Day 13: Abel Tasman park

14 november

Set the alarm clock for around 06;45. However I already wake up around 06:30. That was good fortune as the power was down. One of the people on the trip blew up her hair dryer that caused the power outage. Good thing my shaver got a battery.

Around 07:15 the bus takes us to Abel Tasman park. We are picked up by a water taxi (the Abel Tasman Explorer) around 08:45. Again the large boat can't reach shore and we are picked up by a smaller boat and have to wade through a few meters of water. After about half an hour on the boat we reach our drop off point. During the trip, we go past a rock with some penguins on it. Again a bit of wading through the water to reach the shore. Good thing I got my towel with me so I can dry my feet.

The path we take is well taken care of, but rises and falls a lot. Along the way we have to take a small bridge that is only build for 5 people to cross at one time. Off course some idiots (we think either German or Swiss) never learned to read the number 5 and ensure they are number 6, 7, 8 and 9. This makes the bridge very shaky.

After the bridge we take a side track to the beach. The walk down there was pretty steep, but the view was magnificent.

The big disadvantage of a steep downhill, is the uphill. This took an enormous amount of energy. Once back on the track we reach the lunch place in a short while. We took some time to rest and enjoy our food. Lunch is on a beach equal to the one where we were dropped off.

After lunch we had to continue at the orange flag. It took us quite some time to find that orange flag. The first part of the hike after lunch takes us very high. Not that the path is really steep, it just keeps going up without any part horizontal or anything (oh well, better do the going up part first, so at the end you only have to go down). After reaching the highest spot the walk is very smooth. Mostly going down a bit with sometimes the track going up again just a little bit. Made some more photo stops along the way.

Reached the destination around 14:45 for some nice relaxing.

Around 15:45 the boat comes to pick us up. Along the way we sailed to a rock where some seals where sunbathing.

When we arrive back at the starting point, the tides are good enough to let the boat reach the shore (well almost) so we people with high shoes won't get their feet wet. My shoes were high enough.