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Published: March 14th 2007
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Ian.. Indeed, it turned out just as we had feared. The deluge that accompanied us up to Franz-Joseph stayed with us while we were there. Rachael mumbled something about it never raining on glaciers or they’d melt, but I wasn’t willing to risk it as the last thing I fancied was spending a day up to my knees in water that had been cooled by glaciers. With our minds made up, we were just getting ready to leave when we bumped into Bob and Kath from the Milford track walk - it’s a small country when you’re all travelling in the same direction! They had been up on the glacier the day before and confirmed that it was wet up there, so I am glad we decided as we did.
We set off to the accompaniment of rain for our drive across South Island in search of some better weather and, after around 10 hours of driving, we found it! As we crossed the Nelson Lakes national park, the weather slowly started to improve. By the time we reached our destination, Motueka, the sun was out in full force and we were uncomfortably hot in the van! As soon as
we arrived, we both decided that we’d love to go for a splash in the sea and so we put our swimming cossies on under our clothes and set off to the beach. 2 miles east, we managed to find where the sand started but the sea was about another mile out and we were worn out just thinking about crossing to get to it. The beach was “honest” as Rach put it, I’d call it an eyesore. So, instead, we settled for a walk along the shore and back into town with our cossies chafing us the whole way.
Rach was mad keen to do a bit of kayaking, but we both wanted to have better scenery where we stopped for the night, so we decided to push on further north into the Abel Tasman national park. 13km up the road was a lovely little beach village called Kaiteriteri that had a massive campervan park and was directly on the shore of a golden sanded beach with azure seas. Sorted. We shot out as soon as we’d stowed the van and booked the first water taxi we came across to a place called Bark Bay to do part of
the 3 day costal walk that is the highlight of the park. We also booked a days kayaking for the next day as Rachael wanted to ,as she put it, burn some serious calories. I should note here that neither of us had ever done any kayaking at sea, and so I had some grave misgivings about the wisdom of booking the longest and hardest advertised trip as our first venture into the sport. Anyway, we jumped onto the taxi and were mildly, but good naturedly abused by the Maori skipper, Eric. He had Rach model the PFD (Personal floatation device - they’re not called life jackets anymore), and us all sing stupid Kiwi chants and told us various tales of what the Maori believed. Rach was not exactly a happy bunny about all this. Dumped at Bark Bay, we tramped south for about 3 hours to another bay called Anchorage Bay through wonderful golden bays, tropical forest and crystal clear watered inlets. It was very scenic. After a stint on the beach, we were picked up and carried back, again by Eric, to Kaiteriteri beach where he gave us a blast on his Maori war horn as a farewell - I, surprisingly for me, quite enjoyed his antics.
We achieved, for me, a new low the next morning by having the alarm wake us at 6.45! After a lightening quick shower and breakfast, we shot off to the pick up point at Marahau for the kayak adventure. We needn’t have hurried, it turned out, as a couple who were coming with us were about an hour late anyway. After a brief water taxi ride, we were dropped off at Torrent Bay and given instruction on how to operate the kayaks. Fairly simple stuff; don’t sink it. In we jumped to perform the “John Wayne” launch - this is where the person in front gets totally settled in and then starts paddling away while the one in the back jumps in and starts to steer and then gets everything else sorted out. It might sound complex, but, honestly, the actual realisation of it is far worse. I think Rach was paddling for about half an hour before I managed to get all squared away, but then, I philosophised, it was her that wanted to burn calories! With that in mind, I, generously, allowed her to do the lions’ share of the paddling without even letting her know that I was giving her this gift. The guide, Adam, told us that it was far better to both row the same side at the same time and that the person in front should set the pace. Rachael started with a nice easy to follow rhythm that went something like this: 1…2…12…1.2.1…2….1..1.2..2.11….3. I attempted to follow it for about, oh, a minute before losing my rag and politely asking her to try to make her strokes a bit more even. After many many abortive tries, I finally latched onto the idea that I should count out loud and we would paddle to the count. Once we had this sorted, we shot through the water like a greased weasel through a drainpipe and we were able to view the sights from the sea. We came across seals frolicking in the sun 1..2..1..2..1..2 we saw cormorants swimming under the water 1..2..1..2..1..2 we saw small shoals of fish darting out of the way of our craft 1..2..1..2..1..2. I finally got bored of counting and we went on to singing songs to keep time instead. Unfortunately, anyone who has ever heard Rachy sing will know that she does it to her own rhythm anyway, so we were back to square one but what the hell. We were both knackered after the first 5 minutes of rowing and so were really looking forward to the long day ahead. Fortunately, after a while, the pain lessened and we were able to contemplate the “generous” BBQ that awaited us once we reached the target bay. We got there without any further problems and drooled with hunger until Adam got the hint and went and set it all up. There were 6 in our party, and the other 4 didn’t like mussels which was a shame for them as Adam had packed enough mussels for 6 and enough meat for a small rodent. He cooked the mussels in apple juice and they were fabulous - I mean to try this myself next chance I get - maybe as an accompaniment to that fish I will one day catch? Rach and I were fully sated by the mussel-fest and were raring to go again in the afternoon. The others got by by eating lots of cake and so were not too unhappy. The afternoon was spent exploring stunningly beautiful lagoons and before we knew it, it was time to bid goodbye to the kayak and set off on a brisk walk to a deserted beach to await our water-taxi ride back to Marahau. A good day was had by all. We spent another day walking in the park and then the weather started to turn, so we decided to head onwards to the wine regions…
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Biwude
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fascinated
Hi fans, I enjoy day to day your exiting journey. Really lovely! Hold on with your updates. Cheers