An American Abroad: Kayaking in Abel Tasman

Since Luke has been playing soccer/football for the Mapua men's team he has acquired some local knowledge which today really paid off! One of the players on the team is an instructor at NMIT (Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology) and let us in on the fact that his kayak students are running $20 all day kayak trips through the Abel Tasman (which usually cost about $160). After putting off making the call always trying to wait for the best weather, we finally made the call the book a day out of the water. It's lucky that we did as well because it is the last week they are running the tours!

Some of the downsides of this are that it is winter so we were bundled up and started the day in winter hats! The other is that during the summer when this is at its most popular, you can swim in the water when you stop for lunch. Today was not the kind of day for that. Regardless of those small downfalls, the sun came out and shone down on us for a majority of the day so that I could swap my winter beanie for my sunglasses. The water which is usually chock full of kayakers in the summer was quiet and calm. We basically had the entire national park to ourselves!

On our drive to Marehau, where the kayaking would begin, we started the day by having to pull the car over due to a cow blocking the road. Some of the guys in front of us as well as the guy that we drove with got out of the car and helped get the cow back into the pasture. We had to laugh at how New Zealand it all was. Is there any other way to start the day?

Once we got there we got outfitted in all of the gear that we would need for the day: booties, waterproof jackets, gloves to keep our hands dry and this skirt that gets wrapped around the hole of the kayak to keep our whole bodies dry. We headed out onto the water with Luke at the back with the foot pedals to steer while I took the reigns at the front as the navigator (we may have gotten beached on rocks twice under my watch...). We paddled along the coastline and through some caves until we got to a beach to stop for lunch in the sun. On our way back we went around one of the Islands, Adele Island. It's named so because the explorer, Dupont, who travelled Golden Bay from europe told his wife he would only be away for 2 months, but did not arrive home for 2 years. To make it up to her he named this island after her. How nice! We saw seals (and baby seals!) swimming around the island, lots and lots of birds and I even saw a sting ray! Luke and I have agreed due to all of the different tours and books we have read since we've been here we now know more about New Zealand birds than we know about birds in our own countries. Oopsie!