farm – Steffi & Gerry: Trip around the World

Looking for Hobbits

A quick stop for a short walk at Pelorus Bridge between Nelson and Havelock. Main reason: the scenery is part of the “barrel scene” in “The Hobbit 2” movie. Need to watch it again!

Peter Jackson and the dwarves
Yep, same location!
If we only had it since beginning!

We arrived early at Smith’s Farm, which is also a campground. But so far the most personal one. Muffins as welcome gifts, food for the animals which you can feed and tips for Picton. And the recommendation to look for glowworms in the evening, which we had to skip due to uncertain weather conditions.

Cape Farewell / Wharariki Beach

A short walk to Wharariki Beach in the morning was a pleasant start for this day. The Archway Islands look amazing in the wild ocean, a significant contrast to the seal laying at the beach.

Just a five-minutes-drive away you reach Cape Farewell, the northernmost point of the South Island. Stone arch, seals, and in the distance Farewell Spit, a massive sand bank. Again a scenery almost out of this world.

Cape Farewell – Farewell Spit in the distance (the sandy thing)

But we had to take care of the strong wind blowing over the cliffs – and of the sheep poo. To get a nice picture of a typical New Zealand sheep Gerry had to sing a Peach Weber song: “Bäääähsame, bäääähsame mucho” – and it worked!

A rather long drive to the Cable Bay near Nelson to set up our camp at a farm. This time no kangaroos, but dogs and chicken freely wandering between the camper vans. We liked it!

ChickenFactory office – Gerry and his secretaries

Farm Camping in OZ

An Eco tour boat brought us to several snorkeling sites with the main goal to catch sea turtles, which we did successfully, besides amazing views on the Ningaloo reef, fishes known from “Finding Nemo” and even a reef shark.

In the afternoon we left Exmouth in order to decrease the distance until Tom Price / Karijini National Park. We camped on a farm at Garilia Station and had a warm welcome by its hosts.

We were just about to finish dinner when suddenly a big kangaroo passed by with long jumps to feed wet grass next to our camper van.

Then we did some very kitschy sunset photos, followed by a few shots of the amazingly dark sky. Shooting stars? Check.
A real Oz experience – highly recommended!