This past weekend John, Elise, her friend Hunter from home, and I decided to venture up to the northern parts of the South Island. We had originally planned to spend Friday night in Kaikoura (about two hours north of Christchurch) and then wake up early Saturday morning to drive to Abel Tasman National Park, where we had booked a boat drop off to part of the Great Coast Track, one of the most famous hikes in the world. But we decided instead to make our way up to Abel Tasman that night, so as to prevent a heinously early morning on Saturday. This seemed like a good decision at the time, so we just spent a few hours in Kaikoura checking out the beach and eating a delicious dinner (I had gnocchi in a basil pesto sauce, so scrumptious) before heading out again.
We didn't arrive in Kaikoura until around 5:00pm, so the light was a little weird, but the views were still amazing!
Wrong side of the island for the sunset, but still not too shabby.
What began as a logical decision to drive to Abel Tasman turned into a long, tiring drive primarily in the dark. All highways in New Zealand are just two-laners, and probably like 85% take you through the mountains at some point, so there is no such thing as an easy drive. Beautiful, definitely, but also arduous. So we didn't end up arriving at our campsite location until around 11:30pm. I was driving at this point, and our directions told us to follow this gravel road to the end. After about twenty minutes of following this uneven "road" through fog, woods, and near mountain edges, we finally pulled into our campsite, which was just a grass patch with a drop box for money. We were all exhausted by this point, so we were anxious to set up camp and snuggle up in our sleeping bags for a good night's rest. However, none of us had anticipated how severely the temperature would drop that night--partially because we arrived at our campsite at night, we didn't realize how high the elevation was. So despite wearing all the clothing I had, wool socks, and burrowing into my high quality sleeping bag, I had the absolute worst night of "sleep" I've ever had. We all completely froze our asses off, but we didn't want to be the one to wimp out, so we all just suffered through the night. I slept for maybe an hour. The next morning we awoke to frost covering our tent and car, and to the realization that we had all had equally hellish nights (minus the heat). I hopped burrito style in my sleeping bag to the car, turned it on, and shivered for about fifteen minutes before beginning to thaw. Then, realizing the absurdity of the situation, we all started cracking up, and shared stories of the random ideas that had passed through our very awake minds the night before. (For example, I consciously was pleased with myself for not shaving my legs the day before, because I was under the delusion that the tiny amount of stubble on them was giving me added warmth. Lolz at myself.)
We descended down the mountain (almost running out of gas, only adding to the series of unfortunate events), and made it to our booked boat tour just in the nick of time. This was by far the most tourist-y thing I've done since arriving in New Zealand, but it was still really cool. The cruise was mostly comprised of middle aged European tourists, some whole families, and really old people. We felt a bit out of place, but seeing as the whole Coast Track in Abel Tasman takes 5+ days to complete, we wanted to make sure we hit at least part of it. So the boat took us to Medlands Beach, and then we hiked about 5/6 hours back to the pick up point. Since we had all gotten crap sleep the night before, we weren't necessarily prepared for such rigorous activity at first, but we definitely got into it! The hike was beautiful, and midway through we decided to go off-roading. Hunter is really adventurous, but also has a really good sense of direction (helpful), so he loved running off the path and finding different things for us to see.
This picture is only about fifteen minutes into our hike. I cannot get over how consistently turquoise the water is here. Insanely beautiful.
The portion of the Coast Track that we did is the most varied, so we were able to see loads of different types of natural life. This picture shows pretty well the forest/beach contrast that we got to enjoy!
The best part was about halfway through the hike we decided to descend down this somewhat sketchy path to a private beach and have a siesta! We had around 7 hours to complete the hike (to allow enough time for the old people), so we had plenty of time to relax. It was amazing, and we had perfect sunny weather. We chowed down on our trail snacks and played around in the waves before taking sandy sun naps.
We really couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.
Abel Tasman is known for having yellow sand, and that was definitely the case! It looked exactly like cookie dough (I did not sample it to see if it was, in fact, dough).
My feet were happy to be out of hiking boots for awhile!
It was also low tide, so there were tons of fun creatures for us to examine.
At the very end of our hike, we were able to take the low tide option, so essentially walk on the ocean floor. It was really cool to see all the shells, clams, crabs, etc that hang out there. The surface was really dense clay, and it happened to be really slippery, so I managed to slip and land on my left hip. Thankfully, the previous 24 hours had been so ridiculous that I just laughed for about five minutes (we all did), and carried on, chocking it up to bad luck and a good future story.
This is the low tide area we walked through. So gloopy and so interesting!
We made it to our pick up destination with about an hour to spare, so we expected to just chill in the sand until the boat arrived, until I heard this German woman sort of shouting and pointing to the water. My extremely limited German prevented me from having a clue as to what she was saying, but we walked over only to discover that she had spotted an octopus swimming just feet from the shore!! It was too dark to snap a picture, but it was SO COOL! It was several feet long and a sort of cranberry color, and it was just blooping along (that's how I think octopi swim. Bloopily). I definitely was not expecting this amazing end to our journey, but it's totally the kind of thing that keeps happening to me in New Zealand. You have these incredible adventures and then as soon as you think they're over, something else amazing happens!
The pickup beach (Anchorage) where the octopus was spotted!
I know this post is getting crazy long, so I'll try and give the Reader's Digest version of the rest of the trip.
We had planned to camp out again on Saturday night, but we were all so exhausted and traumatized from the night before that we splurged and booked beds at a hostel in Picton. It was like being in the Four Seasons compared to our antarctic torture tent. We slept like rocks before catching a shuttle back to Christchurch. We met a British guy named Danny who is currently cycling around the world for UNICEF, and really enjoyed talking with him. He gave us his blog/website, so if you're interested, let me know and I can give you his information!
We passed through Kaikoura again on our way home, and were lucky enough to pass a large group of seals!! The bus driver pulled over randomly, and I was at first crabby because I was anxious to get home and shower. But then we realized why he had stopped and our anger turned to pure joy! There were multiple pups with the adults, and they were frolicking around without a care in the world. My pictures aren't so hot, but I got a pretty good video of the pups swimming in a little tide pool and waddling around (they look hilarious), so I will try to post that somewhere at some point.
See the two/three sunbathing on the rock? I wanted to go join them!
There's a little guy waddling around. Seals are awesome!
We finally made it home around 7pm on Sunday, and I was wiped. It was a great weekend though, and definitely re-ignited my love of New Zealand and everything I'm doing here. I leave Friday morning for my giant three week trip, and I am itching with excitement! (Or maybe it's just the eight bajillion sand fly bites I got at Abel Tasman.....)
Fun Facts/Updates
-Abel Tasman National Park is the smallest in New Zealand, covering only 225 square kilometers. Despite this fact, it is one of the most popular due to its coastal views and varied terrain.
-I didn't say much about our time in Picton, but I completely fell in love with it. It is the connection point to the North Island (the ferry goes between Picton and Wellington), so it's a total harbour town. It's the first place I've been that I could actually see myself living in. Don't worry Mom, I promise I'm still coming home in June!
-It has been crazy trying to keep up with March Madness (mad even...ha). I'm not doing so hot in my bracket overall, but I am pleased that my Hawks are still hanging in there! I'm definitely Rock Chalkin' from afar.
-I have become a tea junkie since arriving here. My favorite is New Zealand breakfast tea with milk and sugar. YUM!
No telling how much I'll be able to post while I'm on my trip, but I'll do my best. I'll be doing a week on the South Island (Dunedin, Invercargill, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Fox Glacier), a week on the North (Wellington, Mount Taranaki, Matamata (The Shire), Waitomo Caves, Rotorua, Auckland), before finally participating in an IES sponsored field trip to Rarotonga, which is the largest of the Cook Islands. Needless to say, I have lots to look forward to...and lots to rest up for!
Cheers, friends!
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