Ask anyone who has travelled around the South Island of New Zealand and they will tell you seeing Abel Tasmen is a must do. I would know, I asked a ton of people what we should do and Abel Tasmen was always on the list. There is a very popular tramp along the coast with 3 day and 5 day routes along with kayaking and tramping expeditions. We opted to do the sea kayaking because Josh really really wanted to go sea kayaking, and well I can’t say I was too disappointed.
The day got off to a less than perfect start. As tempted as I was to leave this part out because it was a bit embarrassing but I’ll go ahead and tell you anyway. So as previously mentioned, Josh and I spent the night in the car to save some money (now don’t go making an assumptions this is not going in the direction you are thinking of now). Anyway, it was sort of a long night but we stayed warm and got a bit of sleep, not my best night ever though as I still have rather bony hips that appreciate a good soft mattress. But at about 7 am we were woken up to a super obnoxious pounding on the window, that we instantly knew would not have been Marian and Alyssa. So I opened up the door to a rather angry older lady who was the host for the hostel. She was not so happy about us sleeping in her parking lot. Apparently they have a name for this and it is super illegal. It is called “freedom backpackers”, which I thought sounded like a good term being raised in America and all, I love all sorts of freedom, but apparently this was not such a good type of freedom. So she made an agreement with us that she would not call the cops and instead we would just have to pay for the beds we would have slept in for the night. Oh joy, I suffered through sleeping in the back of a Subaru only to pay for it anyway, I guess it only sucks because we got caught, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so bad. They way the lady talked about it, the cops are pretty strict about that stuff and would have fined us a ton of money so I guess we got off easy and she got money for the night as well. So we learned that lesson the hard way. I mean ya, I figured it was illegal but I hoping it was just one of those laws that people don’t really bother enforcing or really care that much about so I guess we won’t be doing that anymore and I don’t think I’ll be doing it for my travels in Australia like I was thinking. But you can stay in campgrounds for pretty cheap, that won’t be so bad when it is warm. So anyway it was a rather bleak start to our sure to be exciting day.
After we got our hostel stuff all sorted out, Josh and I got put in a room with 2 really awkward guys but that wasn’t anything to new to our hostel travel. We finally got packed up and went to get our kayaks. We had just rented a couple 2 person kayaks from a company in Abel Tasmen. They were pretty sweet with all those fancy water tight compartments and spray skirts, river jackets, and life jackets. Before we hit the water they taught us the basics of rowing and what to do if you get flipped. It was set to be a beautiful day as the sun was really starting to warm up as they took us to the beach to launch us in our kayaks. Josh and I went together and so Marian and Alyssa we in the other kayak. We basically just had about 5 hours to kayak where ever we wanted. We started off heading east along the coast to the split apple rock then back up to Fisherman’s island across from where we launched. The wind and currents made it a little difficult to head up the coast to the west but it would make coming back easier. After a quick stop at Fisherman’s Island we continued another 400m or so to neighbouring Adele Island. We stopped and ate out PB and nutella sandwiches for lunch (always so nutrious on this trip, just kidding) to boast our energy as the rowing was giving us a pretty good work out. There was supposed to be a sea colony on Adele island so after lunch we got back in our kayaks and worked our way around the island and found a whole bunch of baby seals just swimming and playing the water. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t dare get to close but had a good time watching them. At this point it was getting time to head back so we went back across the bay to kayaking along the calmer waters near the coast. While there we could see parts of the Abel Tasman coastal track and I wished that we would have time to do part of it but our tight schedule definitely didn’t give us enough time do it but the kayaking was a worthy substitute. Along the coast there were massive cliffs, beautiful beaches, all sorts of vegetation, and even a few beach homes that I plan on buying when I get rich. Along one part we were enjoying the scenery when a seal came out of nowhere and decided to swim alongside our boat. This little seal was hilarious! He would swim all around and under us and then come up like he was going to touch the boat then suddenly swim away and he was fast! We named him Pancho after Josh’s Spanish name. He would do jumps out of the water and jump up rocks then back in the water. It was super entertaining. He stayed with us for awhile and it was a lot of fun. Finally we met back up with Alyssa and Marian as we had gotten separated by back Adele island. They had managed to get stuck on a sand bar in the bay just outside where we were to return, it was extremely shallow where the tides had come in. We finally decided to call it a day and return to the beach where we were being picked up. It had been a fantastic day with the sun out shining so bright in the afternoon I was so glad I had put on sunscreen. The water was a bit cold but not too bad with the sun to keep you warm. The park was absolutely beautiful and really felt like well preserved wildlife. We felt kind of like Maori travellers looking at the coast of the south island for the first time on a warm sunny day.
After a long day on the ocean, we were ready for a relaxing evening. We made up a nice dinner that we ate by the fire and hung out in the TV room until it was free for us to jump on and watch the next film in the LOTR saga, the two towers. After rolling their eyes at us for doing the typical thing and watching LOTR a bunch of other people joined us. But wow it really is so incredible to see that movie and realize I have seen those same backdrops and even the same areas. This land really is picture perfect and even better first hand.
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