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So we crossed the Cook Straits to the South Island with Paula and Jane, and headed straight for the Nelson area at the top of the island. From there we had day sea kayaking, pulling into little bays every so often to snorkel. The guy who took us out collected a load of sea urchin type things, which he and Paula set about - splitting open and eating the dubious looking yellow coloured roe. Anything that has that much pink goo come out of it shouldn't be eaten in my view... Anyway, it reinforced our desire to kayak, and P&J provided numerous entertaining incidents (particularly Paula nearly throwing herself out of the kayak after a spider climbed on her head in a cave)!

South Island

Thomasin Turner
2006-08-21 15:23:50

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So we crossed the Cook Straits to the South Island with Paula and Jane, and headed straight for the Nelson area at the top of the island. From there we had day sea kayaking, pulling into little bays every so often to snorkel. The guy who took us out collected a load of sea urchin type things, which he and Paula set about - splitting open and eating the dubious looking yellow coloured roe. Anything that has that much pink goo come out of it shouldn't be eaten in my view... Anyway, it reinforced our desire to kayak, and P&J provided numerous entertaining incidents (particularly Paula nearly throwing herself out of the kayak after a spider climbed on her head in a cave)!

From there we said farewell and Scott and I headed for the Abel Tasman, where we hired a kayak for 4 days and set up off the coast armed with food, wine (the advantages of kayaking rather than walking...) and our trusty little tent. The Abel Tasman is fantastic - turquoise waters, white sandy beaches, seals, little blue penguins and an orca even put in an appearance whilst we were sat drinking wine on a beach one evening. Pretty darn special.

Our next travelling companions were family Meadley, and we headed back to Picton to meet them off the ferry. We went to the camper van hire company, but there was no sign of them. We went to the ferry terminal - still no sign. We blamed them for various scenarios explaining their absense. Then we realised we had the wrong day. We then had to return to the campervan company rather sheepishly to explain our error - only to find a very confused looking middle aged English couple who had been told their son was there to meet them. One of the perils of travelling for so long I guess...

We headed down the west coast with Colin and Susan. It is so beautiful - wild desolate beaches, rain forest clad hillsides and the southern alps. We spent a day walking on the Franz Josef glacier - walking through ice tunnels and crossing crevaces ...

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