March 15th 2009 was our two-year wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate by taking a long weekend getaway to the Marlborough Sounds in the South Island. For those of you who don’t know, a Sound is formed by the sea flooding a river valley. The Marlborough Sounds is made up of four large Sounds. We stayed at Raetihi Lodge located deep in Kenepuru Sound, which you can see from the map below.
We had picked this particular lodge as it was isolated deep in the Sounds. They have no TV there and only 14 rooms. The only way to get there was to take a water taxi across the Sound. We packed lots of books, board games and wine!
We flew into Nelson Airport and rented a car because the lodge was two and a half hours away from the
airport. The drive was AMAZING! We drove around mountains, over bridges and through forests. As we got closer it got colder and colder. Being that our anniversary is at the end of Summer (on this side of the world), we were looking forward to a warm weekend where we could swim and snorkel. However, a cold snap decided to show up at the same time. It worked out, as we got to spend “quality time” with each other and actually play the games and read the books. Oh, and drink all the wine we packed.
The first day at the resort was the busiest of the days that we stayed there. There must have been 13 guests including us. Most were American. I couldn’t believe it! I’ve not been around that many Americans since my last trip home in August 08
. I was surprised by how strong the accent sounded. I guess I am already becoming a Kiwi. Back to the trip… Our first day was the best day weather-wise. We got to go for a kayak. Yay! I’ve only been on a kayak once before so was happy to be out in the Sounds kayaking with my Honey. We were out for about 45 minutes, then headed back to our room for a little siesta. We ended up sleeping for 2 hours and woke up just in time for wine.
The rest of our time there was very mellow as it was too cold to go out and do much of anything. By the last night, there were only 4 of us at the resort. And it was definitely time to go home. Three days of not watching the news, taking 2 hours naps in the middle of the day, sleeping 10 hour at night, and spending all that quality time together was enough. We were definitely rested and rejuvenated.
On our way back to the airport, we stopped off at the Nelson Farmer’s Market, a big outdoor market in the center of the town. When we arrived, I quickly realized that we were the only people of any ethnic makeup there. Up till now I always thought that Auckland had very little diversity of any kind (coming for San Francisco), but Nelson… forget about it! Nelson makes Auckland look like San Francisco or LA…for a minute!
