The Honeymoon

Strictly this isn’t a post about our adventures in Wellington, because Jake and I have just got back from a few days in the Marlborough Sounds – which isn’t even on the same island as Wellington (it’s on the South Island) – but we are going to include it on our blog anyway.

Thanks to Jenny, who looked after Molly and Alfie for a few nights back home, we managed an actual honeymoon! Where we did grown up things.

For example, we ate a very nice dinner in a very nice restaurant each night. We drank wine in the middle of the day. We read books for hours on end . We slept in until 9.30am! (This was a majorly big deal!). And we did lots of outdoorsy stuff, which did not include going to playparks and collecting bucketfuls of shells and insects, but real outdoorsy stuff, the sort of things we used to do all the time pre-kids.

Our trip began with a journey on the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton, from where we took a truly awesome little float plane ride to our hotel in the Sounds. Just magic. I love that kind of stuff.  

On hearing that they had one of NZ’s best massage therapists at the hotel, we both opted for a one hour massage straight away. Over the years we’ve both had a wide range of different massages, but this one was quite something else! I felt beaten up and drugged by the end, and Jake walked back to the room after his, wide eyed, hair sticking up everywhere! Still, we think (?) it did us good....

I am never ever ever again supposed to mention the fateful fishing trip that evening (sorry Jake), so I will move on....

On the second day we walked a section of the Queen CharlotteTrack – something I’ve wanted to do since my Bridge the World days (so I’ve only waited 14 years!).

The water taxi ride to the start of the track was very cool, and the whole walk was simply amazing, just beautiful. We did a 4 hour section, but we’ll be back one day to do the whole 71 kms.

And we finished off with a very nice kayaking trip around the bays on the last day. It’s a stunning part of the world. So quiet and peaceful. Until Jake thought a shark had knocked into the kayak and completely freaked out (it was just me moving my foot an inch to the right). Anyway, we carried on into little bays and coves and watched little jumping fish everywhere. Very nice.

Marlborough Sounds – we will be back! With the kids (because we did miss them) and so we will be exploring the playparks and bringing buckets and spades with us next time.