lake weikaremoana

My next stop was a national parc with the beautiful lake Weikaromoana. In the north island the Maori influence is much bigger, many places have Maori names (which are really hard to write and remember. I was so tired here, went to bed at 18.30h and slept for nearly 13h! Its dark here at 18.30h.
On the next day I did a short walk to a giant rata tree. This tree starts as a parasite on a host tree and develops roots so it can survive the death of the host tree. At the base this tree measures around 13m and it is between 500 and 1000 years old.



The lake looks nice with sun,



and also nice short before some rain.



Some beautiful falls are also here:

Napier

Napier is the Art-Deco city, here are some nice examples. The city was completely destroyed by an earthquake 1931 and afterwards rebuild again.













I was there at ANZAC day, where they remember their war heroes. They had a scottish band here, which participated in the parade.

wellington

Then I decided to finish my trip on the south island and take the ferry to the north island. I spontanously bought the ticket in a travel agency and had 4 hours to drive to Picton.
On the next day I visited "Te Papa", the National Museum of NZ. They are showing their history there (Maori and Europeans) and also some arts and educational stuff about the elements fire (vulcanos), water (sea) and earth (earthquakes).



On the roof they have an installation of an socalled Overseas Experience. This should symbol their lust of camping and tramping. And they show a good taste because they are using a german car for that.



At the quai next to the marina I saw a seal and also an octupus, funny, i never expected this here.
I stayed the night in Okita, nothing special about this city. On the next day I drove to Napier, an Art-Deco town. The city was totally destroyed in 1931 and rebuild in the Art-Deco style.

The drive was not so interesting, here are living much more people and the landscape is not so nice compared to the southern island. But to be fair its really hard to beat the Fjordlands or the West Coast.

abel tasman national parc

I spent a day in the Abel Tasman National Park and used a boat service. They dropped me after a nice cruise around the coastline and picked me up 5h later at another bay.
The weather was quite good, much better than the forecast. But thats someting I also learned. Don´t trust the forecast here, the weather can change very fast.
The Abel Tasman Walk is one of the Great Walks and follows the coastline with its beautiful bays.
One funny thing in the water was Split Rock. Remembers me of a giant horse leftover ;-)



The water was clear and green, similar like the one at Queen Charlotte Track.



And here I decided to take the shortcut straight through the middle instead of walking around the bay. I was lucky to have worn my waterproof sandals. The depht of the crossing was deeper than expected ;-)