Eco Cottage out in the bush. The cottage was in a tiny place called Onekaka, just out of Takaka in Golden Bay.

Nether of us had been to Golden Bay before but I'd heard it was a place of natural beauty, golden sand and just general tranquility. These words definitely rang true along with peaceful, breath taking and uninterrupted bird song (my kind of heaven really).

We decided to stay in an Eco cottage for 2 reasons 1) it was cute and a bit quirky and 2) I wanted to see if we could live without the distractions of technology for a week and just chill out.

I think this goal was really smashed out of the ball park! We had no TV, no oven, no inside bathroom or shower and a grand total of three lights in the house (one which was in the outside composting toilet).

The cottage was basic to say the least but beautifully simplistic. It had all the essential things you needed and such a pretty bush outlook that you didn't need much else.  The toilet was definitely an experience but one that was surprisingly awesome!   I'm actually seriously considering getting one when we buy a house although emptying it would probably be another story...

We spent most of our time just finding interesting places to stop and tinker around at. James also did a lot of barbecuing and I had a lot of outdoor baths- so good!

Our first day we spent exploring the area around our cottage. We drove out to this beautiful beach called Tata Beach which had that famous Golden sand...

We also explored the Pupu Springs which had a pretty fascinating history and I geek-ed out reading about the Maori mythology and customs they are so widely known for. I actually still can't believe people used to swim in them up until 2012! or that they are the 2nd most purest water on earth as well as a deeply spiritual place to Maori.

One of our highlights of our trip was going on a completely random but incredible bush walk up to Wainui Falls. When lying in bed one night James found a pamphlet advertising cool stuff to do in the area and we happened to read about this falls walk. So the next day we set out to find it and man! It was incredible! I've done my fair share of New Zealand bush walks but this topped them all.

There was something about this steep climb through an abundance of lush NZ bush and wild flowers that made this walk magical!

The track started off slowly, winding around to meet a stream with giant boulder rocks scattered throughout. Then before we knew it we we scampering up a steep track like mountain goats. It was New Years Eve day and the track was busy too, so this made the trip up even more challenging as you would meet groups coming down frequently.

The rocks seemed to be getting bigger and the hill steeper and I started to realise this was no ordinary 'bush walk' this was a crazy bush track for people who were training for Crossfit (or so it felt).

There really was not much to the track at points and I'm pretty uncoordinated so it was a bit of a balancing act at times. but after about 30 plus minutes and a lot of washouts in the track we got to this long and rather frighting swing bridge.

This was the point where I looked at James and said "Seriously?!" There on a rusty old sign I read "Max one person" and thats when I relaised I'd come all this way and now the waterfall was danging a carrot in front of my face saying "Hey, just a little bit further, over this crazy old bridge" So I swallowed my fear and did it anyway.  Plus, it helped that a really big guy went in front of me and I figured if it was going to break surely would have been then... right? So off I went, Ek! and finally after a little more hill climbing we got to see this.

The waterfall was so powerful you could feel the spray on your face from about 25 metres away and that was a pretty cool feeling! Then it was time to trek back to the car.

We rewarded ourselves with a glass of Pinot on the deck and a well deserved rest.

Hello World!

I have decided to create a new blog that is very different to my baking blog Eatbakelove. I wanted a place to share our travel stories, aspirations, recommendations and experiences. It’s somewhere for our friends and family to check out our photos, comment on what we have been up to and see where we are planning on travelling to next.

We have only just started traveling but we want to tick heaps more places off our travel bucket list (both at home and abroad).

In the a few years time I hope this blog will be brimming with beautiful photos, delectable foods and lots of cool experiences we have shared online.

Watch this space friends!

SR & Jimmy