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Abel Tasman

February 2005 – Ronelle and I went to the Abel Tasman National Park, near Nelson, at the top of the South Island, New Zealand. We hired a kayak and spent 5 days kayaking around the park, camping at the DoC campsites.

On the ferry leaving Wellington – I don’t know why people complain about the weather there, it always seems to be superb whenever I visit

Dork Leaving Wellington

Looking down to the first campsite. It was set just back into the bush, in this nice sheltered cove

Looking down to first campsite

Could be a postcard shot of a tropical island, couldn’t it:

Tropical Island Paradise

The Stoker and the Navigator

The Stoker Navigator

The kayak was a double kayak, and pretty long and damn heavy. Mind you, there was plenty of room to carry beer and wine to drink in the evenings – made the hikers a bit jealous, since they have to carry everything in…

Standing in front of the Kayak

This was one of our campsites, looking out to the sea, and the view from the beach – it was true waterfront style living. Cost – about $5 per night.

Campsite looking out to the beach Beach view of campsite

We went for a walk up to Point Separation, where we came across a family of seals. You can see a couple of the babies there – they seemed to be learning to swim. We were closer to the seals one day when paddling around an island they live on.

Seal family

Second to last day, the wind blew up in a big way – what else to do but sit it out, sheltered fom the wind, reading our books?

Filling in time reading

Looking a bit tired and dirty on our last night out camping

Looking a bit tired and dirty on the last night