day 31, 32, 33

Day 31

Today we started another cool adventure. We wanted to explore Abel Tasman National Park and heard that kayaking was one of the best ways to see the park. So we booked a two day kayak trip with an overnight on a houseboat in the park. The first day of the trip we were with a guide and a couple of other kayakers. It was a perfect day to be on the water. We got a little instruction and headed out to an island for a break and some tea/coffee.

After tea we headed over to the next island to check out some more wildlife and hopefully see some New Zealand fur seals. Well, luck was on our side and we got to see one swimming and a couple up sunning themselves on the rocks.

We took a few pictures of the seals and then headed back to the shoreline to look at some of the beautiful bays and beaches. The beaches are amazing and the water is an incredible blue/green and so clear. We had a nice paddle to our lunch stop. We had some sandwiches and cake and relaxed on the beach in the sunshine. John went for a quick swim before we headed for a little hike to view the beach from above.

As you can see it is a very beautiful spot!

Our guide said this beach was rated one of the top ten in the world, but we are not sure of the qualifications. After lunch we got back into our kayaks and headed further north along the coast to Achorage Bay and our accomodation for the evening. Along the way we saw some more wildlife, including some cool star fish.

We had a few pictures taken of our expert paddling and then headed into the beach after a great day of paddling.

We got to the beach around 3:30, so we decide to go for a little hike along the Abel Tasman Coastal track before we headed out to the houseboat. It was a great little walk.

We got back to the beach about 6:00 and waived down the houseboat host to come pick us up. We spent the rest of the eveing having a few beers, a nice bbq dinner and chatting with some really cool people from Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Below is a picture of the boat from above, we didn't get a good close-up picture of it.

Day 32

We started the day with a nice breakfast and got to feed the fish off the back of the boat. Surprisingly, feeding the fish in Achorage Bay is very similar to feeding the fish at Lake 30. You throw a little bit of old bread in the water and the fish swarm. The only real difference is that the fish are herring in Achorage Bay and not bluegills.

After breakfast we packed up and got a ride back to the beach to grab our kayak and head out for our second day on the water. Our second day in the park was unguided, so it was just the two of us exploring all the cool bays, beaches and islands in the park. The high tide was around 9:00 am, so we got to go explore some the bay lagoons that are only accessible during high tide. Amazingly the tide was 4-5 meters (12-15 feet) while we were there. It can be 6-7+ meters during full moon. It was a beautiful morning to be on the water.

We saw a bunch of birds, like the pied and spotted shag, oyster catchers, and others. Below is a pied shag drying it's wings. It doesn't have any oils in its feathers, so it must dry them before it can fly high into the air.

Once we finished exploring the lagoons we stopped and had a little lunch and then headed out to Tonga Island which is in the marine reserve and is a protected island (you can't get closer than 20 meters to the island) because it is a fur seal breeding area. We were excited to go see all the seals. It was amazing to see all the seals and pups (baby seals). The babies are usually born in January so they were just starting to swim. It was really cool to see them playing in the water and sunning themselves on the rocks all around the island.

We spent a bunch of time kayaking around the island. Unfortunately we had to head into shore to catch our water ferry taxi back to Marahau and our hostel. So we packed up all of our rented gear and waited on Onetahuti Beach.

It was a really cool couple of days kayaking around an incredible park.

Day 33

Another day started off with incredible scenery of the Abel Tasman National Park. We were picked up at Old MacDonald's Farm, the backpacker we stayed at last night, and headed out to the Matueka airport where our next adventure would begin. No, it is not skydiving either! Gotcha. We went microlighting, which is something like flying really. Ok, maybe not quite, but it felt like it. It is more like handgliding with a motor.

A picture explains it better than words could. Above is a picture of John and his guide, Guy. John sat in the back and enjoyed the ride and took a few pictures. Below is a picture he took of Andrea, and her guide Trevor.

It was amazing to see the park from above and gave us such an incredible perspective of the landscape. Below are a couple pictures that Andrea took of John's microlight as it was flying through the air. It was a beautiful and clear morning with little wind, perfect microlighting conditions.

You can just see John flying below.

The sun shining over the water was stunning.

Naturally Andrea took a lot of pictures, and this is another one of John taken from the back of her microlight.

Below is a picture of the houseboat that we stayed on while out kayaking in the park. The houseboat is the larger boat on the left.

The water in this part of the Tasman Sea is so clear that we could see various depths and colors from the height we were at, roughly 1000 feet.

Words cannot describe how beautiful it was up in the air. From above, we could see all the bays and beaches we had been kayaking in the 2 days before. Many of the bays are full of water during high tide, and turn to beach at low tide, like this one below.

Andrea and her guide Trevor were "glory" hunting. When flying, you try to put yourself between a cloud and the sun, and it creates a beautiful rainbow from the reflection. We were successful, as you can see below.

The faint shadow that you see in the middle is our microlight. Below is a picture outside of the national park, towards Matueka, of some farmland. Many of the apple orchards are covered in the red tarps seen below. This protects the apples from the hail. The area is also very densely covered in vineyards and hops as the weather provides favorable growing conditions.

The airport is quite small and has only one landing and takeoff strip. We came down on the grass just to the right of the stip below. This is a picture coming in for our landing.

The landing was nice and smooth. As soon as we landed we both wanted to take off again, it was an amazing 35 mintues that went by very quickly. This is the only place licensed for microlighting in the entire country. After we took our suits off, we sat outside the hanger watching the planes from the flight school take off, and the sky divers float down with their parachutes open.

After our bus came to pick us up, we headed down along the coast towards Barrytown where we would be staying this evening. The drive was incredible! We stopped at a viewpoint called Irimahuwhero, named by the Maori people, and this is what we saw...

This is us!

We stopped further south along the coast at Pancake Rocks, a hot tourist destination! They are not entirely sure of how the rocks formed, but there are hard and soft rocks piled on top of one another, and oddly enough, they look like pancakes.

Evening was settling in and the sky and clouds were beautiful.

We spent the evening relaxing at our Tavern/Hostel called All Nations Tavern in Barrytown.