We spent our first day off in the mountains that we could see from Elsbeth’s property. We drove up a road to the trailhead of our hike. Up to that point the weather was quite nice. Unfortunately, the amount of clouds increased as higher we drove up the mountain. Reaching the parking lot, we didn’t have any views anymore. When we started hiking, it started raining a little bit. The trail was in a really good condition but the weather turned even worse. As we reached Mount Arthurs Hut, it started to pour down on us. So we seeked shelter in the hut and eat some lunch. When it didn’t rain as bad anymore, we continued hiking. Soon, we reached the trail that lead towards the peak of Mt. Arthur. We followed the trail for a little bit, basically just to find out that the weather and therefore the view won’t get better… Somehow we thought that we have already walked so many trails in the rain on the TA because we didn’t really have a choice. So, why should we do it now if there is no hope any good views anyways?
So we turned around and still did a nice loop track out of our hike. We eat our reminding food at the Flora hut. A few wekas were highly interested in our food. One went hiding underneath the picnic table and picked Timo in his finger! Timo and the weka were both very frightened…
Back at the car, we drove to Motueka. We stopped at the I-site and discovered a map that pointed out different attractions in the area. There was also a cave marked on the map. Google said, that this cave is not just a cave but also a huge hole in the ground. Yes, that’s what we wanna see! So we went to the cave and we weren’t disappointed. A short walk brought us to the huge hole. Apparently, it is possible to rappel down in into this hole and to walk into a cave system from there. Unfortunately, we still had our climbing equipment in Auckland…
We arrived late at Elsbeth’s place and were glad to have our own cottage and that we didn’t have to crawl into a tent 😊. And, we had our own hot shower and could cook in our own kitchen!