Abel Tasman and Franz Joseph

---

Abel Tasman National Park runs along the northern coast of the South Island. Its main attractions are the many little beaches, coves, and bays scattered along the coastline. Most people plan 4 or 5 day hikes through the forest stopping to camp along the way in huts - these huts are usually booked up to a year or more in advance. It's common to combine hiking and kayaking but I decided to just do the sea kayaking option since the weather was likely to be crappy and I didn’t want to be stuck walking for hours in the rain.

Luckily, I booked in on the first sunny day in 2 weeks. The first couple of hours at sea were sunny and fairly relaxed. We paddled along spotting picturesque beaches along the way. After we stopped for lunch, the weather started to change. Waves crashed against us as the wind began to blow. We had to fight our way through the water. The turquoise waters turned to gray as the clouds formed overhead. The next 3 hours were a struggle as the waves seemed to be pushing us backwards. We pressed on and at the end of it we had kayaked over 20 km (about 12 miles). My shoulders were aching the next day but at least we had a few hours of sunshine, which is more than the people before us had so I’m not complaining.

The next few days were spent driving back down south through Westport to Franz Joseph - one of the biggest glaciers in New Zealand. Over 3,100 glaciers exist in the tiny country of New Zealand. The best way to see a glacier is to hike up on to it so that’s what I did. As seems to be the pattern, the weather had been horrible the few days before I arrived and people who had been hiking the previous day were hardly able to see 3 feet in front of them. The morning started out clear and sunny and there were about 3 hours of sunshine on the glacier before the rain began to pour down. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be - I had worn 3 pairs of socks to protect my feet 😊 but by the last hour my feet were getting cold. The last hour was less majestical because of the rain and clouds but it was still a fantastic day for glacier hiking and the few hours of sunshine were wonderful!

---

Photos

Kiwi bus
This bus has been my transportation around the island :)

Comments

[Nitesh Jain]

Awesome
Awesome!

[Jessica Kapoor]

HOLY GLACIERS!!!im surprised you didnt turn into Kulfi!! loooks very cool though...LITERALLLY...hahaha im on fire today...perhaps because its early morning and i dont feel like doing my homework...hehe...ok enuff now time to get back to work...byee