Blogs from Abel Tasman National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 39

Hi from David, Christie and Natalie again. We finished our travels on the South Island of New Zealand which included hiking the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, the Routeburn Track and the Togaririo Crossing on the north island. We had a great time and thnk New Zealand is a spectacular country with something for everyone. We returned to Whangaparoa to pick up Paris and he reluctantly left school to continue our travels together. We flew from Auckland to Tahiti, spent 9 days on the island of Morea, and then flew to Easter Island. After a short stay on the tiny "belly button of the world" we flew to Santiago, Chile. Paris has started his journal up again, so the following entries are his. 4/17/06 About a month ago I went to a school in New Zealand called ... read more

Abel Tasman National Park isn't far from Nelson but to get there you have to cross over a very large mountain. Just like all the other mountains we have crossed the road takes the most in-direct, winding and steep path it can find. After an hour and a half Carol Anne started to feel quite sick but by this time I had honed my slalom technique down to a fine art. The first places we stopped at was Motueka which is a town at the start of the Abel Tasman Track. We booked into a hostel called Kiwiana. It turned out that most of the people staying there had been there for ages and knew each other really well. This is always difficult as you never feel that welcome. Luckily we didn't spend much time in ... read more

Tak sme sa prebojovali az do Motueky, co je centrum zbierania jablk na juznom ostrove. Pracovne viza sme dostali v pohode a dozvedeli sme sa, ze sme si ani nemuseli predlzovat tie turisticke... no co uz, usetrili by sme na tom, nabuduce :) budeme vediet. Prisli sme akurat v pauze medzi zbermi ocividne, pretoze vsetky famy boli plne a cakalo sa kym dozreje dalsia sorta. Takze smne obvolali asi 30 zamestnavatelov a z nich nam len jeden povedal, ze ok a este jedneho sme nasli po ceste. U oboch sme sa boli pozriet a jedno bola strasne velka firma a jedno bola malicka organicka farma. Rozhodli sme sa pre tu malu aj pre to, ze teta nam ponukla, ze mozme u nej zadarmo parkovat a pouzivat jej sprchu a wc :) Naslubovala nam kopec roboty. Mali ... read more

Posted by Sarah March 21st Monday morning Martin and Allan from the Motueka club took the Team for a walk in Abel Tasman National Park north of Kaiteriteri. Abel Tasman is the most visited national park in New Zealand and its popular trek can take 3-5 days. We opted for the (easier) 2-hour section and even had a lovely water taxi ride home! After our picnic lunch we toured a hops production and processing facility. The hops from this facility are used by Coors in Coors Light beer. Some hops are also used by microbreweries. The aroma was great. I also got to see my first kiwifruit plant Monday afternoon. Kiwifruit will be harvested next month. Tuesday we had the privilege of touring the Talley’s fish processing facility and ice cream factory—and yes, we got to ... read more

Skydiving was awesome! We jumped from 13000ft, which was as high as they go and translates into about 60seconds of freefall. The plane ride up was really cool aswell because it goes over the Abel Tasman park and you can see the Marlborough sound and mount Taranaki on the North island. So for 15 minutes your looking at beautiful senary before jumping out of the plane. It's pretty easy because you are uncomfortably attached to another guy (basically if the guy gets excited you're going to know about it) so you have no choice when he jumps you jump. It goes by so fast it's hard to remember the whole experience, but the best part is the first second of freefall. I will definately do it again, but next time maybe a won't suggest I'm going ... read more