3-4 hours southwest of Nelson lies Punakaiki, a tourist village dedicated to the pancake rocks, as well as some surfing beaches during summer. We are staying at an incredibely nice hostel just on the beach, but this time, contrary to Mexico, the temperature was comfortable to sleep with windows closed and even a soft duvet on! The place, run by some germans, is all new with a well equipped kitchen and benches on the terrace. We leave our stuff in the room and head immediately to the rocks which lie a mere 400 meters stroll away. This stretch of the west coast is indeed pretty amazing. The rocks are steep and the waves incredibly loud and powerful. The view from the top of the road is stunning.
Without much trouble we arrive in Nelson and as we get our bags from the bus we hear with a marked French accent “are you Lara?”, and yes, sure I was and the girl looking for us was from the Palace backpackers, coming to pick us up with a minivan from the 60s’. It was a nice surprise! Nelson is on the coast, with a nice little harbour, and surrounded by mountains. From downtown it is possible to start hikes of different lenghts, or go by bus to the Abel Tasman National Park for longer walks on the coastal trails there. That would have required some planning and booking ahead of time, in particular you need to arrange your walks according to the tides, because some parts of the path are accessible only during low tide. As the longest we manage to arrange is 1 or 2 days ahead, we are definitely putting the Tasman park in the “next time” list and stick to more “the sun is shining, let’s go up there now!” plans.
Our last stop on the north island is New Zealand’s capital Wellington. Since we haven’t updated our brains quickly enough we once again end up a bit outside town, but luckily Wellington is not so big, they indeed call it “the cutest little capital”. We are just a botanic garden away from the center, but still on top of he hill, so to get to downtown is not really a problem as much as getting back to the room!