First look at south island

---

We flew from Palmerston North to Nelson via Wellington in small low flying planes that felt more like scenic flights (particularly as it was the best weather of the trip so far!) than 'normal' flights - flying in to Wellington looking through the cockpit on the approach to the airport was great, as were the views of Queen Charlotte Sound.

On arrival at Nelson we picked up our 'spaceship' (a bright orange converted people carrier) that is to be our home for the next 10 days. As we had a day to wait before Jules and Becca arrived we headed down to the nearby Nelson Lakes national park and parked up on the beach of Lake Rotoiti. The view the following morning from the back of the spaceship along the lake and up into the surrounding snow covered mountains was spectacular. We headed up into the mountains for a few hour walk before returning for a run in the native beech forest on the lakeshore. Then it was time to head back to Nelson to pick up Jules and Becca who duly arrived looking far too sun tanned after a couple of weeks in Hawaii and Fiji. The rest of the day was taken up driving to Marahau, the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park.

The following morning we had booked kayaks to explore the national park. We woke to heavy rain but prepared for the trip anyway. A couple of hours faffing later we were ready to go and the cloud was lifting, things were looking up...

We spent the first day kayaking from Marahau to Anchorage Bay via a series of stunning sandy bays and islands. The highlight was paddling alongside a pod of about 10 dolphins for several minutes.

The following morning started sunny and calm but the wind soon got up a bit so the paddling was tougher but the views even more stunning in the brighter light. We headed up to Oneahuti bay and then out to Tonga 'seal' island where we where able to see loads of seals and paddle along while they swam close to us in our kayaks. Simply fantastic! We then dropped our kayaks at Oneahuti bay (for the water taxi to pick up) and headed off along the coastal track to our hut in Bark Bay

Our final day at Abel Tasman was spent walking back along the coastal track to Marahau which gave a different perspective on this beautiful area. 22km later we were glad to get back to the car and put our feet up! Abel Tasman had certainly lived up to the very high expectations we had.

Our next planned stopping point was Marlborough Sound to cycle the Queen Charlotte Track however as we hadn't booked anything we had to delay this a day due to it being a very busy weekend (Labour weekend) so instead we headed for the wine growing area near Blenheim. We found a great hostel/camping place in Renwick called Watson Way backpackers where we got complimentary home made jam plus walnuts, grapefruits and oranges from the trees in the garden. So today we picked up our hire bikes (for the princely sum of $10 each!) and headed off to learn something about the local wines.

We've just got back after a fantastic day of wine tasting each with our new found favourite wine. Tomorrow the Queen Charlotte Track awaits us...

---

Comments

[Jase]

Wine!
So what nice reds did you like guys!!!??? Glad you're having a great time. Jase x