We had decided to stop off at the ‘Tipi stay’ hostel, a full night in a genuine North America Tipi; a very strange night. We arrived to yet another glorious evening, full of sunshine and blue skies; we were shown around our ‘room’ for the night and were advised as to how to light our fire when it got colder. After our evening dinner we all sat around to chat and share stories of hostels to go and hostels to avoid, and all the other normal backpacker chat; then off to bed to get the ‘fire’ started. There is a technique to it, and the first attempt was a huge smokey failure. After we had cleared all the smoke, Andy started again and this it went fine; lovely warming flames. It was incredible how warm it got so quickly, to the point where we were sat there socks and shoes off; shorts and tee shirts whilst roasting away. After this brilliant, very different night we headed of to the Marlborough Sounds area again; just to treat ourselves to a couple of restful nights. This time we choice a different hostel at Mahana, to use as a base for the following days walk. We may have had a couple of restful nights, but the day walk up Mt Stokes @ 1203 mtr’s high certainly was not restful. A full head on 2 hours hike/climb up through forest, thankfully it was dry and had been allowed to dry out to allow an ‘easier’ climb; only the odd soggy mudded section to hold us up. We reached the top at the very near ‘turn back’ point, we are so glad we never went back without seeing this view. We could see from the Sounds, all around to the edge of the North Island shore line. As if this was not enough, over the cloud base below us Mt Taranaki raised it’s snow capped volcanic head into clear view; marked down as one of our ‘highlights’ on this trip we headed down again to a well earned Kayak, rest and then a beer. We loved our stay at the Hopewell Hostel so much on our previous trip to the Sounds that we thought we would try and get another couple of nights there before we finally left this wonderful South Island. We called them, and we were in luck; all the doubles full but an En-suite was available and as we were ‘return’ customers only got charged for a double. As on our previous visit, fully relaxed and recharged as we settled down to this great place; Em’ even got another evening of Green Lipped Mussels just as good as the first time. We had made a point of booking the ferry when we first arrived at Hopewell, we knew that if we didn’t we would end up staying here. Just as well we did or we would’ve had stayed, but we booked and so had to leave L
We boarded the ferry with genuine heavy hearts, but full of hope that if the North Island is only half as good as the South; this trip would be worth every effort.
