Abel Tasman National park

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Awoke early and got myself reaydy to go Sea Kayaking at Abel Tasman National Park.

Pleased that Id gotten to bed early, and espesially once having seen Adam who stayed out till 3:00.

Got picked up by the Guids and took the 1 hour drive to the national park, with a stop for breakfast.

By the time we arrived at the beach (Kaiteriteri) in which we were due to take the boat to our starting point, the sun was out and the sea was really calm (truely beautiful day). Took a fast boat 18 km down through some small islands and past beautifull sandy bays (we were to kayak our way back.)

Once at the starting point we were briefed on the kayaks and kitted up. We were to use two man kayaks (id was to partner up with an incredibly hung over Adam) and I oppted to go at the back as I would get to steer. This proved to be quite uncomfortable due to my height. The peddles were to close so I had to really bend my Knees into a cramped position.

We got on our way and it was awesome. Abel Tasman is lovely and even more so on a glorious day such as this. The Kayak proved to be quite hard work, espesialy when Adam kept stopping his paddeling to but sunblock on, look around or rest (id keep going). You really feel it in your arms and I was also struggling a bit with the steering at first (collided with two japanese chaps.) But after a while I got the hang of it and good rowing rhythem (in fact the two japanese chaps there after kept colliding with us).

After a while we stopped off at a rocky island to see some seals, which was wicked (havent used that word for a while, nice change from awesome). There were some babys and the mothers dived in and swam around us a couple of time to check out our intensions. They're quite funny actually. They look ever so clumsey on land but so agile in the sea.

After a couple of hours we stopped at a beautiful beach for lunch. They were only sandwichs, but really nice. Discovered sweet mustard (where have you been all my life!). After our hot chockolates we joind another group and climbed up to the the top of a peak and down towards the adjacent bay. There was a rather large rock and we all, one a t a time jumped off) We then swam back to our beach, which took a while since its quite tricky swimming with you life jacket on.

Back on our kayaks we contined on our way past beautiful rugged islands and cliffs. Saw split apple rock and lots of fresh giant mussels.

After 18km we made back and now quite tired. Slept most of the trip back to our hotel. Being Sunday myself and Katey (who had also done the kayak) decided to have dinner at the hotel (special backpacker deal). The lasagna was really tasty.

Chilled out and watched tv in the communal room. Episode of the first series of top gear (missing the new series at the moment with hammonds crash, which sucks) and a travel documentary on japan.

Early nights sleep.

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Comments

[Andy]

TopGear
Bad news dude; the BBC aren't keeping TopGear on their website any more, so the latest series is gone forever. Unless you go back to New Zealand in, say, 5 years time.