January 29, 2026
We woke up to clear skies. I had planned to drive an hour over to Nelson and Cable Bay to do a view hike, but neither of us felt like driving through the largest town in the area, and the views were just great where we were. We decided to make this a bit of a rest day and just do some exploring around the local area.
I had full use of the kitchen facilities in the AirBnb house, so I made a nice breakfast of eggs and potatoes for us. Afterwards we hopped in the car and drove about 15 minutes down the Kina Peninsula Road to the LEH Baigent Memorial Reserve. Kina Peninsula Beach was several miles long. To call it a beach was a bit of a stretch because it was mostly gray rocks and no sand. It was also low tide while we were there, so the Moutere Inlet was a big muddy flat.
On the way back we stopped at the Tasman Golf Club which had some wonderful views, and on the edge of the golf course some walking paths were open to the public. We walked around for a few minutes and admired the views.
Next we drove up a road that led to a new multi-million dollar housing development being built at the southern end of Kina Beach. We followed a short trail along a cliff top with views of the Tasman Bay. The trail ended with a steep descent down to the beach. Conditions were the same as earlier with lots of rocks and no sand.
Next we stopped at the McKee Memorial Reserve which contained a campground and a picnic area. By this time the weather had deteriorated and it was mostly cloudy, so we decided to head back to the house.
The owner stopped by to feed the cats, and we chatted for a bit. She led us to a path that went from her back yard to a trail that had… glow worms! This was actually the main reason I had decided stay in Ruby Bay: on the Internet it is listed as a place to spot glow worms. I had no idea we would be staying practically right on top of them! We made a note of the trail and terrain so we could return later.
Before sunset I took a walk around the neighborhood on the Pinehill West Walkway which had some nice views of the surrounding countryside.
Back at the house we had spaghetti and salad for dinner.
Later that evening we ventured out to the glow worm trail with our flashlights, and sure enough, only about a hundred feet down the trail we could see their lights. In terms of all of the other places in New Zealand that we have seen glow worms so far, this ranks at the bottom since there were only a few, but still it was really fun to see them again.