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Published: April 1st 2010
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Early morning Kaiteriteri beachAching arms and split apples!
We arrived at our campervan site in Kaiteriteri and not a moment too soon as it was very busy. I had stopped booking us in ahead of time as we were never stuck for places to go. This time though it turns out there must have been something on, or maybe it was the forecast of great weather for the weekend, but the place was heaving. It was right on the beach with shops selling ice-cream and cafés with over priced food etc all along the edge. It reminded me of holidays in the south west but with the proper weather!! After some trouble with our pitch, (stupid foreigners parking in the wrong spot) we settled in for the night as it was an early start the next day. We were up at the crack of dawn and very cold but got ready for our full day kayaking trip none the less. I had spent ages trying to find the best trip, weighing up all the options; the best company, the right route and the most important one we had a 10% off voucher for!! I finally settled on a company called Kaiteriteri kayaks that
took you out the marine reserve that was around Abel Tasman NP to see the seals.
This was to be the first trip with the type of kayak that we were to be tied into with a huge rubber skirt (spray deck) so Nath after his near death water experience, was a little nervous (understandably) but hid it well by doing his “I’m a lady” impression and swishing it up like a skirt!!. We headed up to the start of the tour by water taxi that bounced around so much it reminded me of the whale watching in Kaikoura. Luckily it didn’t last as long and before we knew it we were all rubber skirted and ready to go. We were in a small group of 8, with most of the coupes being European and one other from the north of England. I thought we’d get chatting with this pair but through out the whole trip we didn’t get any interaction at all. Maybe there was some southern pansy/northern monkey rivalry so we spent most of the trip just enjoying the scenery and not really making conversation with anyone expect the guide. On paddling past the marine reserve we
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Kayaking round the Abel Tasman Marine Reserve were lucky enough to see lots of pups with their mums on the shore and even one sprightly seal came swimming between us, showing off his acrobatic skills. Other than this though it was a lot of kayaking and very tiring. Luckily after a few hours we stopped for some lunch on a beach called Mosquito bay (luckily no mosquitoes or sand flies - although I was covered in spray just in case). We had a lovely packed lunch of sandwiches, wraps and cake included in the price of the trip and the guide actually sat there and made hot chocolate with a throffy milker - nice touch. Nath went off to take photos of the beach area whilst I got cajoled into a game of catchy catchy, which despite being a crap catcher and thrower I managed some surprisingly good catches. (See the photos). Nath and I then went to explore the small lagoon behind the beach before returning to the bay to watch a sting ray swim round it several times and right up close to some swimmers. After our small amount of time to look around we were off again.
Yet again we had to get
sealed into the kayak - dam it!!! Getting into the rubber skirt was one thing, but then stretching it over the kayak was another and we were always the last couple to get going as I needed help to get mine to work. It would seem on this second journey out though that as Nath sealed the kayak he had caught a sand fly inside the kayak with me, which then feasted on my ankle as I paddled and was most uncomfortable. After another 3 hours kayaking we were ready to give up, and still we had to get back to the main bay to be collected by the water taxi. “Not far, just over to that bit of land” said our overly enthusiastic guide. With one last spurt of energy Nath and I paddled as fast as we could to the beach ( we wanted to “win” in our minds by being first back- high five). I was soaked through and itchy and Nath could no longer feel his arms, we were so glad that we hadn’t decided to move on the next day and still had another relaxing night at the beach front camper park.
On the
way back in the taxi I actually feel asleep a little, hey at least the dribbling at sea doesn’t matter so much - I was already soaked. We headed back to Elton and enjoyed the rest of the sunny evening at a near by bar/restaurant on the beach front, as there was no way I was cooking after doing all that kayaking. Think if we do anymore kayaking we may stick to a half day from now on. On the way back from the pub I had seen a poster about a mini coffee and cruise morning, where you could go for a couple of hours up to something called “split apple rock” have a coffee, a bit of a swim and come back again for $25. Couldn’t beat it really, especially as I had hoped we would pass the rock whilst kayaking that morning but hadn’t gone anywhere near it. So I booked us in for this with a friendly fellow called Dave and we went back to settle in for the night and give our arms a rest (Nath’s more than mine I guess as he “carried” me for most of the kayaking!!)
Next morning we checked
out on time for once and parked up by the beach, had a quick chat to family members on the phone and then boarded our little cruise boat. Dave was already on board so I asked him if he needed paying now before we left and he said “don’t worry about it I’ll be robbing you later when we’re at sea” - think I’m gonna like this guy. It was a cute bright orange and blue boat that he had built himself and had a shower room and BBQ on board. It would have been really lovely to have a BBQ at sea as the evenings were so nice here but you needed a group booking really - oh well. We were only joined by 4 others so it was a nice quiet little number. One couple, a Geordie pair stuck out the most, turns out they weren’t here on holiday, like many of the retired people we had met they had sold up and moved out here - I should have guessed it from the leathery skin. We set sail, so to speak and headed out across the little bays we had zoomed passed the day before in the
water taxi and Dave told us a little bit about them all. Turns out a lot of these secluded bays along NZ coast line are privately owned, so you often see loads of water sport toys just left out and no one on the beach as they have control over who has access - how cool is that but how rich would you need to be to own your own beach!!!
We anchored up just beside the split apple rock and whilst Dave’s partner made us tea and coffee with biscuits, Dave took photos of us all by the rock. Luckily Nath and I have learnt not to trust the meaningful tourists/tour guides eye for photos so we took some of our own as well - you’ll see from the photos why this was a good idea on this particular boat ride and the skill of Nath’s “boom” arm!! After a cuppa, Dave got out some minced meat and started feeding all the silvery fish that were surrounding us (I asked him if it was left over tourist) and you literally watched them clamber over each other (as much as fish can) to get to this food. As the
beach and water had looked so nice during our visit to Abel Tasman, I decided that I would have a quick swim. It was quickly mainly because we were running out of time but also because the water was frickin freezing!!! I managed to jump in and not swear (there were children on board and in the local area) and trod water for a while, whilst being told by the fat leather skinned northern monkeys that I was a wimp - no sense no feeling!! Once back on board it was a nice gentle ride back joking along with Dave as he left his partner to steer the boat.
Back on dry land, we sat in the glorious sunshine and had some lunch as we had a long drive ahead of us towards the west coast via Nelson lakes.
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