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.