Abel Tasmen our way!

3 days of kayak, hiking and camping along the Northern Coast of the Southern Island of New Zealand  has been the highlight of our trip thus far.
Most of the Abel Tasmen National Park is only accessible by boat, kayak or hiking in so we chose to do a little of all to get the full experience in the short 3 days we had set aside for it.

Starting at the Southern most tip of the park we kayaked north to a bay called Anchorage where we would camp for the night.  Along the way we stopped at several small beaches, bays and lagoons, some of which you an only access by kayak at high tide  not allowing boats enough depth.  One of the coves wasn't even accessible by hike trail so if you can imagine it's still fairly "untouched".

The only people on this entire beach. 

Magic has been a word i've used frequently to explain the things we're seeing and doing in this stunning country.  This leg was magical in many senses for the scenery and for the way we're choosing to see and take it all in.  Craig and I clearly love beaches and being on the water in any sort of vessel so being just a couple of feet from the water paddling our way with the current was somewhat of an ideal for both of us.  Even when some seals from a nearby island were playing only 30 feet from us and we both felt a little scared it was still our kind of thrill.  You see it's mating season for the seals at the moment so the males get very territorial and have been known to tip kayaks over for getting too close to their females. Hence the reason we stayed relatively far from the breading islands just off shore from the park.  But they decided instead to get close to us.  

I dream that one day it's our boat in that bay. 

The penguins however are harmless and quite cute to see playing around or swimming along close by.  Cruising along with a favorable wind, sticking my hand in the passing water reflecting the ozone-less sun onto my skin is a piece of heaven to me. Especially having the lush bush and jagged rocks watching us pass by them and enjoying life on the move.  ahh, if only words could truly describe how lovely it really is here.  Theres a certain love that vibrates from the earth in a different way i've ever felt, maybe similar to Hawaii but still it's own kind altogether.

Day 2 of kayaking we left it along a beach for a scheduled pick-up as we moved on by foot up the slopes and over to the next valley where we'd set up tent for out last night in the park.  After crossing the desert of ocean at low tide covered with all sorts of shells crunching under our feet, over another hill and down we arrived at the beach camp where we set up camp.  Only having 2 other tents in the whole site was a very welcome change from the thousands of hoodlums  in the last site.  We pitched the tent and took our snacks and books down to the beach for a little evening shell hunt and walk along the beach for sunset again.  It's cold here at nights but the beach is always worth bundling up for.  

For dinner we made a fire which we shared with a nice local couple just enjoying the park for the weekend.  That night we fell asleep to the sounds of waves and woke in the morning to birds chirping all around us.  A perfect day for hiking farther north just passed the beach where we'd be picked up by the last water taxi of the day. Then  back for lunch and our "rescue" ride home on a fast boat passing all the places we'd stopped and played the past days.  A much needed shower awaited us with our car and a nice hot meal of Ramen and veggies.  I went to bed smiling at the opportunity we had to experience nature and the wild in such a special.


 Love life!