Beaches and Islands

---

On the way to the Abel Tasman National Park we made a few viewpoint stop offs in the Marlborough Sounds and stopped in the up market looking town of Nelson. Not too much time for oohing and aahing though as it was a long drive to Marahau the township on the outskirts of Abel Tasman where we were headed. We drove right up to the entrance of the National Park and found this great place to stay called The Barn. It had a very relaxed feel to it and for the first time we had a picnic table so could ditch the folding table and chairs for a few days. Sad we know - but an important plus point for us nowadays!

Our first day in the Abel Tasman we decided to kayak - apparently the done thing round here. We went on the Beaches and Islands trip with a firm called Abel Tasman Kayaks (ATK for short - Deloittions will know why that worried Vicki!). By some weird luck of the draw we had a guide (Gared) all to ourselves a long with a trainee guide (Jackie). Both Gared and Jackie were really nice and we had an amazing day. After a wobbly start, Paul got to grips with the steering - a more complex peddle affair than he's used to. Vicki got used to her role as front paddler and chief rock spotter.

We kayaked all about the bay. We went out to Fishermans Island where we stopped for a spot of tea and biscuits - most civilised. We then went to the back of Adele Island where there were seals and cute looking seal pups. We were the only people there and the seals let us kayak in really close. We lunched on Observation Beach on a delicious picnic that Gared cooked from stuff summoned from god knows where on the kayaks. We tried to avoid the sandflies on the beach. This was the first time we've met the little critters out to bug us for a while as we travel down the west coast. Luckily Jackie kindly gave us a pot of Maori treatment for the bites that she makes from kawakawa leaves. We had a fantastic time, the scenery was so great and the kayaking really fun.

We had been out for the whole day and were well and truly pooped. We went to a local bar to reward ourselves but were too tired to stay and watch the live ukeleli orchestra on that evening!

We had decided to stay on in Abel Tasman as it is so gorgeous and the campsite so nice. The next day we did part of the 4-5 day Abel Tasman Coastal tramp. Not a tramp as we know and love them in London - the term tramping is widely used in NZ to refer to long long walks! We got a water taxi to our start point (Onetahuti Bay) and then hiked back up towrds the park entrance jumping back on the water taxi again at Torrent Bay when the rain (quite literally becoming a torrent) and mileage became too much. According to the rather spurious NZ maps we had "tramped" 23kms - sounds impressive so we'll stick with that. There were beautiful views for the whole walk even through the continuous drizzle.

Well, hoping that we weren't doomed to be followed by rainy weather, we left the next day to make our way to the west coast and further south.

---

Photos

Oyster Catcher Eating Mussels
Good name!!!