Horse Trekking and Collingwood pictures

This picture is actually still from Marahau. This was outside some sort of small-town museum/gift shop, and it reminds me of the tree from the Disney version of Pocahontas.


Me on my horse! I can't remember the last time before this trip that I went horseback riding, but it would have just been around a paddock - nothing like this. We were up in hills, climbing through sheep tracks, and running full speed up 45 degree + cliffs. It was so much fun!


While we were out trekking in Golden Bay, we didn't meet anything but sheep. It was amazing to be so far out, so far removed from everything. The hills kept on rolling on and on and on to one side, and on the other they dropped down straight to the sea.


This is the way that we followed the tracks into the hills. That bit of land that extends into the ocean is called Farewell Spit, and it goes on for 26km. It is growing every year, rising more and more out of the sea due to changing tides.


You really have to watch yourself on these Golden Bay roads.


Collingwood has about three streets and covers roughly three city blocks of land, but even a small township like that has its own claim to fame.


Every guidebook I ever looked in about Nelson made one thing quite clear: every chocoholic must, under any and all circumstances, visit Rosy Glow Chocolates. I was very disappointed that I never made it there. So, imagine my surprise when I arrive in little old Collingwood and find that the original Rosy Glow Chocolates is located there! The one in Nelson is owned by the daughter of the woman who owns the one in Collingwood. I think that explains the overkill of pink in the house. The chocolates, by the way, were amazing.

I am not sure what it is about this area of the country, but they seem obsessed with life-size chess boards. Nelson has one in the town square; this one was at my hostel in Collingwood.


As small a township as Collingwood is, they still have magnificent sunsets.