New Zealand part V

The road trip through the South Island has begun. A new tattoo or I should say the extension of my Ta Moko was going to be the first task. Of course I went surfing Kaikoura for the last time in a long while before getting inked and leave NZ. Unfortunately Alysha was still in the hospital with her newborn, so we didn't meet sadly.

Going through Blenheim the Abel Tasman Nationalpark was next and I did the same track than 10 years ago with "the lung" Frank. He's taking good care of his grown family so can't join me anymore on those adventures. The track was alright, but mostly long and boring since I've seen it and every turn looked quite the same.

Greymouth and the upper West Coast greeted me with awesome swell and  offshore winds daring me to jump in with my still sore new tattoo. And by the way this time the needle was really hurting. So obviously I didn't surf Greymouth rather than had a full day of rain ahead while driving thought the breathtaking Arthur's Pass.

The weather on the other side wasn't yet good enough to be hike, but the lake I stayed was nice and right infront of Castle Hill which was a must do.

Finally on my forth trip I had a stopover at Mt. Sunday better known as Edoras of Rohan. A valley deep in the Southern Alps in the middle of truely nowhere.

So the following days had an amazing start, a nice and quiet smiling Lake Tekapo and a majestic Aoraki/Mt. Cook finished off by the golden and one of my favourite Lindi's Pass. Bought heaps of honey in the way. But see for yourself about Lake Tekapo:

And obviously and not to be missed the Hooker Valley and Mt Cook. I went to Mueller Hut 800m almost straight up for a stunning view over all the valleys and all the glaciers.