We finished up in town and headed up north to see the Golden Bay. It was a spectacular drive through some small mountain range filled with green hillsides. Once we reached the beach we took sometime to relax and lay on the beach and explored down the beach side. We found Tata beach and houng out there.
We left the beach to take a quick walk to the golden bay look out. The look out itself was alright but the cool site was the short trail. It lead us through two giant rock walls with vines growing on the sides. Kind of Indiana Jonesish…
We then went off to our final destination of the Golden Bay, the Rawhiti Cave. The cave is the widest cave entrance in New Zealand. The hike up wasn’t long only about 2 miles one way but the last mile we climbed about 850 vertical feet. It was well worth the effort. The cave was awesome and had huge stalactites growing across the entire top of the entryway.
The rest of the day we drove to our next campsite at Lake Rotuiti at the Nelson National Lakes Park. It took a few hours and arrived late but we were able to create a spot for our tent and get some sleep. The best part of the night was the clear view of the starry sky.
Oooo...you guys are in an LOTR area. They filmed two scenes in that area (Mt. Owen/Golden Bay/Nelson): 1) The scene in Fellowship where the crows come to spy on the group in the low, rocky mountains, and 2) the Dimrill Dale scenes in Return of the King where all the Riders of Rohan are "mustered" before going to the final battle in Gondor. In fact, the two giant rock walls look a lot like the entrance that Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli take into the Paths of the Dead. Okay...enough of the LOTR nerdiness. Love you guys! (Way jealous too...)
ReplyDeleteThanks for responding Ry! Makes us feel like someone is actually reading these!
ReplyDeleteWow, ok, slow mom finally figured out how to post. Love these pictures and Marian, not to worry, I check at a least once a day:) You are missed and we do love the updates. Great pictures of the two of you! We love you and miss you!
ReplyDeleteWho is the HOT white lightning waking up from his sleep?
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd seen some impressive stalactites before, but man, as I scrolled down and could get the perspective when I saw May's back...YIKES! Those things are huge.
ReplyDelete