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Published: February 5th 2008
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Abel Tramper
Laura takes in the stunning sights of the Abel Tasman. The first thing we noticed about the South Island in between jaw-cracking yawning was the sandflies (aka Blackflies) they are not as bad as mossies, but they are a close second. They bite and have no fear to swiping or insect repellent it seems, you have to be unmerciful and just crush them as soon as possible. But a small price to pay in contrast to how gorgeous the South Island is. The ying and the yang of existence as we know it, paradise must be balanced with sandflies.
Nelson was our first stop. Our time here was imposed upon by the tail-end of a pacific conjured cyclone. It didn't really impinge that much, but it was an additional peeve factor for us when we discovered Barts battery had died and we had to run about town in the rain to try and start ringing around the local garages for someone to come and rescue us. Official shout out to Thom's gentlemanly nature here - he was soaked through from running around town, whereas I only got a bit wet running to the nearest net cafe to get a yellow pages. We got the battery replaced in a nice little garage
Marlborough Sounds
As we arrived early and missed the Sounds coming in, I wanted to get something of them. Here is the waters around Picton. where the bloke fixing it for us gave us some friendly tips on our exploration of the Abel Tasman National Park as well as making a few jokes about how prehistoric and corroded the original battery in Bart was. Once all fixed we made our way to the Museum of Wearable Art. We had a great time! It's a fashion show set up with the main premise of making clothes out of interesting materials like bottle tops or spoons, trash, and so on. Their special piece which is quite famous is the bra collection, where designers make bras that make political statements, are a feat of engineering or just plain funny. Sadly we are unable to include any photos of these creations as photo's were not allowed in this part of the museum for ownership/copyright reasons. We have included some pics of the classical cars section which is attached onto the side of the museum though - so enjoy!
With our arty-o-meters on full we reverted back to some outdoors stuff and got our hike on up in the Abel Tasman National Park. Having been broken in by that hike back at Tongariro, we made mince meat of the 25kms
De Lorean Time Machine
Can I forward in time to when I have a million pound and we can travel in luxury. Oh and I've always wanted one of those hoover-boards! walk we did at Abel Tasman. The weather was lush, the nature and walking trails were like they'd had a good clear out (cyclone shampoo, if you will) the pictures will hopefully show you some of it's gorgeousness. The waters were crystal clear and calm, Thom had a dip in the chilly Tasman, whereas I chose to power nap on a tiny little secluded beach we found and enjoyed by ourselves in the late afternoon of the day's hiking. My feet were utterly destroyed by blisters on blisters but I really didn't mind that much having seen the place at a good steady pace, and with our own steam. As we were walking the final stages of the trail we'd taken I was assaulted by a bee the size of a small sparrow and brutally stung! It was simply horrific! Thom was quite alarmed at my dramatics (you'd think he'd have gotten my queen tendencies by now) but as it was my first ever sting I think my reaction was perfectly legitimate. Neverless the day was great blisters and stings set aside and the ice cream we had to conclude the day was DElish!
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