Hullo...and Welcome to Mahana

Mahana Lodge

After our month of camping in February we decided to settle down for a little while. On the 3rd of March we headed up to Marborough Sounds where we got jobs working at a place called Mahana Lodge. It is located in the Endeavor Inlet off the Queen Charlotte trek. Natalie cleans the Lodge and Bobby does whatever needs to be done, mow lawns, chop fire wood, weed the garden, carry the luggage off the boats, etc. We work about 3 1/2 a day and have the rest of the day to fish, hike, read, or whatever else we come up with. John and Ann our the owners and have been so gracious to us. John told Bobby at the begining catching fish is apart of his chores when the weather suits. So on average John and Bobby fish about 2-3 times a week. There are so many cool species of fish and every trip brings something new and exciting. Being right off of the Queen Charlotte Trek, we decided that it was time to do another hike, so on our day off we hike a section of the trek and stayed at "The Blue Water Lodge" a friend of John and Ann's owns it. His name is Rod and we quickly became good friends. Rod later took us sailing on his 36ft Sail Boat and took us back to Mahana. Natalie got to man the helm all way home, it was awesome!

Beach at Mahana

Nice a Kahawai caught off the warf

Natalie getting sailing directions from Rod. At one point the wind picked up and the boat was leaning far on the starboard side, it felt like it was going to tip over. Luckly Natalie turned into the wind and brought us back on track.

Storm comming in over Mt. Stoke

Abel Tasman Coastal Trek

Split Apple Rock

This trip was taken at the end of February.

We decided that because we hadn't hiked enough this month we would do another long hike...... So we hiked through Abel Tasman National park. It was awesome and really different from all the other hikes that we had done. The sand is crushed granite, so the water stays clear and the beaches are a rich gold color. The trek lasted 4 days and 3 nights. Because Abel Tasman has an 8 meter tidal change, the greatest in all NZ, we had to time our hike so that we reached the portage areas at low tide. One evening, after setting up our tent, we decided to collect some mussells to cook for dinner. They were biggest mussels we've ever seen. While hiking for four days straight, the topic of conversation gets quite interesting, we were suprised at how much we talked about mexican food! This was a great hike and we definently recommend it.

Our tent

Our campsite was to the right on this beach. We swam in the bay to the left....Awesome!

Natalie crossing at low tide, at high tide it would be over her waist.

The Black at the top of the rock is the Water line at High tide.

Huge Mussel

Natalie's amazing cooking. This was all done on our little camp stove.

"Go West Young Man"

We headed up the west coast and stopped at Fox Glacier. It was awesome to see all the different colors of the Glacier. We did a few day hikes around Fox and then kept heading up the west coast. We later stopped at the Punakaiki and saw the "Pancake Rocks." Natalie didn't want to stop, but I was hungry.....
We later camped at a place near Matueka(near Nelson on the North part of the south Island) and did some more day hikes.

Bobby on a swing bridge at Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier

Pancake Rocks

As you can see Natalie was not that impressed

One of our many day hikes