More camping

We got back from our holiday in mid-January and to be honest we had to completely drag ourselves back to work - both of us were suffering from serious post-holiday blues!

After a week of work, we still hadn't properly unpacked our bags or put away the tent, so when it got to the weekend we decided to tackle it. It just took us one look at the tent (still laid out in the lounge room) and a split second to make the easy decision between putting it all away or putting it back in the car and shooting off for the weekend!

Kaitoke Regional Park is less than an hour's drive from Wellington. It's only $6 a night to stay there and they don't take bookings because there's always space. So you pop your tent up in the bush or next to the river and just relax. Ahhhhhhh.....bliss.  We were happy again!

The creeks and rivers that go through Kaitoke provides plenty of playing opportunities - for all ages. There are shallow parts, good for paddling, balancing, and moving rocks around....

...and there are also deeper parts with swimming holes and bridges to jump off. It's cold, but who cares on a hot day? (OK, I admit it. I'm the only person in the family who didn't actually swim and only got in up to my knees - it was too cold for me, but then I am known for being a bit of a wuss!)

When we weren't getting wet,  Jake and I got stuck back into our books while Molly and Alfie cycled around for approximately 18 hours every day.

And when they got too hot from biking, there was always a river to wade back into for a while!  

Kaitoke may be a regional park, rather than a commercial campsite, but the facilities there are really good. There are flush toilets, clean tap water, and even a coverd barbeque area with picnic tables. So we ate well! 

After dinner, Molly sat up a tree reading (it was the only place she could get away from Alfie apparently).

But they love each other really! It's quite incredible that this summer they've been with each other almost all day every day and after 5 weeks they're still the best of friends. Awww xxx

Summer Holiday Part 3: Camping in Motueka

After we finished walking the Abel Tasman Track, we headed over to Motueka for a week's camping.  Motueka is the land of sun and fruit orchards....

Our campsite was AMAZING! Just what the doctor ordered after 3 days of walking. We had a nice shady spot with plenty of space to sit outside and read, or play swing tennis....

Plenty of space to play cricket too....

But we didn't just need to make our own games, as the campsite had some excellent facilities. The kids spent one morning cycling all over the place on these excellent fun bikes....

There was also a GREAT swimming pool, complete with water slide and climbing wall...this was very well used during our stay!

Every night, the campsite put on movies for all the kids. It was very strange to have our kids go out in the evenings for a couple of hours - we'd be in our PJ's at 10pm looking at our watches and waiting for them to come home!! ;)

There was also a giant jumping pillow. I love those things. (Jake & I even had a few goes!)

Unfortunately during the week Molly became unwell with a suspected flu or ear infection (or perhaps both?) which wiped her out with a high fever for a few days. All she could do was sleep and read :( 

And read a bit more....(she got through nearly a whole Harry Potter book in 3 days!)

But towards the end of the week she perked up again, and managed to have fun. We went boysenberry picking one day - between us all we picked 1 kg and ate approximately 4 kgs!

 And we went kayaking...where the kids saw a stingray!

We had fresh fruit ice creams from the local orchards...

We all played in the swimming pool some more....and some more.....and some more!

The kids jumped in as many times as they could!

We went to beaches and paddled around - and went swimming in the ocean too.

We read books on the beach (and Jake played with his emails)....

And generally just had a really really lovely time. Happy Holidays everyone!

Summer Holiday Part 2: The Abel Tasman Track

Straight after we left Jenny and Wayne in the Marlborough Sounds, we headed east to do the Abel Tasman Track.

The Abel Tasman is one of New Zealand's nine "Great Walks". It takes 3 to 5 days to walk the length of it, and along the way you can either camp or stay in DOC huts. As Great Walks go, it is relatively easy - the area enjoys some of NZ's best weather conditions (so although we took our wet/cold weather gear with us, we didn't use it). Plus it only elevates to 200-300m (whereas some of the other Great Walks go really high into the mountains) and it takes you mostly along stunning coastline and onto plenty of beaches so it's easy to take a dip in the water to cool off if (or when) you need to.

We cheated a little and took a water taxi in on the first day, so missing out the first 4 hours of the walk (!). The water taxi was great fun, a scenic cruise in itself, and after a bit of a walk and a play on a stunning beach, we arrived at Anchorage Hut, our first stop for the night.

Pretty flashy huh? DOC does such an amazing job of building and maintaining their huts - they're all in very remote locations and it's just brilliant that we get use of them.

That night, while Alfie played soccer with some other kids and Jake & Molly got stuck into their books, I managed an evening stroll along the beach - just stunning....

The Anchorage Hut sleeps 34 people in basic bunk rooms, and on the night we were there there was a big family/friends group of 22 parents and teenagers who were very nice, but stayed up playing noisy games until 10pm.

Consequently we set off on Day 2 for a 17km walk in 30 degree heat with two kids who were already exceedingly tired.

But we managed to persuade them to keep going, mostly by taking regular stops to eat and to dip our toes in the water...

We also stopped at Cleopatras Pool for ages, a gorgeous rock pool where the water was freezing and we didn't care because we were so hot and sweaty!

After 7 hours of walking and stopping and paddling and eating, we FINALLY reached Bark Bay hut, our destination for night 2. Yay!

Bark Bay is an amazing little spot and in hindsight we wished we'd booked 2 nights here. It's set on a beautiful estuary which allowed endless hours of crab and mud-snail hunting, with two rivers that flow into the sea. The freshwater rivers were great for paddling in (we had no worries with salt water stinging Alfie's eczema) - and great for catching more crabs in too!

By the end of our explorations the kids were just about wiped out. A bowl of rice cooked on our little gas stove helped a little bit (the huts have no cooking facilities so you need to carry all your own gear) .

The food gave us just enough energy to manage an evening stroll along the beach before we all collapsed into our bunks for a big sleep. (Some of us slept so heavily that night that we were completely unaware of someone else's child vomiting all night in the bed next to us!)

The next day was our third, and last, day of walking the track. For a track that goes around the coastline instead of high into the mountains, it included a seriously long uphill climb to start the day!

It was also a little scarey in places!

But we made it to Tonga Quarry just in time to eat lunch and have a play on the beach....

 .....and then catch the afternoon water taxi back to Kaiteriteri, all ready for Part 3 of our summer holiday!

We LOVED you, Abel Tasman Track, and we will definitely be back for more one day!

Summer Holiday Part 1: The Marlborough Sounds

Straight after Christmas, we took off on a 2 week holiday to the South Island. I'm having to break up the story into 3 parts because we did so much! ;)

For the first 5 days of the trip we stayed in the Marlborough Sounds, thanks to Jenny who kindly booked us all a bach there. The Sounds are one of my most favourite parts of New Zealand. I haven't been there since my 40th birthday/honeymoon, but as soon as I got back I remembered why I love it so much there.

The trip over on the Interislander ferry was fun! 

The bach was in a great little spot, with its own little pathway leading down to the water and lots of places to explore. The kids loved playing on the swing rope... 

We had a kayak at the bach - just the one! - and it was absolutely the highlight of Alfie's stay. Every day he begged to go out on the kayak. Even at low tide where the water was so shallow the bottom of the kayak scraped along the muddy floor!

We mostly had fantastically sunny weather, but we did have one rainy day. Which led to another highlight, for both Alfie and Molly - when Nana Jenny took them out in the rain on New Year's Eve and they got really really wet and muddy. So muddy Alfie's socks will never recover! But it was worth it - so I'm told! ;)

The rest of the time we pottered around the Marlborough Sounds, exploring the bays and coves and sitting around in the sun. We brought the boogie boards and made use of them - even though there weren't any waves!

Some of us had a few swims - but some of us didn't! ;)

We had ice blocks at dinner time.....

And we pushed Dad off the jetty!

Molly caught her first ever fish ("Mrs Spotty")....We set her free and didn't eat her.

And both children caught plenty of mud crabs...

But mostly it was just a very very relaxing time, with plenty of lazing around, reading and relaxing. Thanks Nana Jenny!!!