Leaving Takaka Wednesday morning, we will head down the West Coast of the South Island. We decided to hold off on the handgliding until closer to Queenstown as it looks like it is more scenic on that part of the island.
Westport is our first stop, where Steve will be able to surf! Below is a picture of the Takaka region from the top of Takaka hill. It is a beautiful little area!
Abel Tasman National Park borders Takaka to the east. It has amazing beaches and beautiful mountains all in one package. There is some major hiking in the area but most of it involves multi-day excursions and we did not bring the kind of gear we would need. Instead we decided to rent kayaks today and paddle the border!
There are a bunch of neat caves near the rock, which we got to explore because of low tide. 
All in all it was a great day and a fabulous end to the Takaka visit.Saturday afternoon it was looking like at any moment torrential rains would come, so we decided to stick close to town. We decided to visit Bencarri Farm, which is like a petting zoo on steroids. Visitors are allowed to go into most of the pens and feed, play with, and sometimes get bitten by the animals. Most of the animals at Bencarri Farms are uncommon in New Zealand, like yaks, llamas, and a Texas Longhorn named "Tex".
The miniature horses, "Peanut" and "Elmo", made us feel like giants. They look and sound pretty cute, but the nasty little suckers bite, as Vicky learned quickly.
"Missy", a one-month-old piglet was scampering all over the farm. When Steve picked her up she squealed like crazy, but liked Vicky a lot more and just sat quietly in her arms.
We really liked this little guy but didn’t catch his name. Calves are the sweetest little things!
The tame Anatoki Eels are probably the biggest attraction at Bencarri Farms. In 1914, a young girl named Maggie McCullough started feeding some eels her scraps. They quickly began to respond to her footsteps when she approached. Maggie would even pick up the eels and play with them. Since then, the eels have been fed daily to keep them tame. When Maggie’s sister, Edna, got too old to feed them herself in 1991, she began inviting tourists to do it for her.
We were not brave enough to pick up any of the eels, but we did feed and pet them. Since eels can live up to 100 years, it’s possible that we encountered some of the original eels that Maggie tamed 90 years ago. They are one of the oldest tourist attractions in New Zealand. Below are some pictures of the eels and us feeding them (and in Vicky’s case jumping back when one got a little too close).
On Friday, after an afternoon thunderstorm subsided, we decided to drive up to the Farewell Spit, a narrow, sandy piece of land that extends from Cape Farewell (the northernmost point on the South Island) 35 km east, separating Golden Bay from the Tasman Sea. Abel Tasman (a Captain in the Dutch East India Company) was the first European to spot the Farewell Spit in 1642 (though he never set foot on it) and Captain Cook named it in 1770. Tasman never set foot on the region because of a nasty encounter with the Maori while his two ships were anchored in Golden Bay. The sailors noticed activity on the beach at night from their ships and were approached by Maori canoes the following day. The Maori attacked a small boat that was providing transportation between the two larger ships and killed four of Tasman’s crew. Tasman pulled out after this event and named the area Murderers’ Bay. This all occurred further in Golden Bay, closer to Abel Tasman National Park. Below is a great view of this area with one two sets of footsteps (we were the only people we saw).
Farewell Spit is one of the country’s most important bird habitats with over 100 species. That’s what we hear anyway; we didn’t see any while we were there. They must still be North for the winter.
The Spit looks really narrow on the map, so we decided to try to cross it. It’s a lot wider in real life. We got stuck wading through this swampy marsh for about an hour.
That gave way to a barren desert.
Luckily, we found our way back to the original beach we started on, as it was getting dark.
We made it back to the car right as it was starting to get really dark… the gods are smiling on us. 
On Thursday we visited a fairly unique spring system just outside of Takaka called "Pupu Springs." Ancient tectonic activity raised two mountainous regions, while lowering the valley in between at the same time. This created an elaborate design in the marble rock of caves, underground rivers, and sinkholes. Chambers deep beneath the ground are flooded but blocked by sandstone above, acting as a ‘cap rock.’ Since erosion has destroyed the top layers of the cap rock, there are points in the Waikoropupu Valley where because of intense pressure a spring system has developed where the water erupts from these areas.
There is not a clear source of water for the springs but is believed to come from the Takaka River. It is thought to be the clearest freshwater spring system in the world and affords 90 meters (300 feet) visibility. This is demonstrated in an elaborate mirror system, which is set up so visitors can view the springs from within, looking down the above ground river channel. This was really difficult to photograph though, so sorry no pictures!
Since we finish work around noon every day we get to spend our afternoons playing. Paynes Ford is the local climbing area and has a great selection of limestone climbing. Here are some climbing photos!
Above and below are great views from some of the climbing... nice!
There is even a place on the way home where you can buy amazing organic salami out of a vending machine! They’ve thought of everything…We spent our mornings this past week performing various tasks around Bay Subtropicals, an organic farm and orchard outside of Takaka.
Last Monday and Tuesday we worked in the hydroponic garden cleaning, planting and harvesting various lettuce varieties for sale to local restaurants and supermarkets.
Hydroponic gardening involves growing without soil, using only water fortified with various nutrients. First we prepare the long channels by scrubbing with chorine water and rinsing. Then we carefully place the small plants that have been growing in spun rock from Denmark that feels kind of like the spongy stuff that holds flower arrangements together at the bottom (nothing like rock). The spun rock sucks up the water and eventually dissolves as the roots grow to leave just lettuce and root. To harvest we lift the lettuce carefully to keep the root intact and wrap it in plastic sealed at the bottom. Water is added so that the lettuce actually stays alive and the customer can harvest leaves whenever they want but keep the rest of the plant alive. It’s quite impressive actually and the lettuce is the best looking we have ever seen. Below is a picture of the facility, which is in a plastic dome (this was great with the rainy weather early in the week).
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we worked in the orchards. We did a lot of weeding and harvesting. We wear little backpacks with huge storage space and walk around clipping fruit that is ready for market. Here we are as fruit pickers!
This farm grows mainly citrus fruits and avocados. We spent nearly all morning Thursday harvesting oranges and Friday working on limes and lemonades. Lemonades are amazing and we will definitely look for them in the states. They are like lemons but much sweeter, for example when you make lemonade to drink out of them no sugar is necessary. So they essentially taste like lemonade in fruit form. The ripe limes here are yellow instead of green. Kind of crazy, I guess it is Mexican limes we get in the states and those are green when ripe.
Saturday was tree maintenance day! We worked in another orchard sawing the bottom branches of trees off. We are not completely sure why or what kind of tree they were but it was enjoyable work. Debbie (owner of Bay Subtropicals) is an extremely hands off boss, she pretty much explains a task and then disappears. This is really nice in many ways but we don’t get to bother her with a ton of questions so we haven’t developed nearly as complete a picture of the organic gardening world as we did with the lamb docking.
Since it rained on Sunday we decided to work and save our day off for nice kayak weather. We packaged a ton of lettuce for Debbie’s special this week (she has too much lettuce and wants to get rid of it)! We really like the lettuce work; it is quite relaxing after getting kicked by lambs for three weeks. Monday we finished up our work here with some more cleaning and planting in the hydroponic garden. We are planning on kayaking Tuesday and leaving Takaka early on Wednesday morning.
We spent a couple days in Nelson, a nice town in a beautiful part of the South Island, right on the Cook Strait. We arrived at sunset and were stunned by how beautiful it was.
Nelson is a major art community and we enjoyed checking out the local talent at the Saturday flea market. We also finally tried crayfish, an overpriced version of lobster. Unfortunately, rain limited further Nelson exploration but we enjoyed our time and may stop back.
This is actually only the main docking session for the station. They will do approximately 2,000 more tails in the next couple of weeks as the late lambing happens. 1,200 or so were sold before the docking process even began.
Thank you Emily and Anders! You have been the most amazing hosts! You made us feel so at home here in Castlepoint and we will never forget this experience. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Today we leave for the South Island! We will take the ferry across Cook Strait in the afternoon and after 3.5 hours of (hopefully) lovely cruising we arrive in Picton. We plan on spending a couple of days moving west towards Abel Tasman National Park and Takaka. We will stay at an orchard and work for a few hours a day in return for room and board while we explore the park for about a week.Today we experienced a truly unique New Zealand event: Pets Day.
Primary schools all across the country set aside the day for a school fair with games, raffles, and most importantly, pet competitions. 
Pets included lambs, goats, calves, rabbits, birds and even the occasional dog. 
Overall, the day was a lot of fun and a real glimpse into rural school life. We were honored when the principal announced over the loudspeaker that they had guest judges all the way from Colorado. Oriana, from Castlepoint Station, won first prize for her flower arrangement, and her lamb, Shrek, came in second in the grade 3 lamb competition. Steve even took home a chocolate bar for winning the gumboot tossing contest after a heated battle with two fathers. We were a little concerned there was going to be an international incident but all ended peacefully.
