Nelson and the Abel Tasman National Park

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From Renwick, we got the bus a couple of hours west to Nelson. There we shopped around and booked kayaking at Abel Tasman National Park for the next day. We were picked up at 7am and taken to Marahau, a village (or rather collection of a few buildings) on the border of the park. We met Jack (or 'Jeck') at the kayak office who showed us where we would be paddling and how to survive in a kayak (what to do if it upturned, stopped working, exploded etc). We then got on the water where he stayed with us for a few minutes and then left us to brave the open ocean! We kayaked to the first of two small islands (unfortunately encountering waves on the way so getting a bit damp) and stopped on a deserted beach to dry off. We then went round this and Adele Island (a larger one) where we saw wild seals who swam up to us when we stopped! After pulling up to another empty golden beach to have lunch we paddled back alongside the coastline that made up the national park.

We stayed that night in Marahau and decided to walk through some of the national park the next day. We went along the track near where we had been on the water the previous day. It was really pretty and foresty and again we got to eat lunch on the beach! We doubled back on ourselves so as to get back to Marahau in time for the kayak bus to take us back to Nelson. We spent another night here before moving down to Punakaiki the next day.

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