Picnic in paradise.

This is our last full day in South Island, ( mainland) New Zealand and it has been worth the journey we made to this 'top of the South' spot.

We left by boat at 9.30am from Kaiteriteri. A glorious morning and wonderful coastal views all the way. We stopped at various bays to drop people off who were walking or kayaking, the two main activities in the National Park which is only accessible by boat or on foot.

We cruised to the end of the park, more or less at Totaranui and then returned to Medland Beach where we disembarked for a short walk to Bark Bay, photographed here.

We had our picnic sitting on a log watching boats coming and going and a small number of people wading out to find water deep enough to swim in. We just had a paddle and then set off for a walk through the forest to some waterfalls coming across both sliver ferns (we think) and a Fantail. The path skirted around the back of the bay and took us about an hour.

It has been a fitting finale to our stay in the South Island; I am rather sad to be leaving tomorrow especially as we have met some wonderfully welcoming and friendly people both by design and by accident. Still tomorrow we cross the Cook Strait and the start of our second New Zealand adventure.