New Zealand - Wellington to Marahau (Abel Tasman)

OK - so on we go.....I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats salivating at the thought of reading some more my my personal insights to NZ!

Right now that I've got that out of the way let me begin - well as you'll have read in my last entry we had reached the capital city Wellington and after a few beers and less than a few hours sleep it was time to jump on the ferry and head over to the South Island. Its a 3 hour journey and has pretty good views both leaving the North Island and more so entering the South Island through the Marlborough Sounds going into Picton - the topmost town in the south. Basically mountains with lots of natural trees and fauna and various different cliffs and lots of little beaches spotted around - I'm told that occassionally you will spot whales and dolphins.....we didn't! There was of course the occasional sea gull but have to say that was about it - mind you I was napping most of the way so maybe I could have missed something a bit more significant...anyway I digress - we arrived in Picton and picked up a new coach before heading on our way west to the Abel Tasman via a very picturesque drive through the Marlborough vineyards and of course the obligatory stop off for a little wine tasting! Very good it was too and if I recall correctly a blistering hot day so of course I spent the day in the shade for fear of turning that bright tomato red that is so favoured by the Irish worldwide (by now though of course I had developed a tan - I even kept my watch on all the time so I could see for myself how 'brown' (or for the rest off you - off white) I was getting.

Now we'd had breakfast we went on to Nelson which is one of the larger towns - by that I mean it had a population of over 200, and stopped for lunch which of course was a pie! Its something the kiwis share with their cousins over the water in OZ - absolutely obsessed by pies but have to say they are damn fine. Half an hour later we were on our way again in an attempt to make the Abel Tasman before dark via a short stop off to pick up some grub for the evening meal - a few of us clubbed together and went for the barbie option and very nice it was too - mostly cooked by moi of course....known by now by my rightful title of Culinary Kerry!

So our lodgings for the night? Well it was a delightful place called Old MacDonalds Farm - lots of ducks and geese running around, the odd peacock showing off his feathers, sheep, cows, llamas, etc - totally unexpected but pretty cool! This was another place where we had our own huts to be shared by 2 or 3, rather than the usual 8 beds which made a nice change - the only challenging aspect was making your way to and from the bathrooms/showers in the pitch black!

Well as the sun rose the next morning a day of sailing was on the agenda followed by a hike through the Abel Tasman national park (covers loads of ground and is one of the most popular in NZ - you can take anything from a few hours to nearly a week to get through it). All was well until we got on the boat and then the heavens opened and didn't stop for the rest of the day - which made sitting on the boat for 4 hours and then hiking through the forest all good craic........still its not that far away and I hope to go back again before I leave NZ, hopefully I'll get some sunshine the next time around! More on the rest of this day on the next entry!