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Published: March 20th 2009
24/2/09 = Abel Tasman & The Amazing George 😊
Alarm went off at 5:55am. Way too early to get up. Really didn't want to get up, especially in dark, but slid down ladder anyway, picked up clothes set out night before and skulked off to bathroom to get ready. Washed, changed, made porridge breakfast (need to good stuff now to warm me up) and went to finish getting ready while porridge cooled down; Goldilocks eat your heart out! Lunch ready, we both ready and set off for Abel Tasman at 6:45. My turn to drive today and set off in direction of Kaiteriteri to get water taxi. Well, tried to set off in that direction, but wasn’t as straight forward as first thought and got a little lost. A few minutes on hard shoulder sorted us out though. Was a nice drive - despite tiredness - and arrived early at 8am. Checked in, paid money and then had a stroll along beach while waiting. Really cold morning even with cardi’s on, but beach looked quite amazing in sun. Sun had only just risen and looked so huge it almost filled sky. Quite a strange sight really.
Sat on cold
beach waiting for sun to ‘get going’ and warm us up. Was 30mins until were clambering into water taxi, strapping life jackets on and setting off across water. Water taxi was a speedboat, so was really quick as jumped and glided across waves. Cool, but really, really cold with wind and most of body shut down to numbness. Even the trusty cardi couldn’t save me from this one. Glad when we had our first stop = Spilt Apple Rock. Good to look at, but I was in total agreement with driver “It’s just a rock…don’t know why it’s so famous”. V.honest of him. Carried on then and off to Torrent and Anchorage Bay = place where we will finish our walk today and get picked up from. He explained the walk to us a little (didn’t really listen…surely will be signposted), then carried on to Tonga Island. Spent all of this little part of journey trying to spot dolphins because driver told us he had already seen a pod of them on his earlier run this morning. No such luck! But stopping at Tonga Island - also nicknamed ‘Seal Island’, meant were sure to see seals. Had to strain with
Crazy sunshine
Get a feel of how powerful it really is from this shot.eyes a little to see them because they were perfectly camouflaged against dark rocks and never moved, but sure enough, could see them all lounging and sprawled across separate boulders. Really cool and as boat got closer, could see them even better. Love seals. Driver told us how seals can swim up to 200 nautical miles a day to hunt octopus and squid = their favourite food. Fit little creatures! Loads of kayakers were getting really close to them; wish we had kayaked now. Apparently, they quite like kayaks and often slump themselves up across front of them.
After seal spotting, did last part of journey to Tonga. As coming into beach, saw a boat circling in shallow waters and everyone gathered together at one side of boat, looking over side. Wondered what was going on when our driver said “That’ll be George”. We got close and joined in too and when looked closely, saw George the dolphin swimming at side of boat and jumping out of water. Awesome! Apparently he liked the feeling of the water being churned up; was like a massage/tickle to him. First boat stopped circling and then watched as George came over to us.
What a joke!
I can just about expect Deborah being spelt like that, but who in the world called Natalie, has it spelt like that!?! And it's not even the first time! Honestly! He was amazing. Swam under and around our boat, dived up and out of water on all sides and followed us continually until another boat came along. Was one of best things have ever seen…a dolphin, jumping out of water, right next to us. Pulled into beach really happy then. Even if nothing else turned out to be good, that had already made trip worthwhile.
Headed straight for toilet (last one until get to end of 3 ½ walk) then came back to admire beach. Was a lovely beach; one of best seen in NZ so far. Just about to sit down and have a snack when noticed everyone congregating at edge of water. Went to see what all fuss was about and it was George again…he had come right into shallows of water and was just swimming and diving through water in front of us all. Couldn’t believe it. Quite shocked by it all at first. Then snapped out of it just in time to take pictures of him. Everyone was amazed and didn’t really intend to wade out into water, but we all did. Were so mesmerised by him that walked out into water and all bag
Spilt Apple Rock
A good enough name me thinks. (+passport) got soaked because was so captivated by him! Guy next to us started to strip off and jumped in to swim with him…amazing. Absolutely amazing. Here was a huge dolphin, in the wild, swimming and jumping just metres away from us. Never seen anything like it! Managed to get a mini video of him, then another boat came and off he went. Wow…now that is one of best things seen on trip so far! Had to sit down on beach for a while and eat a sandwich to calm me down (food solves all probs). Then when mouth returned a little more to closed position, started the 3 ½ hr walk we had ahead of us.
First part of walk only took 30mins and arrived at Tonga Quarry. Quite pretty, but didn’t stay long, hadn’t been going long enough to have a big stop yet. Was another hour before arrived at Bark Bay and were both a bit disappointed with the walk. Abel Tasman = famous for being national park where forest and beach meet. All the walk we had done so far had been through the forest, with no view of anything because trees obscured everything. Really
wanted to do the walk along the beach, but not possible because tide in and walkways completely covered in metres of water. Glad to get to beach when we did, all up and down hills quite tiring; definitely hungry work! Beach was busy with everyone seeming to stop their for lunch. Found a good spot in sunshine and tucked in to more sandwiches. Not happy about flies though. Within seconds of sitting down, literally hundreds of small flies surrounded us. Didn’t have a clue what they were, but they weren’t normal flies. Every time we batted them away, they just came back…never known anything like it. Deb said she could feel them biting, but I was just annoyed by their unbelievable relentlessness! Ate lunch really quickly and didn’t enjoy it at all because of awful flies. As soon as finished, had to put cardi on and wrap up in towel just to have a barrier between me and them. Sat there for another 40mins chilling out as best we could with swarm of ‘indestructible’ flies. Then could take no more and set off on last 2hr walk to Torrent Bay.
Tried to do bit of walk along beach, but
soon got trapped by deep pool of water and had to backtrack through forest. Resigned to fact that this would be a forest walk then. Spent next hour playing ‘would you rather’ game to entertain ourselves and was quite happy until arrived at awful Indiana Jones Bridge. Wasn’t just a normal swing bridge, looked just like one out of film and was just as unstable. Not at all happy about crossing it, but no other option. Waited until had a clear run at it, then heart pounding, walked across it at a more than average pace and definitely did NOT stop for photos like other people. Awful! Poor girl behind me looked even more scared than I was…they really should state that things like this are part of the walk. No worries though, just one more thing conquered I guess. Has been a good trip for helping to get over fears. Panic over, spent next hour climbing up and down hills and the penultimate 30mins getting rained on = a real shame. Rain macs on and decision made: would not be doing extra hours walk to Anchorage Bay.
When arrived at Torrent in the rain, there were loads of
people waiting for boats to take them home. Ours wasn’t due to pick up until 4:15 and was only 2:55. Checked on sheet for an earlier option and not at all surprised to see that had just missed it at 2:45. Totally typical! If only had spent last time in fly swamp! Now had over an hour to spend in rain with no shelter…hope the rain macs hold out. Found a nearby tree to stop some of rain and noticed that 2 water taxis had pulled in. Walked over to see what was happening and driver said he would take us back early if could manage to get 16 people together. No problem. There were way more than 16people wanting to go back early and ended up doing a half run to boat just to make sure we were in the 16! We were…and even got best seats at front, that weren’t wet. Bonus! Set off back to Kaiteriteri then was a really crazy journey. Had been bumpy on way here, but sitting at front felt it way worse. Boat shot up over waves and stomach was constantly flipping. Good job not seasick… = about the only kind of sick
Seal spotting
You've got to look closely. I am not lately! Was like it all the way back. Really fun, but poor stomach glad we stopped when we did. Scrambled out of boat thoroughly cold and ran back to warmth of car. Heaters straight on and set off back to Nelson earlier than expected = good, because so much to do.
Deb fell asleep within first 5mins of journey and I turned music up really loud to help me stay awake. Singing was best thing…such an ingenious idea of Gods that we can’t tell what our own voice sounds like. In that journey home, could have sworn I sounded better than Whitney! Got back problem free and still alive (although vocal cords a little sore). Really excited for pancakes. Wish could have a curry first and pancakes as a dessert (really fancied curry for some reason), but had so many ingredients for pancakes, needed to make most of it. Started cooking straight away. Made enough mixture to feed an army (arm sufficiently aching), then got a pan each and off we went. First one was a little greasy, but all following were beautiful. Had jam on pancake and sugar & lemon on pancake and all went
down really well. Ate more than could count and even managed to flip and catch some. Not totally full at end of it, but had enough. Still thinking about curry!
Wrote diary for a while to take mind off curry (didn’t work), then decided to go to cinema. Headed upstairs to ask reception where cinema was and found out they had a really good TV room we didn’t even know about. Decided to stay in and save money instead. A lady was watching TV, so agreed to come back when her show had finished = not a good idea for me. Ended up going back downstairs and being ridiculously greedy! Hostel had a pub/restaurant attached and even though it had closed, she agreed to open up and make me a curry. She said I looked hungry…ha! Deb got a chocolate cake and I ate a beef curry…something I would never order at home. Wasn’t best have ever eaten, but ate it all and definitely full now! Time to watch film them = Seven. Not seen it in a long time, but brilliant film. Deb fell asleep before opening credits even off and I ended up watching it all until
Amazing George
Right there, next to boat. Love him. 11;45, even though shattered. Bed then. Light was already off, so crawled into pyjamas, up ladder and into bed. Should have fallen straight to sleep, but film woke me up and noticed a red alarm light flashing on side of wall that really wish I hadn’t noticed. Head under cover and forced eyes closed; another early get up tomorrow!
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