Kayaking to Abel Tasman

Prior to talking about today, I have one postscript from last night. I mentioned that we stayed on a working farm. Well…around 9:00 pm yesterday evening, we were visited by the senior member of the local dog family. Old Tom came in to see what we were doing and promptly crashed on the floor in front of the fire place. He stayed until we were leaving this morning. I was missing my own dog so I was grateful to have an animal snoring at my feet.

Our day started with a 1.5 hour drive north west to a little village called Mouteka. We were outfitted with gear and soon in the water in ocean kayaks. We spent the first bit crossing a 1.5 km open section of the Tasman Bay before moving along nearer the shore.

During our 4.5 km paddle along the coastline, we saw and heard a variety of indigenous birds and visited a small seal colony swimming and sun bathing along the rocks of a small island. One noteworthy highlight was the blue penguin that surfaced and swam not far from us for a short time. These birds are notoriously shy and the one that we spotted was gone before we could remove our cameras and phones from the water proof bags.

The kayak trip ended at a small beach at the base of a hiking trail. Once we bid farewell to our guide, we had a 30 minute hike up and over a mountain to a placed called Anchorage Bay (shown below).

After this adventure, we drove 3.5 hours back to the town of Picton to the ferry terminal. One thing to note for anyone considering travel to New Zealand…if you have a choice in roads, pick the one called “scenic route”. It will be a bit scary in places but some of the things you will see are unbelievable.

Tonight we will spend another night in Wellington after the ferry ride across Cook Strait. We will get to the hotel around 11:00 pm and likely go to bed quickly. We are on the road early tomorrow for a half day drive through the north island with some school visits planned for mid-afternoon.  Tomorrow is Monday, so we are back to work and I will be posting more information related to our educational tour.