The sun was dropping in the partly cloudy sky as we reached the west coast of the North Island once again. About five minutes outside of town we reached our final destination, Solscape, an “eco-retreat” situated on a Raglan hillside.

Like so many of these NZ adventures, my recent overnight camping trip to the Marlborough Sounds started out without a great deal of organization or preparation, a real fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants operation.