The Wandering Chocoholic

I’m very tired so this entry will be pretty quick. I’m in Nelson now, which is a fairly large town that I haven’t seen much of, since we arrived here last night and I spent today at Abel Tasman National Park. The park is one of New Zealand’s biggest and most popular, with good reason – it’s absolutely beautiful. (Photos to follow when I find a computer that allows uploading).

People spend days in the park, but I just did a daytrip. I started off with a morning walk to a small sheltered beach, which took about three and a half hours on a track that wound around the mountains and had stunning views of the beaches and perfect turquoise water. Lunch on the beach was followed by about two hours of sea kayaking in the afternoon. The weather was perfect – a bit chilly, maybe, but sunny and clear. It cooled down in the afternoon and the winds picked up, so the kayaking got to be a bit choppy. But the guide was great – a Maori guy who has been doing these trips for about 12 years and knows every rock and inlet, and who treated us to folk tales and even a Haka as we paddled. We even got to surf some of the waves into the cove.

Tonight there was a power failure briefly at the hostel, and everyone just took out flashlights and went to the lounge, where someone played guitar and started a sort of singalong. Hostel life can be great sometimes.

Out to the west coast tomorrow. To be continued. In the meantime, keep the e-mails and comments coming – I love receiving them and it’s great to be updated on what’s going on in the real world.