Off to Meet the Neighbours!!

Monday morning we set off back over the very steep Takaka Hill, taking a detour at the top along a very long, bumpy unsealed road back into Hobbit Country! After several kilometres of gorgeous views over both Nelson and Golden Bay, we stopped to walk through amazing silver Beech forest....a realy magical looking place, as the sun shone through and lit up the shiny bark! The walk ended abruptly as the ground opened up to reveal the 176m deep and 50m diameter vertical shaft of Harwoods Hole....unfortunately the drop is so severe that you can't actually see the bottom without hurtling down towards it! There was however a better view to be had on the return walk via a cliff top lookout over Golden Bay!

View over Golden Bay!

View over Nelson and Abel Tasman

After this bit of adventure we took it easy, stopping for lunch by the coast before heading inland to Upper Moutere...home of some old Dorset neighbours who have definitely found the 'Good Life'!! We arrived in the afternoon just in time for afternoon tea on the back porch, followed swiftly by 'Beer O'Clock' on the front decking, then a quick dip in the pool, before sitting back with G & T in hand to watch the last rays of sunlight fall back behind the mountains in the distance!!! These guys have it sorted, they have as good as retired, now spending their days working the land (all 85 acres of it!) and enjoying the great outdoors via boat, mountain bike, quad bike, etc!! We are so jealous!! The big job at the moment is fencing in order to control their herd of 25 cows, so in order to feel like we were earning our keep I sent Chris out to help the following morning....he was loving it so much that I went along and joined in that afternoon. After nearly 6 months of not working it felt really good to be doing something productive, although Chris's now greatly softened hands took a battering...all covered in blisters! Its going to be really hard to leave here...if we were only about 20 years older (with slightly more money in the bank) I think we'd have been straight down to the estate agents!

Beer O'Clock!