New Zealand is a special place with many different ecosystems: a rocky shoreline with crashing surf, sand dunes, inland tropical forests, pristine beaches, glacial valleys, and immense inland lakes formed by glaciers.

We have been to the South Island twice, each time starting in Nelson at the northern end of the island and staying in a cottage on Golden Bay, which has a beautiful, quiet beach that looks out onto Farewell Spit, a long peninsula which is the northernmost tip of the South Island and is basically a sand dune formed by the extremely strong winds. You can see Farewell Spit in this photo on the horizon.