NZ:Kayaking and Nike Beach

Sunday 15.4: We spent a sunny and warm day in Abel Tasman National Park. We had booked a kayaking & walking trip, and were picked up from our hostel. It didn´t take long to drive to the beach from where our kayaking trip began. Carla and I paired up in one kayak while Denise shared a kayak with our guide, Steve. First we were told some information and tips for kayaking, and we did a short exercise of what to do if we fall. These kayaks were more advanced than the ones we had in Singapore: They had covers to protect kayakers from getting wet, storage space and the person sitting in back had pedals to change direction. I sat in the back and it took me a while to learn to use the pedals - Carla would tell me to take left, take right, take left and so we zigzaged :) We learned to paddle in synchro and I got the hang of the pedals by the time we had our first break at a nice beach. Steve offered us delicious blueberry muffins, cookies and fruit. And Carla was teaching Denise ballroom dancing...

Denise and I wearing our kayaking gear

Carla and I paddling

Then we had some more paddling to do before we reached our destination. It was nice being on the water on a sunny day, seeing all the beaches. I was wearing a headband, which left this akward tan line on my forehead. Fortunately it´s almost gone now. Anyways, we had sandwitches for lunch, and this girl gave us the rest of her chocolate cake. We were stuffed when we began our walk back to where we began our trip. Denise and Steve had made a bet about who gets there first. So we started walking up this hill at a decent speed and even though we stopped to take pictures at every look out we passed the rest of our group pretty soon. The walk was generally easier than the one we did on Saturday, and offered some beautiful views. Low tide made the shoreline look different from what we had seen earlier from our kayaks. We actually made it to the end point before Steve, who was kayaking back with another group, but I don´t think Denise got anything for prize. After getting back to our car we drove to Takata, where we had dinner at Wholemeal Cafe. In the evening I tried to pick up a movie with little success. I ended up changing it once but the since the second pick was no better we just decided just to go to bed.

Hand picture (we took these in several places)

Low tide

Monday 16.4: We drove to Farewell Spit, which is a really long beach shaped like the Nike logo in the northern part of the South Island. The sky was pretty dark but fortunately it wasn´t raining. We did a walk along the shoreline and saw a big group of black swans (at least I think they were swans). On our way back the weather started brightening and when we drove to this "lighthouse" the sun began shining. They actually advertised having a lighthouse, which in reality was more like a short white pole with a light on top of it. We walked a hill down and another hill up to get there, and even though the lighthouse wasn´t cool the view was worth the walk! From there were drove to Motueka for lunch and then it was my turn to try driving. I had never driven with left sided traffic so it was interesting. I did alright when just driving on the highway (despite of driving a bit too much on the left side) but turning etc was more comlicated. We made it to Hokitika, though, where we spent our night.

Black swans

Farewell Spit

At the "lighthouse lookout"

Another beaufitul view