Day Twenty One - Abel Tasman Park to Nelson

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Originally uploaded by bpelley.

OK. So we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and make it down the road to the kayak tour company in time for our trip. We slathered on the sunscreen and hopped in their van to head for our boats on the shore. In retrospect, we should have just rented the kayaks and given ourselves the tour. We somewhat underestimated our kayaking ability and had to sit through an hour of basic kayak instruction. We took a week-long sea kayaking trip two years ago and that was probably sufficient training. After the boats got in the water and everyone figured out how to paddle we were on our way. Another great weather day! The sky was blue and the waters were a beautiful emerald green. Abel Tasman is renowned for its beautiful waters and pristine beaches and we were not disappointed. The water was pretty calm and there was very little breeze. We paddled along the shores, inlets and caves all morning in peace. The early kayaking bird does get the worm. After beaching our boats, we took a nice swim (ok, Bonney took a nice swim and Patrick took pictures from the shore). We were water taxi-ed back to our starting point where they drove the whole water taxi with all the people inside right up on the back of a tractor trailer that took us back to our cars. After a lovely fish-and-chip lunch (we think that fish-and-chips might be the national food here) we made our way to Nelson. Our on way, we drove through part of Nelson wine country and partook in some great and some not-so-great wines. Our favorite vineyard was run by a single woman who does most of the growing by hand. She makes small batches, but all the wines that we tasted from her cellars were fabulous! Unfortunately, it is nothing that we could get in the states. We would have to do with the precious few bottles that we took away with us. After a big food shopping trip in dowtown Nelson, we made our way to a beautiful campground situated on a lovely creek on the outskirts of town. To go with the wine, Bonney crafted a delicious dinner of local tarahiki fish fillets encrusted with potato chips leftover from lunch, broccoli and roasted potatoes. You can do quite a bit in this little campervan kitchen. Tomorrow we make the crossing to the North Island! We can't believe how quickly time has passed - over 3/4ths of our trip is complete.

To view more pictures from Day Twenty One, click here.