Now that we had conquered the North Island we were ready for a new challenge: Hello South Island.
We didn't know what to expect, but after a short domestic flight (Our plane had propellers people! Eek) we set foot on the South Island, in a city called Nelson.
We had already made arrangements to rent a car and the car guy was there with a sign for "Blair S." as we exited the aircraft. Blair. Haha. He obviously hadn't heard Blane right when he was giving him his details over the phone. I wish I had a pic of that sign! Trust me, it happened people.
What I thought was to be a short half hour drive to our destination turned into a two and a half hour trek over the mountains! I don't know if I read the address wrong or what, but when I asked the car rental guy where "Golden Bay" was he looked at me and said, "You've got at least a two hour drive that way!" It was 6pm and we were a little nervous because we definitely did not want to be driving at night on the mountain.
Dusk is a beautiful time of day and we were awed by many a vista as we drove up one side of the mountain and down the other. Poor Blane didn't get to enjoy the view so much because he was focused on all the twists and turns as well as staying on the left side of the road!
At 8pm, we finally made it to the town of Takaka, which was the nearest place to our destination according to our map. Our reservation instructed us to call the innkeepers if we were going to arrive later than 7pm so we promptly called them and they told us that we were close and then asked if we had eaten dinner yet. When we said no, the man instructed us to eat in town before coming and to take our time! They'd be up and waiting when we were done. They were so nice and we hadn't even met them yet :)
A short while later, with full stomachs, we made our way in the dark to our destination: Adrift in Golden Bay. We found this little gem online in one of our numerous New Zealand Google searches, and after reading some reviews, we took a chance and booked directly with them. They are a family-run business and you cannot book them via Expedia. It's owned and run by a charming older couple, Gordon and Bess, and it was ah-ma-zing!
Here is our tub/shower. The cottages had recently been redone and they were all so tastefully finished. It felt like we were living in our own little piece of private paradise.
Our kitchen was filled with everything you'd need to cook a gourmet meal-even little silver canisters of espresso and loose leaf teas.
But the best part was this view right outside our deck. Hello there water :)
I could've gotten used to waking up to this every morning and I loved going to sleep every night to the sound of the waves breaking on the beach. Yes, it was that close.
This place was magical. We knew instantly that our next four days here were going to be wonderful. How good? You'll just have to tune in tomorrow to find out more :)
Morning hamper, on the way!
Aim
P.S. My apologies on the lack of photos in this post. Blogger was acting up and all my uploaded pics did not transfer to the blog when I was writing it =/ I'll try and update it later!
No comments:
Post a Comment