I havn't had the chance to make an entry recently, hence the shortage, but I've been a busy boy. Last time I posted one I was staying in a hostel called The Bug, which was awesome and I would have been happy to spend the rest of my time in Nelson staying there. Unfortunatley when I went to ask for an extra night in the morning they had no room left. However, the owner, being the kind kind guy that he is, found me another hostel to stay in AND gave me a lift over. It's another nice quiet one too, he must have been paying attention when I told him I prefered them. I'm now staying at Honeysuckle House. Basically it's a big house, it has a 6 bed dorm, a twin room and a double room. The house is run by an old couple, Robin and I forget his wives name, and they are so so so bloody nice. It's just like staying over with some friends, I was told to make myself at home. The kitchen is just like being in someones house, free tea and coffee and biscuits, and free herbs from the garden and stuff. The garden outside is really nice, although I havn't had the chance to sit in it yet. The couples house is attached to the lower part where the guests stay and guests are invited to come up into the owners house and use their internet for free, and have free icecream. It's such a cool place, really strange though since like I say, its like staying over with people I don't know. There are only a couple of other guests here, a Swedish girl, a Dutch guy and a Swiss, all who are very nice and I've been chatting to.
After I had set my stuff in to the hostel I decided I should actually do something since I had just been relaxing the few days before. I took a a nearby walk up a load of hills, conveniently close to my hostel, that lead to the center of New Zealand. Up there there was good views over Nelson and Richmond and other surrounding areas, mountains in the distance and stuff which was cool. I can also now say that I've stood right in the middle of NZ. I had a sit took some photos and then headed down to the supermarket to get myself some supplies for the kayak and hike I had booked for the next day. At night my new buddies from the hostel and I went out for a drink. Nelson nightlife on a Saturday night is so so terrible, I have better nights out in Hawick. Although we were quite early in homing home.
But early home for a good reason, the next morning I was picked up by a bus which was taking me over to Abel Tasman National Park. The first day we were to do kayaking. The small group of us headed down to their base and got our gear on, I got to wear a nice "skirt" again, and then I learned how to kayak, again. I didn't know anyone else on the trip before hand but I was partnered up with a Dutch girl called Caroline, who turned out to be pretty cool. Our guide was awesome too, he was called Alfie and he was loving the fact that I was Scottish. A tractor took us down to the beach and we moved our kayaks into the water. Unlike last time where we just sat in the kayak and our guide puished us in, this time we had to do it ourselves. I was sitting in the back again so I got pretty soaked. Being in the back, I also had to steer again, but I was expert at it by now, plus these kayaks had way better foot pedals.
We set off around the coastline that is part of Abel Tasman. The area we were kayaking was much more open than the water I had kayaked before, Islands were much further apart so there was alot of long distance paddling over open water, was pretty scary stuff. It was also quite a bit more windy this time so their were some pretty big waves, nothing I couldn't handle though. We made our way up the coast which was pretty stuning, high cliffsides covered with forest. Every so often we made off for a smaller island. We checked out an island known as Bird Song Island because of all the birds living on there. We sat for a while and just listned to them all singing which was cool.
A couple of islands had fur seals on, probably one of the highlights of the kayaking trip. We saw two pups and then a huge one later on, lazing about on some rocks. The area is supposed to be famous for having seals but a few people who had already done the kayaking before me told me that they hadn't seen any. I was well chuffed when I got to see some. We had a quick stop for lunch and coffee which was a relief, my arms were killing as we'd been kayaking for about 4 hours. Unfortunatley we didn't hang around for long though and made our way back up the coast for another hour, passing by more cliffsides, islands, and some pretty cool rock formations.
We arrived at Bark Bay, the part of the park where I would be staying for the night. I grabbed my stuff out of the kayak, including the sleeping bag and cooking set I had rented, and headed up the beach, over the estuary and toward the hut I was staying in. Originaly I was told there was no room in the hut and that I would have to take a tent but they found room. The hut was very basic but enough to keep me going for the night. There was running water, bunks with matresses, somewhere to sit, toilets, a freezing cold shower in some bushes, and that was pretty much it. At night a couple of us sat round a campfire by the tent sites. We were joined by an American couple, a Canadian couple and two Swedesh guys. Quite a mix but everyone had done a lot of traveling so there were quiet a lot of storys to be told. We sat chatting until it got dark. I seen a possum too. When the fire went out we all headed off to bed, at half 8, I felt about ten years old, but I had been up very early the morning before.
This morning I was woken by some idiot falling out of his bed as his alarm went off. I decided to make an early start to the days hike as I had to be within a certain time of low tide to do part of the walk. I chucked on the previous days clothes, the shorts I had planned to walk in I wore while I was kayaking silly silly silly me, so they were soaking. I packed my bag and I set off. The track took me up a twisty mountain path that follwed the coastline for most of the way along. I was surrounded most of the time by forest, with spaces in the trees every so often where I could look out and for some amazing amazing views of the islands off the coast, the sea with the mountains in the background and of the many many beaches that there are throught the park. The walk was very different from the Tongariro Crossing that I did when I was in Taupo. This track was much much flatter, which made for a more pleasant walk. The scenery wasn't quite as impressive as Tongariro if I'm being honest but it was still amazing.
About half way along my track I came to the estuary that I could only cross 2 hours either side of low tide. I figured that since it was about an hour before low tide the area would be mainly clear and dry. I could see a few patches of water dotted about but I didn't think it would be too much of an issue. I was wrong. Half way across I came to a river more or less. Instead of maybe putting on my shorts, taking off my shoes and walking through it, where I could have dryed off at the otherside, I took a different approach. I rolled up my jeans, took a runner and tried to jump. I almost reached the otherside but not quite, and so my shoes and socks got pretty soaked and so did the bottom of my jeans. I came to another river further up and didn't even bother jumping, my feet were drenched. The area did have some awesome rocks at the side though so I had plenty of oppertunity to take pictures of them.
I was going to continue the walk with wet feet but thankfully I changed my mind, i walked for a while barefoot to dry off and then put on my trainers. The rest of the path was pretty easy so it wasn;t too much problem. I was also really warm so I whipped out my Scottish flag shorts, waaaaaaaahheeey, tied my shoes, hoody and wet socks to my bag since I had no room inside, attempted to make my grasy tuggy hair look half decent, and plodded onward.
I only made one stop after that, at a resting place on the way, appart from that I made relativly good time, only pausing to take photos of every beach and every water feature that I passed. Almost all of the way I was completley by myself, I only saw people when I overtook them or they were coming the other way, it was so peacful and made for a really nice walk. 19km later, and after about 6 and a half hours I arrived at the cafe at the base. I still had loads of time to kill before my bus so I treated myself to a chocolate brownie and a cornetto, way to put back on all those pounds I had just burned from the past days activities. I was joined an hour later by the Dutch girl who had lost her camera on the walk, I let her know I felt her pain after my memory card. I had loads of awesome pictures this time though so I didnt really care.
The bus took me back to my hostel tonight and I had the best shower I had had in ages, it was so good to be clean again. I look forward to sleeping in a comfy bed tonight, my back kills after today. Tonight I'm going to the hostel across the road since people that came over on my flight are staying there so it'll be cool to catch up with them.
I have no idea what I'm going to do over the next few days, relax tomorrow for sure. The past couple have days have been tiring but really awesome.
I have to book myself onto a Kiwi Experience bus to take my south soon, hopefully they wont be too busy, I don't want to be stuck in Nelson forever.
