Second New Zealand update...
I have been on a trip up north to the top of the South Island to the Nelson and Marlborough region to do the Abel Tasman National Park. This is a coastline park with some fantastic walks through forest and some right along the coast line. The actual full track is 51km and you can do it accross 3-4 days sleeping in huts/campsites along the way if you wish. I did not walk the track unfortunatly as I don't think it would have been the best thing for my dodgy knee! However I had a fantastic time. I went with a friend from work. We left tuesday late afternoon and drove 6.5 hours to Hokitika as the drive all the day up to the park is around 12 hours from Queenstown so far too much to do in one evening. We arrived late at around 11pm and couldnt find the door to the hostel... The reception had closed at 9pm and the owner had kindly emailed me the door code and said that he would leave a note with our room info and a key at the top of the stairs on the notice board.. We spend 20 minutes trying to find the door.. The building is joined to a jade shop and a cafe and we for some reason could not locate the backpackers entrance.. Anyway we ended up finding a door round the back that was open and decided to give it a go.. praying we werent breaking and enteringinto the wrong place! We fumbled around in the dark and found ourselves in the laundry room.. but atleast we made it inside nevermind which way!
We were up early the next morning to travel up to the park. We arrived around 2pm had some lunch and decided to do one of the short walks to a place called coquille bay where we could swim. We walked through the designated track for around 2 hours to get there and then stayed there for a while and had a swim. By this time the tide had gone out so we walked all across the beach back to the beginning. This seemed to strange the next day to see the area we had walked on completley covered in deep water! Its absolutely stunning as you'll see in the photos ill post after this. Though I think pictures can never do a place justice. The following day we did an all day kayaking trip. Setting off around 9.30am by the time we had been briefed etc. The morning kayak was easy and we pulled our kayaks together and put up our sail.. cruising past a few bays. We kayaked ourselves the rest of the way to our first stop and had a break on another nice secluded bay called observation beach. We stayed here a little while before continuing on to our next stop further up the coastline. The water was smooth and it was an easy ride, though we were told that instead of kayaking the way back for the afternoon part of the trip, we may have to get a water taxi because they were expecting a storm to come and strong winds. However after lunch at the next stop the weather was still looking pretty good so we began our next trip by kayak and got to get close to lots of seals on the way! the baby ones were adorable. Around 2pm or so I guess the weather took a turn and the wind picked up, we ended up kayaking through some large waves trying to make sure we were head on so that we were not capsized. Mum and Dad you can imagine how terrified I was... I hate deep water and I'm not a fan of boats certainly not kayaks if the sea is not calm! we had to stop as everyone was tired from trying to fight against the wind to get further. I was really not keen on going the rest of the wayback as we had another 5km to kayak back to base but our guide said that we would be okay if we followed his path.. Of course we made it but it took along time and I did not enjoy being terrified to death for 90 mins!! Having said that the day was amazing for 90% we had amazing weather and some absolutely stunning things to see..
Next stop a trip round the North Island.. Ill keep posting as I go along to keep you all in check with what I am doing. Pics to follow :)
Lots of Love.
