Wellington and the South Island

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After our adventures in the middle of the north island we headed again south to Wellington where we relished the joys of city living with walks along the river front, more than 5 hours spent at the national museum, Te Papa, with its overwhelming amount of information and really cool hands on displays (my fav was the mix your own pacific island music with your hands!), botanic gardens and bird santuaries, movies and eats, a climb to the top of Mt. victoria (oft used in LOTR shots), a tour of the beehive and parliment (p-a-parliment, parliment, parliment) trying to decipher how exactly their government system worked, and a drive around the coastline. In comparison to Auckland, Wellington is smaller, artsier, less cosmopolitan, slower paced, and fun!
After 3 days of city living though we were ready to get on with our adventure and off to the wilderness. We took the ferry across cook strait, enjoying a beautiful sunset over the south island and me trying out wine with cereal. Turns out a savignon blanc doesn't go so well with skippy corn flakes, go figure. We parted ways in Picton after a delicious breakfast at Dog and Frog with Breena headed off to the Queen Charlotte track and me off to Abel Tasman to kayak and tramp. After a long hot bus trip to Marahau, I checked into my carpeted tent bed hostel (the Barn! completely with roosters as I would find out the next morning) and then spent the evening wandering along the beach enjoying the sea stars and muscles and then sipping a nice refreshing Monteiths while catching up on the journal. The next day I was up early to make it to the kayaking office by the early time of 8:30am. Some fun kiwis, two women from sweden, and a guys from israel rounded out our small full day kayaking crew as we got out fitted and set learned how to paddle (again). Finally we were off in the calm teal blue seas of Golden Bay, marveling at the beautiful granite pebble beaches and stunning cliffs and arches of Abel Tasman National Park. I was the odd man out and got to paddle with our very knowledgable guide Alistar, hailing from the great area of Tarinaki NZ. He regailed us with fun stories of the history of Golden Bay, renamed that since murder's bay didn't sound as inviting, and of the early Maori warriors who offed several of the name sake's, Abel Tasman, crew when they anchored in the bay in 1642. If only they had understood the local customs and war calls... We also learned about the interesting geology, biology, and early founding of the park, once totally private land, as we sipped our coffee and tea on the beach with a yummy catered meal of chicken sandwiches (mmm, not peanut butter, crackers, and cheese!) I arrive in Anchorage (yay home!) in the afternoon and then was left by our great guide to go exploring on my own. As suggested I made the trip to Cleopatra's pool and slide down the awesome water chute. I would have done it more times had my bum allowed me. At sunset I also checked out some of the caves down the beach filled with neon light producing glow worms. They were marvelous! The next day was the hiking section and I had a low tide part to cross first so was on the road relatively early to make it across around low tide at 8:30 in the morning. The track is really popular so it turns into a relative foot traffic highway during the day, meeting lots of enthusiastic hikers along the way. The weather stayed cool though so hiking was easy enough (no overheating) and had some stunning beach view along the way. I arrive early to my water taxi point and enjoyed a good read under a makeshift lean-to teepee on the beach before heading back to Marahau for the night. I took a much need shower before chatting the evening away with my tentmates, two Israeli girls living in Melbourne and two Dutch glider pilots traveling around New Zealand. The next day was another early morning bus trip back to Picton to be reunited with Breena and another goregous sunny day with lots of beautiful blue water. Back in Picton, I spent the afternoon wandering around the small outdoor crafts fair by the port and beachfront where I found a great used book and checking out the hilltop view around Picton. Finally we were reunited that evening and had a hearty meal of pasta (oh, thats sure a new one for us...) and a final wander around Picton, walking through the friendly small street and swinging on the port front park swings. A fantastic 4 days on the top of the south island!

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