New Zealand - Abel Tasman pt 2

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Okay so I’m really not used to farm life. When I say I’m not used to it I mean I do not enjoy being woken up at 5am by a Cockrel. Once I can handle.. But when it repeatedly starts yelping for 2 hours straight that’s when I get rowdy. I’m limited to sleep time as it is so for a damn rooster to fucking wake me up at stupid o clock in the morning is NOT good. It didn’t help we were in a tent so it was even louder for us. If I wasn’t so snuggly and terrified of freezing if I got out of bed I would have strangled that damn thing and ate it for breakfast. After about 10mins all of us were soon shouting ‘fuck off’ to the rooster. Not that it can understand us, but it gave us satisfaction of yelling abuse back at it. So after having our natural alarm clock, I eventually make it out of bed. I still got out too late though and very nearly didn’t make it in time to the bus picking us up.

Kayak time!! I have wanted to kayak for ages and now it was time. All of us are renting are own for cheaper and just going off around the coast ourselves instead of with a guide, it’s better that way so we can just hang out and do as we like. When we got there we auto got our gear and had a safety briefing. It was all pretty straight forward and I’ve done kayak before so I was hopefully gonna be okay! I’m partnered with a new guy called James we picked up, he’s kinda cute and a typical English gentleman. He’s just finished studying law and is about to have a solicitor job when he gets back, ya know.. One of those types! So another pair of my sunglasses died. Apparently I’m cursed with sunglasses, I can never keep hold of a pair. I’ve gone through 4 since I’ve been travelling! And today these decided to fall apart on me just as I was sat on the loo.. R.I.P Sunglasses #4. I was not looking forward to squinting in the sun while kayaking. That’s another thing right, apparently New Zealand has worse weather than Aus.. So far EVERY day has been sunny for me! Way better weather than it was when I was in Sydney. However I have only done the north island so far really, I’ve heard the South is a lot chillier so we’ll see.

So soon enough we’re all packed up, geared up, in our wetsuits and ready to get on the water! We head out to the ocean, it’s low tide at the moment and the stretch of sand is massive. So after a few practice sessions we’re good to go! The 8 of us are sticking together so we don’t get lost. Me and James make an awesome team, we both go at the same pace and stuff, so we were firing ahead a few times. So after about an hour and half of paddling we decide to stop at a beach on a nearby small Island. It was lovely! Had some lunch and chilled for a bit and soon enough we were on our way again. We were planning on working our way along the coast as there were a good 7 beaches to take our pick of. The next one we stopped at I had a bit of a sunbathe to attempt to re-top my tan up as it is seriously lacking colour again. Anyway eventually once we got to our 3rd beach it was getting pretty late and the others wanted to head back and stop at another beach on the way back. However me, James, Chief and Codiac decided to carry on to the limit point with just pure kayaking and see if we can explore around the rocks a bit. It was lovely! The sea was literally turquoise colour and we spotted a few caves along the way. It was a very nice canoeing trip, for sure. Soooo eventually we catch up with the others on the way back and are really struggling to find our landing spot. The tide has gone in and it’s impossible to find where the guide pointed out earlier on. We saw a few stingrays along the way, damn they swim fast. Anyway so the last 20 mins of the journey it was seriously shallow water and we even got stuck in the sand, butttt eventually we spotted the finishing line and managed to push our kayaks up onto the sand. So we originally thought we had to walk back after we finished and they would come collect the kayaks.. Turns out we were wrong. Once we got back to the office the girl was like ‘she’s out there alone and can’t lift the kayaks up onto the tractor’.. OOPS! Oh well, she soon got some help and made it back. So it was a really fun journey and I definitely enjoy kayaking more and more each time I do it. I could have done horse riding instead but I can do that in Australia hopefully. I reallllllllly wanna horse ride! You can go on the beach and even in the sea with them and stuff.

So oce we got back we all collapsed in the tent and ended up talking in bed for ages. We were all nackered! I then went for a shower, and it was awful. The damn temperature couldn’t decide what to do with itself. I hate bad showers, it really ruins my freshening up time. So once I had eaten some uncle bens tomato and basil rice with tuna (my classic lunch back at college in Nottingham), I got straight on the soco and coke! I actually ended up pretty pissed. Cougar made some mussels with thai green curry sauce, I was so tempted to try some but they just look too disgusting. I’m not really much of a sea food person. Theres another group who joined us on our bus yesterday, and they were sat on the table next to us. We haven’t really gelled yet. Ya know when you’re with one group and you’re really good friends, and there’s another group that’s also really good friends and it’s kinda hard to mesh them both together, well it was kind of like that. We all still have only just met them though so I’m sure as time goes on we will all be talking more. Anyway we all had to get out of the fresh air because the sand flies were seriously munching all over me. They’re the most painful little shits ever. I’m literally riddled with bites all over my feet and legs and stuff, fucking annoying. So we all collapse in the tent with our drink and get pretty trashed and sing along to some kick ass music on my ipod. Fun night, definitely! I have really enjoyed Abel Tasman and I’m glad we got to stay there for 2 nights. We’re off to a tiny town called Barrytown tomorrow, population of 40 people! It’s fancy dress night in a pub so should be good.

Peace xxx

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