Nelson and Abel Tasman

Nelson is one of the bigger small towns that dot the south island, especially on it's west coast. Most of these places are jumping off points for one singular attraction or another, in this case Abel Tasman national park.

Abel Tasmen was an explorer who came upon that area of New Zealand when he utterly failed in his attempt to seek out Australia, which at the time was only a theoretical continent to the Europeans. Australia is big, how he missed it, I don't know. If I recall the story correctly he was set upon by the natives in a misunderstanding and later killed (possibly eaten) by yet more natives in a different part of the pacific island chain. Despite his failings he did an excellent job of mapping out the area and so a national park stands in his name.

Fellow Kayakers Martin and Leslie

I signed up for an all day Sea Kayaking trip in Abel Tasman. I was a little nervous because my arms were in a lot of pain after my last kayak trip, and that was just a half day but there is a seal colony in Bark Bay so I signed up for the full day trip. Thanks to some better instruction from our instructor Joel and not being the one to steer the rudder this time out I did much better. I was a bit sore on the left by the trips end up fine by the next day and yes sea kayaks do have a rudder, fresh water kayaks don't.

A water taxi being towed to the water. Ours was red.

The tide off Abel Tasman moves on a 6 hour and 20 minute cycle. The tide was out when we first got there so the water taxi that took us and our equipment to our starting point actually had to be driven to the water line by a tractor. Once the taxi was in the water it was only 15 minutes to the beach where we launched from, but it would take us all day to get back.

We started almost immediately by crossing open water to a rocky outcrop where the seal colony was. It wasn't a huge colony but you are surprised because at first they camouflage really well into the rocks and suddenly you realize there is another one hidden in every crevice.

It was kind of too bad we started from there because that would have made a great finale for the day, but it was still a great day out. We hugged the coast line the rest of the way back. Colonies of Shags or as we call them cormorants were everywhere. We paddled through a few caves, glided over shallows where we could see fish below us.

An island of Shags

Kayaking into caves

Lunch was on a stunning bay where we were able to hike to the top of a ridge and get a great overview while our guide got our included meal ready. This was probably the first place where I really talked to Phil and Drew, 2 guys from Arkansas, but they deserve their own blog entry so I'll get back to them later.

The bay where we had lunch

The Kayakers (Lelsie, Martin, Drew and Phil)

By the time we got back to our starting point the tide was in and nearly a full Kilometer of water stood between where we launched the taxi and where the beach was now. With a pound of sand in my togs and weak arms we were loaded back into the van for our return trip to our hostel, The Paradiso.