Sea Kayaking at Abel Tasman

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Wednesday 5th March - lovely campsite near the beach at Marahau. Booked for a 'Freedom' kayaking trip - this is where you get some basic safety instruction then you are free to paddle wherever you want so long as you are back before dark. Tom, gave us a safety briefing and a map and then we were off. Quite windy to start with so the sea was quite choppy until we got round the first headland. We crossed the bay and skirted the coastline until we found a nice little empty beach just right for lunch. We successfully beached the kayak and all was well until Lyn stepped out and fell overboard. Once she had retrieved her flipflops and paddle we pulled the kayak up the beach, Lyn stripped off down to her cissies and hung t-shirt and shorts out to dry on an old log in the sun. Then it was sitting on the sand with backs against the rocks to enjoy our picnic lunch. By the time we had finished Lyn and her clothes were dry so it was back in the kayak and we set off for Adele Island just over a kilometre away. As we approached you could here lots of birds so we stopped paddling and let the kayak glide in. We then spent a little while watching a Kingfisher dive into the sea several times about 20ft away from us - wonderful.

By now the sea had calmed down and the wind had veered and was behind us making paddling a lot easier! We made our way back to the mainland and explored more little bays and rocks on the way. When we got to sure Lyn got out without falling in however she had a bit of a panic as she couldn't find her flip flops until I pointed out they were on her feet (I think she must have been a bit tired and emotional after such a lovely day)!!! As we walked back we met Hamish who was our kayaking guide here 5 years ago.

Lovely sunset so a quick meal and a walk along the beach. Tomorrow we move on towards Golden Bay, still in Abel Tasman National Park.

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Comments

[al]

aparatus
I can understand the need for the paddle, lifejacket, map, hat and sunnies.......but why the rolling pin!!!

[Dave & Lynne]

Enjoy
Sounds fantastic keep enjoying yourselves and take care. lol Dave & Lynne