For the past four days, I stayed in a hippie hostel. Even though I did not go hippie, the relaxed atmosphere still made me sit back and do nothing much but short strolls on the river and beach during the first one and a half days.

Yesterday, I went to the Oparara Basin, as already mentioned before. Today, I finally did a three-hours-long stroll on Heaphy Track. Continue reading Heaphy & Hippie →

In the last two days, I went on my first alpine hike on this trip: a two-day hike in Nelson Lakes National Park, going from St. Arnaud (a village at the border of the national park) to Lake Angelus (in the mountains) and back. It turned out to be quite a tough hike, but it was definitely worthwhile – even though the weather was not as good as I hoped for. Continue reading Up to the Angels →

The last two days, I was hiking in Abel Tasman National Park. Despite it being my first real hike, I opted for a two-day outing (which was recommended to me by an Austrian couple). As it turned out, it was a good decision. Continue reading Abel Tasman by Land →