Abel Tasman adventure

Nelson region is known for its sunshine and apple orchards. However, we spent most of our Nelson time listening to rain falling on our tent. We also encountered a new animal, a sandfly (we refer to them as 'bitches'). These tiny harmless-looking buggers give you a nasty bite which will itch for a week, forming awful red bumps all over the skin. They are highly intelligent too, as they seem to know how to find that 1 centimeter area of skin where repellent has not been applied to and start their feast! So people - It seems that we are dealing with some kind of a devil fly, the superhero of all mosquitos.

Originally the plan was to stay in the area for a good few weeks, me working away in one of the apple orchards and making us filthy rich. However, after a considerable amount of phone calls it became quite evident that my timing sucks and currently all the positions have been filled. I wasn't too devastated by the fact though, especially when I heard how bad the money actually is. Maybe I will work later somewhere else, or maybe we just stick to canned meat and forget about it:) Anyway, we decided to head up towards Abel Tasman National Park to do some hiking and kayaking.

Abel Tasman track is a fairly popular 51 km hike, which normally takes about 3-4 days to hike. We decided to combine kayaking with hiking and spend 2 days in the area. The track is known for sandy beaches, rainforests and tides, so you must plan your walks carefully and take your shoes off a few times.

The weather was sunny as we started kayaking from Marahau to Bark Bay. However, we were slightly worried about our timetable; we got our kayak an hour later than we were told, and we only had about 4 hours to complete quite a strenuous route. The kayak company also showed no mercy, the kayak had better be in Bark Bay by 3 p.m or they would charge us an extra fee. So off we went, paddling like some olympic champions. I suppose the idea is to paddle fairly slowly and admire the bays, birds and seals along the way...perhaps have a picnic lunch and go for a swim... However, we only took one 15 minute break and passed one seal colony, the rest of the time we were fighting the waves and grunting. Seriously tough work!

We camped in a lovely beach right next to Bark Bay and slept like a baby. The next morning we started our hike towards Awaroa Bay, where we would get a watertaxi back to Marahau that afternoon. We passed some amazing beaches with white sand and plunged into rainforests in between. We heard that normally one can see dolphins and stingrays swimming in the warm bays, but we were not that lucky this time. However, the water taxi took us to see a seal colony nearby. It was quite unique, I have never seen anything like that! There were only females with their 3 month old pups, apparently the males only visit the area in November for some...erm...'seal luuuurrrve'.