At the top of the South Island of New Zealand sits a land of bays, islands, and low mountains sloping into the sea. The vegetation is semi-tropical, the waters carribean-blue, and the beer the best around.
When we first got to Nelson, we thought we would spend a few days in town. But the weather was good, and we couldn't help ourselves, so after a morning of laundry and van-dry out at the caravan park, we headed up to Abel Tasman National Park. Home to one of NZ's nine great walks, Abel Tasman is also ideal for kayaking. We found a local company, hired a tandem for two days, and the next morning caught a water taxi (kayak strapped to the back) to the top of the park. We had a couple nice days of paddling, saw some great wildlife, and tested our relationship skills in the tandem kayak (Brook can't get over rowing, and the need to go fast over water; Erin likes to actually look at stuff along the way - there's grumbling but it works out). We also had an entertaining evening camping at a beach: after flagging in two lost Israelis with our headlamps on strobe-mode, Brook had fun chasing brush tailed possums around in the dark with a kayak paddle. Here are a few photos from the paddle: https://plus.google.com/photos/103829313469224560701/albums/6007520983675966785
All-in-all a good few days. Then we finally did spend a couple of days in Nelson, including spending the night with some friends we had met about a month ago in Fjordland, complete with venison stew courtesy of our host's rifle.
No comments:
Post a Comment