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Published: October 8th 2006
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![Abel Tasman Abel Tasman](//photos.travelblog.net/15734/93609/t/599370-abel-tasman-1.jpg)
Abel Tasman
Highlight of this part of the trip - Abel Tasman National Park - north section of the south islandA strange collection of pictures for this blog which covers many miles where not a great deal happened. We went from Lake Taupo down to Hawke's Bay area to start the wine tour (see separate blog). We hit a bad spell of rain and cold at Napier so didn't get to appreciate the Art Deco buildings properly. Compared to the rest of New Zealand, which seems to be full of brand new single storey wooden buildings, you can see why they make a fuss of Napier, but the architecture didn't really stand out a huge amount. We carried on to Hastings and Havelock North then didn't stop until Martinborough, driving through endless miles of pastureland and seeing a lot more sheep than people. Still, it has been lovely to see all the spring lambs and daffodils out everywhere. So nice to have two springs in one year!
Martinborough was lovely if tiny. We were the only people on the campsite, but were lucky to share it with two horses and a gaggle of pretty white ducks who took to waking us up for bread scraps. Very politely though. We hired bikes to cycle round the wineries and bought lots of
![Rural campsite fun Rural campsite fun](/pix/shim.gif)
Rural campsite fun
Trying to interact with the horses at Marinboroughyummy cheese for our picnics. All in all a very laid back stretch of the trip. We have very much enjoyed being in these places off season and not having to fight through the crowds, if it ever gets that crowded. We're not sure.
Wellington was so windy we could barely stay upright. We went to the huge and impressive, but ultimately unsatisfying Te Papa museum. A bit too oriented towards the kids perhaps, with the emphasis on interactivity rather than in-depth information. Great for the school holidays though. The Wellington City & Sea museum was the perfect antidote with its interesting and sensitive exhibits packed full of text and testimony from real people. Apart from that, we wandered the streets and the waterfront, drank way too much coffee and generally tried to stay out of the wind.
We didn't start to appreciate Wellington properly until we drove a little way out of the city to the south. We saw all the after work surfers hitting the beach at Lyall's Bay and then drove around the peninsula towards Sinclair Head. We couldn't believe how quickly the city changed to rugged coastal scenery. After a very buffety night camping
on the headland, we walked in gale force winds around to the seal haul-out at Red Rocks. It was quite an assault on the olfactories to have so many seals in one place - they stink and leave a greasy brown residue on the rocks where they spend all day basking before their nightime fishing trips. It was amazing to see so many up close and they really didn't seem to mind a few gawking humans. A trip around the Miramar peninsula with its huge, stunning bachs (holiday homes) and pretty bays rounded off our Wellington experience nicely.
The next day we caught the ferry over to Picton for the start of our South Island trip. We headed over to Abel Tasman National Park after appreciating the beauty of the Queen Charlotte Sound and spending a vertiginous night camping just off the Queen Charlotte Drive overlooking the waters. We passed through Havelock and Nelson pretty quickly, aiming to stop longer on our way back and drove all the way up to Marahau, the last settlement before the park boundary. From here we were able to arrange a water taxi to take us up to a stretch of the coastal
route path and then come and pick us up later in the afternoon after we had spent the day walking. You get into and out of the water taxis (speedboats) while they are hooked up to the back of a tractor that then tows you to the water and back. Great fun. It really was a stunning stretch of coastline and we had blasts of fierce sunshine in between brisk showers that seemed to come from nowhere. We saw more seals - females with last season's pups this time - a bit less intimidating than the fearsome smelly male seals near Wellington.
We had so much fun on our walk that we decided to stay another day and book a double kayak for a pootle up the coastline. Another stunning day and a chance to access some of the more remote little bays and rock formations along the coast. Sunbathing, more picnicking, a little light paddling. It all felt far too much like being on holiday.
We returned via Nelson for a slap up seafood supper at The Boatshed, a very nice restaurant overlooking the water. Then on to Marlborough and more wine tasting than is decent to
mention. After sampling and purchasing far too many choice bottles, we thought we had better move on before Graham applied for a visa and refused to leave.
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