Leaving the cosy, warm & homely Lazy Cow, we set of for the eco paradise of Shambhala in Golden Bay. It was a very pleasant drive up to the north coast where we have not been before. The weather again is glorious and scenery stunning. In the Nelson area of the north is where all the fruit growing takes place and boy was there acre upon acre of fruit there!!
Pay attention it’s education time again….This area is where the legendary Abel Tasman landed many moons ago and hectares of coastal bush are named after him and the Abel Tasman track runs through it. A four day hike, camping or staying in huts. Very popular with trampers (hikers) in the region. Golden bay where Abel landed used to be known as murderers bay as when he landed some of his chaps tried to get ashore and had a bit of a local scuffle with some Maoris and were sadly murdered – hence the name. Time passed and it was thought that “murderers bay” would not attract many people so it was changed to Golden Bay – wise move. (End of education for today!)
We arrived at our turn for Shambhala and drove down the 3km unsealed road to the main house. Well it was in a setting to die for overlooking golden bay only yards from a deserted beach. The main house was where “meditation and yoga took place.” We were greeted by a guy from Woodstock who I’m convinced didn’t know which planet he was on never mind which country…He showed us to our room which was away from the main house in a row of four with a kitchen area at one end. The room itself was super, the view will not be beaten I don’t think and the nature around was wonderful. So far so good.
Shambhala (translates to paradise in some Himalayan form) sells itself as an eco retreat with solar powered lighting and energy, rainwater collected for drinking and showering etc and solar heated showers. The toilets were of the composting type – I will let Mrs D have her say on the bogs as they were most entertaining.
Back up on the main road was a pub called the Mussell Inn which brewed it’s own ales and had live music on regularly. We were told by our host that music was on the night we arrived and that we might like to go, we did and more on that later. Meanwhile back at the ranch we were getting to grips with the lighting arrangements and checking out the showers. One of the showers was solar powered hot water so obviously it needs the sun. Mr Woodstock had had to concede and fit a second gas fired shower as it isn’t always that sunny and not having a hot shower would not go down too well with the guests after a days tramping round Abel Tasman.
The kitchen had another super view but was a little sparce on the implement and utensil front. It had one plug – for the fridge and gas bottle rings. Very quaint.
We had been tipped off re the kitchen by Mr & Mrs Spreadsheet as they were here before the Lazy Cow so we went with “easy cook grub!” Tins and pasta, tins and rice – you know the stuff. Grub mission accomplished we decided to walk to the Mussell Inn and do our bit for the eco happy people. (I have to report that our spaced out host failed here as he drove to the pub in his big car – not that eco concerned eh.) The local beer was good, the live music was OK but we spent the evening talking to two girls from the former eastern Germany. We actually met them at the Lazy Cow the day before as they were asking us about the rafting trip. They were twin sisters and one was out here on a working holiday and the other had come out to visit her for six weeks. Many entertaining stories were exchanged and they kindly offered us a lift back down. After noting Woodstock had driven up we thought to hell with the eco and it was hellish dark anyway and took up their kind offer.
When we got back the stars were at their best with zero light pollution. The solar powered lights up the steps to our room sadly were not, we got more light from the screen on my mobile. Anyhow, we stumbled back to our room and had a great nights sleep ready for an adventure in Golden Bay.
Without any further adieu over to Mrs D for a bog report…….”the toilets consisted of a wooden bog seat with lid nicely fitted over a large hole in the ground. The instructions read “when you have finished doing your business please throw a cup of chippings down the hole and close the lid! There was a big bucket of wood chippings next to the bog with a cup in it for the afore mentioned purpose. There is no other way to describe them but they stank!!! Please, with apologies to the greens, conservationists, tree huggers, all back to nature fans and friends of the earth – give me a tiled bathroom with running water and a flushing toilet anytime.”
The following morning watching the fantails and other birds flying around our wee balcony was super. Far more pleasant than the thought of nipping off to the toilet. After breakfast we drove out to Farewell Spit which is the most northerly headland on the south island. It is a long spit of sand-dunes extending out for 20kms. You are allowed to walk out 2.5kms onto the spit so we did and it was quite a different landscape again. We had a bit of trouble crossing the dunes in the middle as it got a little hot and there were a few rumblings from Mrs D and my walk leading skills were in disrepute again…..We then went to farewell point the true northerly point of the south island and then down onto a beach where there were some young fur seals swimming around in giant rockpools waiting for the adults to come back with the grub – sounds familiar. We drove back via the Mussell Inn and had a cool beer to give us courage with the toilets. (We could have used the pub toilets but sadly they were of the same design.) After some more swifty cooking another good nights kip with nature.
The next day was moving on day and hopefully proper toilet day so after an early start (decided to breakfast on the hoof so we could use the loos in the town on the way) we were off and on our way to a two nighter in Nelson.
Pix from top are - view from our Shanbhala room, kitchen, eco-shower, some old bones on the beach, Mrs D crossing the dunes, the most northerly south island point and the fur seal pups.
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