Welcome To The Tasman

Once upon a time a man by the name of Aebl Tasman discovered the northern tip of the south island but ran away as he was too scared to discover more. For this Honor he has had the Abel Tasman national park named after him and on the 19th of November we bravely went where Abel Tasman never reached and begun our exploration of the national park A.T-ing as we like to call it. Upon arriving at our hostel we dropped our bag and head straight for the beach. Apart from consistent smooth sand it has everything you could possibly want from a beach. Rocks to clime, room to chill and good clear waters to swim in. At first we stuck mainly to the rocks. At just the right size to climb over we made our way round the coast and tried to get to a small island. But our plans met a comeuppance when the water which from a far had looked passable was in fact quit a deep rivine with a distance just that little bit too far to jump. Frustrated we headed back to the beach and relaxed there for most of the day. In the evening the kiwi experience arrived, a tour busy with quite a reputation for mischief. But to our surprise our room mates were incredibly well mannered, easy to talk to and they didn't stay up all night drinking. The following day we took a water taxi deep into the national park to walk an 8hr section of the track. We were dropped at Tonga bay and steadily made our way up and down the hills that littered the coast line. The path itself stuck mainly to the shore line but at points veered more inland to give a lovely mix of forest and coastal views with some points providing both. One of the highlights of the walk was crossing the suspension bridge which dangled around 100ft above the raging waters on there way to the sea. But by far the most interesting discovery was what seemed to be a memorial to ships lost at sea. Each ship had had its name carved the rock of one remote bay that was only accessible at low tide. After completing the walk we waited at anchorage bay to be pick up. While waiting we discovered why people had such a dislike to sand fly, having not encountered them before it sound like they were just been a bit squeamish but those little chaps sure pack a good bite and are relentless in their numbers. Eventually we were saved from the onslaught of flys and went back to our hostel to find it deserted. Without the experience the place was empty. The following day we took the opportunity to go waking closer to home, however it seems the local council didn't have the same idea as no more than 10 meters out of the center of the village the footpaths all but disappear and on those wiggly windy roads it would be suicide to try walk them, especially with tour bus after tour bus trundling by. So instead we found a local park at the top of a cliff and spent most of the morning exploring that. After lunch it was time for a round of golf, but not golf as the chaps from the club house would know its. Opposite the hostel there was a small, but fun crazy golf course and as we had the place all to our selves we took the opportunity to pass the time with a few rounds. As this was our last full day in the A.T. and we got a 10% discount from the golf people we decided to eat out at a rather nice restaurant which looked our across the bay. The following day we still had a bit of time before the bus arrived to pick us up so we hired two kayaks of the morning and explored the coast line closer to home. firstly heading for split rock, apparently created when them Maori gods were fighting over the magical ball, one wanted it for the sea one for the forest and in the argument it was spilt and lost its powers so neither wanted it thus it was left between the forest and the sea. After our cultural lesson we braved the open waters and went round the bay a bit to discover some cool rock to explore and arch and our own private beach to chill on. Groovy baby. After living the dream we haded back, got ourselves and ice cream and chilled next to the sea waiting for the bus to, get us out of there!