Over New Years (how was that 8 months ago now!) we headed away in the caravan. My brother lives in Wellington and it was his turn to host Christmas. We decided to take the caravan up that way, park it up then ferry across, and on the way back pick up the caravan and carry on our holiday. As a plan I think it worked pretty well! I hadn’t spent a lot of time in Golden bay and was keen to explore the area more, and of course take photos of it! Buckle up, there are a HEAP of photos here!

On the way up we spent a night in Kaikoura. One, because its a fantastic place to explore, and two, it breaks up the trip to Picton and meant that it wasn’t such a rush to get on the road to get to our ferry. I love Kaikoura! Something super cool about it and I’d definitely like to spend more time exploring there in the future.

The ferry trip across was pretty uneventful. We got picked up from the ferry terminal and taken to my best friends house in Island Bay, who conveniently was in Christchurch for her Christmas, so we stayed there for about 5 days and we’re able to use her car during that time too. The second half of our stay up there was at my sister in laws parents up in Raumati who we have totally adopted as grandparents for Benny. We did some playground time, the zoo, the museum, the marine education centre, some walks, and of course Christmas celebrations. Unfortunately Dave cought COVID while we were there (possibly from the museum or zoo) and he was pretty miserable a few of the days. We ended up leaving a day early as the ferry crossing on the day we were supposed to go was forecast to be pretty nasty, but the day before was calm, and while I hated to cut our time there short, in the end I was so glad we did leave early. At least one of the ferry crossings was cancelled and sounds like it wouldn’t have been a fun journey for when we were supposed to go! Instead we spent the night in our caravan where we had parked it up and that extra time in our schedule was so much nicer to be able to stock up on groceries and everything else before we headed away for our camping holiday.

Then the camping part of our holiday began. Growing up there were a group of people who regularly went camping at Momorangi bay, and I have to admit, that is probably why I wanted to head there for part of it. It is a beautiful spot, the DOC campsite was fantastic, but there were a lot of boats there and definitely seemed kitted out to people going there for a boating holiday. We still had fun though. One night while we were there Benny had some breathing issues. It got pretty scary, and with limited cell phone reception and feeling like we were in the middle of nowhere I tried to use what I had. I sat behind him, laying him back on me, I prayed, and I did some body code energy clearing. Thankfully with those things his symptoms started to get better rather than worse, and eventually his breathing got better enough that he was sleeping calmly and I was able to get back to sleep too. The following day we were leaving so we towed the caravan out to a point where we could easily pick is up again and headed back to the drop in clinic at Blenheim hospital. The doctor said it was probably croup and gave him some steroids. He’s had it a couple of times since but thankfully never as bad or scary as this first time.

After we finished up there (and popped into the supermarket for more supplies) we headed through to Pelorous Bridge, picking up the caravan on the way. This is an incredible spot I had only really briefly passed through before, occasionally stopping for a swim in the river, and it was so good to spend a bit more time there. We stayed at the DOC campsite there, and it was definitely a step down from the Momorangi Bay campsite but it had all you needed for basic camping. We did some walks, swam in the river, and generally chilled out. In case anyone is interested, the talk during the walks was all about Zelda and Link and the Zelda games.

From there we did a fairly decent driving day, heading through to Collingwood. We stayed by the water, and I was hoping for some swimming and beach time but it didnt seem much that sort of beach or weather, so instead we explored further afield. One really cool spot we got to was Staffords cave and Ballroom cave by Aorere Goldfields. The walk there was pretty boring in parts, but other parts were beautiful, and Staffords cave was fantastic! We had to climb down a pretty steep stack of rocks to get in the cave, but once we were in there, there were stalactites and stalagmites, as well as glowworms. It was really cool! A little further up the track was the ballroom cave. Much easier to get into but not as interesting inside.

After Collingwood we went to Wharariki Beach. I had seen loads of pictures on social media and even the home screen of the computers at work featured this area. We ended up spending three nights there. There wasn’t really that much to do there but I wanted to try to get a sunset shot of the arch. The first night there was some sunset lighting but the next two nights it was overcast or raining. We still got some playtime and exploring time in though thankfully! We went to the bottom of farewell spit and explored around Fossil Point. Such beautiful beaches and definitely changeable weather! We got there with waterproof jackets on and while we were there the sun came out and Benny got his wetsuit on.

From Wharariki Beach we headed back to Pohara. We spent four nights here as it seemed this was the area with the most to do. And there definitely was a lot to do! Te Waikoropupu springs, Labyrinth Rocks, The Grove Scenic Reserve (which benny loved so much he wanted to go around three times), Paines Ford, and the Pupu Hydro Walkway Trailhead were all worth checking out! As well as some beach time and time to relax and chill out. Again the weather wasn’t amazing, but it didn’t stop the exploring, we just needed to wear layers. And if you’re interested, the talk on the Pupu hydro Walkway Trailhead was all about Daves toys when he was a kid, including which GI Joes Dave had and the different ones he didn’t have.

On the way home we stopped in Hanmer Springs for a night. Always love it there! There was a lot of driving some of the days, but from the previous trip we learned that only staying one night in a place meant for a very busy time, so I scaled down my initial plans to do this one, spending a couple of nights in each place. This made for a much more relaxed time away, and even when the weather wasn’t great we had some wriggle room and it didn’t really mess up with our plans. In the down time we coloured in, played boardgames, read books, Benny played with Lego and his cars, and generally it was a lovely time.

I feel like i’m getting clearer on what our rich life looks like. Its not fancy hotels (as nice as they are). It’s not flash restaurants (although I do love food). Its exploring this incredible country and getting to hang out as a family. It’s slow starts to the day, plenty of time to relax, and time for play.

What is your rich life? If you’d like some help exploring what that might be, I’d love to help you nut it out. Contact me and lets chat.