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Published: December 4th 2013
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Breakfast in his dressing gown
At least this one fits and leaves no gaps! View was from the first floor of a road junction, not quite as nice as the balcony breakfast in Brisbane Breakfast was included the first morning but it was breakfast in our room so Ian stayed in his dressing gown (Ian is a fan of the hotel dressing gown) and had breakfast on the very small balcony. Not quite the view of Brisbane!
Once I got him dressed we set off to the Abel Tasman National Park. This park does not have any roads so the only routes to it are on foot or boat. It's about an hour from Nelson. The park consists of a large expanse of bush park which meets the sea and there are a series of beautiful sandy bays around the coast line. It is also a Marine reserve and contains colonies of seals etc.
When we got there we spoke to one of the lads at the waters taxi company. Taxis leave and pick up from the various bays at specific times and we we were realistically too late to complete the set tour that I had in mind. However he suggested an alternative where we got off at a beach called Onetahuti. And we then walked 6km to Bark bay where the final taxi of the day would pick us up. Assumed
Waiting for the water taxi
No water in sight but this was the boarding point time for the walk was 2 hours (leisurely stroll I think were the precise terms)and this gave us 2.5 hours so time for our hastily bought packed lunch on the beach. My final question to him was 'is it a level walk, and his answer was "yes, it's just a bit of a climb at the start". I should have guessed that he was a bit of a superman when during our conversation it emerged he has been in London for a couple of years, and he had visited 30 European countries in his time there, over a coffee before out trip started Ian and I got to 18 over 30 years!!
So at noon we were ready for our trip, it started behind the office in the car park. Strange? Not when you see that the speed boats are attached to tractors and they get you on the boat and then pull you to the sea! The reason for this is that the area is very tidal and by the end of the day they are having to drag you back over half a mile of sand. This area is also the number one kayaking destination of the
world apparently and they have to do the same for them.
Once we were in the water we were off, with real speed as they were very powerful. So more amazing scenery but this time from a powerful speedboat, with close up views of mountains and beaches. Every so often they stopped to show a feature, both physical like the split apple rock which is surrounded by sea at high tide (and not at low) as well as some of the wildlife. He also took us into sand spit bay which is a natural lagoon which again, disappears at low tide. It was all really invigorating. We just managed to get in and out with the bottom scraping on the sand, 15 minutes later and we wouldn't have been able to do it. Great fun.
When we got around to the bay we were jumping off at, he pulled as close as he could and we just rolled up our shorts and jumped. Once on the beach we decided to have our packed lunch before we set off. All very relaxed so far............
So with two hours to go we set off on our walk. So the
Split Apple Rock
It does what it says! good news was, the scenery was brilliant, both the views from within the forests as well as the views as you looked out. The bad news was the 'bit of a climb at the start' was a major tramp up and down the cliffs around the bays. Just check out the pictures and imagine that within my 6km I had to climb to the top and down again at least three times!!! I was very good (even Ian said I didn't whinge much) and just ploughed on. The worst was there weren't many markers so it was difficult to measure if I was keeping up to the expectation of the timers!
We had left the beach before a French family who were doing the same as us so I decided that as long as they didn't over take us we were fine. 3/4 of the way around they caught up with us, with the father saying to me...... "Don't worry we won't let them go without you" Cheek!
Anyway I had nothing to worry about we got there with 15 minutes to spare even with some time out to take some videos on the swing bridge to send
New Zealand penguins
Cormorants actually but a good joke! home to our daughter who is scared of bridges (what a lovely mum).
Exciting boat ride home. No time for looking at anything, just a full out power boat ride straight back with a kayak strapped to the back which played havoc with the spray. On the way the lady in front of us was talking to a young mum. She raved about this burger joint called Fat Tui which did the best burgers anywhere and which she was off to grab as soon as she was off the boat. Now after 30 years of marriage we are pretty in tune so without a word spoken we got in the car and said in unison "Fat Tui?". Took a while to find but when you're determined.....and she was right. Ian voted it the best burger he had ever had.
It was a really good way to round off the day. Back at our hotel we debated whether to bother going out but Ian was desperate to check out some of the microbreweries Nelson is famous for. So we picked ourselves up and headed out. Ended up in a pub called the sprig and fern that brews it's own.
Sand Fly Bay
Just got in and out on the taxi without knocking off the propellor. Very exciting Even I liked it.
So a really good end to a really good day. Major driving day tomorrow, so early night.
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