Spent 2 days in Wellington. We went to the Te Papa museum which is the national museum of NZ. There was a lot about how NZ was formed by plate tectonics, earthquakes, etc. and a lot about the Maori history, which is the native tribe here. Also went on a half day Lord of the Rings tour which was pretty cool. We got to see 8 locations from shoots in the 3 films including Hobbiton Forest, Minnis Tirreth, Helms Deep, and Rivendell. We're excited to watch the movies to see all those places on the screen.
After Wellington we went to Abel Tasman National Park. We hiked 25 miles over 4 days. Needless to say afterwards our feet were very tired and blistered.(Mike's anyway!)Each campsite that we stayed at was a beautiful beach, next to an estuary which had to be crossed at low tide. On our first day walking to our second camp we collected about 50 clams and made a very nice seafood and sausage jambalaya.The next day was fucking crazy! We heard that there was bad weather coming and we got stuck in the middle of a huge storm. We ended up making one of the crossings just after high tide in pouring rain and water that was about waste deep. 5 hours and 7 kilometers later we arrived at our camp soaking wet and ready to pass out!But the sun came out, the sky cleared up and the weather the rest of the time was great.
The track itself was across the coastal mountains in Abel Tasman. Through rainforest, rocky terrain, and beautiful beaches. It's pretty much paradise!And like the first day, we were able to collect fresh seafood at every beach.Mussels the size of your hand! And all free, as much as you can grab!
Toward the end we were pretty tired but we made it to the end and are now relaxing.Tomorrow we head to Nelson to hang out for a few days. We're pretty excited because the hostel we are staying at has free bikes so we can cruise around town and check it out.We're also looking into booking a fishing trip if it isn't too expensive.Blue cod and grouper perhaps?
More photos will be posted when we get Auckland and computer time is cheaper.Til next time!
Maggie and Mike
