Next stop after Nelson was Abel Tasman, known for being one of the most beautiful and most visited national parks in NZ. One of the most famous things to do at this park is a three day hike, so naturally that’s what I did. Or attempted.
But before I get into that, the first day I was in Abel Tasman I did some kayaking. Abel Tasman is known for being one of the most sunny places in New Zealand, so of course it was raining. Kayaking in the wind and rain is about as fun as you can imagine. However I still had a great time. The beaches there were beautiful, we did get some patches of sun in there, and our tour guide was a hilarious kiwi. As we kayaked against the wind for a couple hours to get to a certain beach, our guide suggested that we try a more relaxing method of getting home: sailing.
Generally sailing and kayaks don’t go together, but after some failed attempts and some problem solving, Mike (our guide) amazingly was able to make it happen. And all we had was a large rectangular piece of fabric. So we had Mike’s kayak in the middle, with two corners of the sail tied to the front of his kayak. My friend Victoria and my kayak on one side, our friend Geoff’s kayak on the other. Geoff and I both held on to Mike’s kayak to essentially make one big boat. Then Mike tied the other two corners of the sail to his two paddles, held up his paddles in the air, and we were off! Was a bit unsteady but certainly a fun way of getting home.
Then we have the hike. One of my friends from wwoofing in Oamaru met up with me to do the hike. Then we had Victoria and Geoff, who I had met a couple days before, who also joined in on the hike. I think the total distance is 51 k or ( miles), which we would split into three days of hiking, two nights camping. The first day was amazing. Hiked 6.5 hours. Wonderful sunny weather, beautiful views, amazing beaches, etc. Carried all our stuff to campsite for the night, this amazing beach. The next day, however, it was raining. Again, in the most sunny place in NZ. At first this was fine, even fun to be braving the rain; it was sorta just a drizzle anyways and we were in the rainforest protected by the trees. Then it started pouring. Then thunder. So then after hiking 3.5 hours, only 2 hours shy of our final destination, we decided to grab a water taxi back to the hostel.
Was quite the bumpy ride, but we were so glad to catch this boat. As we were on the boat, the driver heard over his radio that there were whales in the area. So we decided to do a bit of whale watching. Obviously other boats heard the same news, as there were a few boats just lingering around at sea, waiting. After waiting and waiting we finally spotted some fins. As soon as we spotted any fins all the boats zoomed over. And then we’d see them somewhere else, and the boats would zoom there. We just kept chasing around the whales. And then we saw him; Free Willy. He popped his head out of the water to say hi.
After whale watching had one of the best burgers I’ve ever had at Fat Tui, a local burger joint. So it ended up being an alright day after all.
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