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Caught the ferry this morning to the south Island. Check out the picture - was beautiful. Part way through there was an announcement over the tannoy that there were Whales to the right of the boat - you've never seen a whole boat full of people move so fast. Now this is a BIIIIG boat but I was more concerned about it capsizing rightways! No one saw them though so we soon straightened out the boat again.....
The views in thte south island are completely different - changed from green hills and sheep to mountains and vineyards. We went wine tasting en-route and then onto our hostel. It looked like an old english pub inside and out and we were all so glad we were staying here in NZ sunny city for a couple of days as others had to catch the bus the next morning which must have been tres annoying!
We booked to do a 2 day hike/kayaking tour through the Abel Tasman National Park over the next 2 days and were picked up at some unearthly hour the next morning. After offloading our heavy luggage we got in a water taxi (me hyperventilating most of the way!) to the starting point. The weather must have been late twenties and we had most of the day to complete a 4 1/2 hour hike which meant we could take our time and have a few sunbathing stops - yay! The trek was not, however, the gentle stroll our driver had lead us to believe. We had to go the high tide route which added on another hour but overall the walk was gorgeous and the park is beautiful so we managed it! We finally got to the beach we had been camping at and it was well worth the walk - there wasn't a footprint in the sand adn the whole bay looked like a postcard. We were completely shattered though and still had to put up our tents. Everyone else from the group stayed in the hostel but we wanted camp fires, marshmallows and cards by the fire! Tents went up OK although a little lopsided so we sat in the beach, watched the sunset and got bitten alive by the sandflies...ahhhhhh
The next morning we had to kayak back 20km! I know - we had already signed up before being told of this fact! Me and Sarah doubled up in a kayak and we paddled out to sea! We passed an island with a seal colony and the wind really started to pick up so instead of all paddling accross the straight we somehoe held all the kayaks together, put up a sail and sailed across! For the people at the back this was a nice relaxing way to get across the straight but for me and Susannah at the front it meant holding the kayaks together agains the waves and being struck and soaked by each wave we hit! Was fun though althogh a little hairy at times! We then stopeed for lunch where the instructure pulled out a complete coffe kit - frother, chocolate shaker - the works! I'm not a coffee fan and did pour most away but was such a nice suprise! He then told us we would carry on but the sea conditions were worsening and we may have to pull in early. He wasn't wrong. Luckily we swapped partners and I go the kayak expert (whos name I can't remember so will call Clive) - we lead the way into wave after wave. Was fun but how we didn't capsize I'm not sure. Wehad to pull in 5km short of our end point as the wind was getting worse and worse but we were all glad of it as it had been hard work!
Myself and Hiske refused to cook that night so treated ourselves to a Thai (the start of a bit of a pattern) which was scrumptious!
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