The Very Abel Tasman

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We spent the morning kayaking and the afternoon 'tramping' which is what they call trekking here. Our group was loads of fun - a couple of Australian ladies who had done a fair amount of kayaking before and looked very co-ordinated and serene on the water, an Israeli couple who were absolutely hilarious, not very good at kayaking and made it look really very difficult... I think we slotted into the middle somewhere. Our guide (Josh) was great fun and we set off with big smiles ready for a day full of laughter. The water taxi took us from Marahau up the coast a bit into the National Park as far as Tonga Island. We passed an island on the way up called Adele Island and when I asked if that's because there were penguins, there were!!!!! I was so excited when the driver stopped the boat where there was a tiny blue penguin swimming about on the surface of the sea - so cute, and he looked so lost out there all on his own! But that's what these penguins do (same as the ones we missed at Philip Island) - they leave their nests high up in the rocks just before dawn and head out to sea for the day, returning only as the sun sets so that their predators can't see where they live - clever eh?!

Anyway, we set off after a bit of instruction on how to kayak (Rich at the back steering and me at the front navigating) and went round Tonga Island where there is a seal colony - 500 seals on this tiny island, they were everywhere all over the rocks. The pups in particular are very sweet, the large males are really quite threatening looking. In fact we had seen seal pups the morning before when we stopped for a short walk up to a waterfall and had seen four of them splashing about in the pool at the bottom - completely adorable sight. But it was cool to see some more, and I had my eyes peeled for penguins the whole time anyway! We kayaked for a couple of hours until we reached a huge sandy beach just outside the National Park where we could have our lunch break (fab veggie soup prepared on the beach and the biggest muffins we have ever seen!) before setting off on our tramp through the rainforest back to the water taxi. With Team Israel singing most of the way it was a hilarious journey, and Josh pointed out loads of interesting stuff about the forest - it was a very beautiful walk.

That night we stayed at the idyllic Kaiteriteri, right on the beach with the calmest sea possible, it looked like a lake. The full moon was setting in a pink sky and it was beautifully quiet as we are still out of season. It was so picturesque, we had a couple of beers on the beach and then had some dips and chips in the van before closing up for the night.

Happy Campers!!!

XXX

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