Blogs from Marahau, Abel Tasman National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 10

Abel Tasman is a walkers and kayakers paradise. Remote bushland, beautiful isolated beaches, and crystal clear waters. We joined a day trip from Marahau beach and took a water taxi to Torrent Bay and kitted out the boats with BBQ gear for lunch as well as much needed sustainance on the 2 hour paddle (lots of biscuits!!). The remote park juts out onto the blue ocean isolated from the reached of the mainland. The difficulty of access has led to the stunning preservation of pristine beaches and stunning cliff views as you kayak your way across the headlands accompanied only by the sounds of water lapping past you, and the occasional seal and pup barking! The rather limited barbie lunch was completely forgotten after our return to HQ on a trailer behind a tractor and ... read more

OK, I'll start where Verity left off, her birthday! We got up Friday morning to bright sunshine, a great start to the day. Verity rang her parents, we treated ourselves to breakfast (actually the milk had gone off so we had to!) and then we headed off for our day of fun! First we went Zorbing which was brilliant and as it was sunny we weren't too upset about getting soaking wet! We did one run together and then as a birthday treat Verity had a go on her own. In the afternoon we relaxed in some outdoor hot pools at the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua and in the evening we went out for a lovely dinner of New Zealnd Lamb accompanied by a fair bit of Alchohol despite being turned away from a backpackers bar ... read more

As we were staying in the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park at Old MacDonalds Farm for 2 nights I got a bit of a lie in on the Saturday morning before I met up with some of the new guys that had joined us on the bus in Picton to go for a walk along the coast through the National Park to some of it's stunning little beaches. Me, Lisa from Ireland, Ryan from Canada & Francesco from Germany (who was feeling a bit hungover thanks to a big box of Goon as they call it in Australia (really cheap wine in a box) that he was drinking the night before) set off to the information centre to find out where to go & we decided that as the nicest beach was about a 3 ... read more

Arriving in Nelson Tramping and kayaking in Abel T \visiting pancake rocks in Punakaiki ... read more

Yesterday we travelled to the South Island, catching an early ferry to Picton. From there we went to Abel Tasman national park. It was quite a lot of travelling but we stopped off in the Marlborough vineyard area, at Hunters for some wine tasting. We are staying in Marahau which is at the south of Abel Tasman NP at Old Macdonalds Farm. This is a really cool place. There are loads of animals running about - lots of lamas and small birds. I hand-fed several ducks, chickens and a peacock(!) some of my chips! There are a lot of options for activities here but Shashi and I decided to sea Kayak. I haven't done it before so was excited but a bit scared as the guide seemed very professional and is ex-army so was super bossy ... read more