Abel Tasman

Hello all,

On the way to Nelson we stopped for lunch in Pelorus Bridge. The water was so insanely clear (and cold, as I learned when I jumped in.)

We got to the Nelson i-site around late afternoon. I don’t know if I mentioned this earlier but the i-site’s are information sites, and they are in all the medium to large towns. They are great because they’re always in the middle of town and they tell you all the good stuff to do in that area. So, at this i-site we told the guide we wanted to do a kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman. Only problem was we didn’t have a tent and all the huts were booked. So the only way you can stay over in the park is in a tent campsite. So we went to “The Warehouse” which is like our WalMart and bought a $17 tent. Oh yeah! It said 2 person on it and we figured ‘it only needs to last us one night!’ Now we were ready to do the Abel Tasman! We went back to the i-site and settled on a 2-day, 1-night kayaking trip. We started in Marahau the next morning bright and early. I will mention at this time that we were getting a little lazy with sleeping in so this was going to present a bit of a challenge. But, apparently all good things worth doing require getting up early for so I had to suck it up.

The next morning we had our kayak loaded with gear, our safety debriefing completed and were on the water by 10 am. (I know, SO early!)

The first day we paddled from Marahau Beach to Anchorage Bay. Along the way we saw so much beautiful scenery it is hard to put it into words. I know that sounds cheesy but it is true! None of the pictures do it justice, not even the professional ones in the brochures. The beaches are a golden color, and the water is this spectacular cascade of colors from gold to green to blue.

The water is so clear you can see all the way to the bottom even in deep spots, and you can see the fish swimming and the birds diving for them. We even saw a penguin shooting along in the water. They are way too quick for my photography skills, let me tell you.

There are lots of seals in the Marine Reserve, and we weren’t expecting to see any on the first day but we got lucky and saw a few hanging out on Adele Island.

This is a predator-free island so the native birds can have a chance to survive. Basically people (in their infinite wisdom) introduced possums, ferrets, stoats, weasels, rats and mice to New Zealand when they came to the country and this has caused a lot of problems for the native birds because they eat all their food and destroys their nests and other such badness. So they have set up predator-free islands among other things to try to give the birdies a chance. I have become a bit of a nerdy-birdy lady, and even have bird books that I use to identify birds! So much fun. Apparently I am way off topic.

That night we made camp in Anchorage. We were pretty excited to set up our cheap tent and see just how terrible/awesome it really was.

It certainly didn’t disappoint and actually wasn’t too bad of a little tent. The real problem was the lack of cushioning we had as we just slept in our sleeping bags right on the ground. By the next morning we were so insanely sore it wasn’t that hard to get out of bed! But this is just one of the things you do when you are in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I’m sure the beds are super comfortable in Regina, SK but it’s a hole. Haha. Ok, I’m not very funny, I’ll stop trying to make jokes.

Like I said we were out on the water in good time that morning and the sea was like glass. It was very surreal to be out on the ocean but yet it was so calm. It sure made the paddling easy.

First stop was Pinnacle Island, and we saw some seals! There were lots of mother-baby pairs. The babies were so cute because they were just so loud calling out to their moms. The moms were pretty complacent about the whole thing. They would feign some interest but were a little pre-occupied with sunbathing on the rocks. The life of a seal is a pretty cruisey one.

We also checked out the lagoons of Sandfly and Mosquito Bays.

For lunch we stopped in the Tonga arches, which is a huge set of arches that has been carved by the sea. We paddled in and dragged our kayak into the little alcove.

After lunch we went to Tonga Island which is in the Marine Reserve and saw lots more seals. We met our water taxi mid-day and they took us back to where we started in Marahau. It was a perfect two days, just the right amount of paddling J

After leaving Marahau we headed for Golden Bay- more on that in the next blog.

Until next time!