Two days of sea kayaking at Abel Tasman National Park
in front of us, weather should be fine and we are ready to go and do a lot of nice photos, at least that nice as they all have in their booklets. We aren’t completely sure what is possible to do in those two days and decided to go fast on first day to have more time on second day.
After first two kilometers we did our first break on beautiful beach – just to readjust our equipment and enjoy the beauty.
Then came the harder part – Mad Mile. In map they write it is pretty exposed to all winds and as we came here, all of sudden they started to blow. Waves started to form, the rock shore looked horrible and it took us some time to get to Te Pukatea Bay – one which is perfect for postcards. And it really is, it was probably the nicest we saw in those two days. Made a lot of photos, took some video of paddling back in Mad Mile, had a break and spoke to some local about the wind – it is a bit stronger than usual but it is just sea breeze, nothing terrible.
Nothing terrible means it forms waves up to 1,5 meters high and it looks like a river grade III. But it is quite good till you go against it. Another stop at Pinnacle Island to watch some seals lying there. It was hard to stay there as wind blow us away, so after a while we gave up and went further.
Next stop was (nonintentionaly) Mosquito Bay – quite surprise we made it there that fast. It is really nice, we spent maybe more than half an hour shooting and after that went further – to Tonga Island, which is probably the end where you are able to go. There were another seals and more of them, even more active.
Way back was harder – at least for me. Wind in back, trying to surf the waves (which time to time came from side) but made it to Bark Bay. On our way back we saw, that Mosquito Bay is completely fill up with water – the high tide is about 4 meters here. It is probably nicer in low tide.
At Bark Bay we found probably the last spot for us to sleep at and did steaks for dinner. Other people gave us a strange look as we had a huge frying pan with us 🙂
At night we had a visit – mister possum came to see us and have some dinner. It is wonderful animal, it even eat our bread slice by slice not as mouse which just eat through it. Tomas and Vlada did a lot of photos and even took him on video. After that they are happy we saved a bit of New Zealand’s nature, as this possum didn’t eat a lot of vegetations tonight.
In the morning we decided to go to the ocean to watch for dolphins. Didn’t see any, just some penguins. Got closer to shore and admired the beauty of sand, rocks, and ocean. Beaches are awesome, the sand is really gold on some of them, rocks just make it colourful and birds are cherries on cake.
The whole time we are surprised with the amount of water taxis. When we get back to Marahau we are surprised even more – the low tide means we had to go for about 500 meters to the shore and on the beach is a lot of tractors waiting for water taxis and sea kaykers. When water taxi arrives they just take it on trailer and quickly go to the village.
Two days were quickly over and this experience is one, which I want to repeat in future.
Back in rental we’re having a loooong shower to get all the salt out of us and do some shopping after that. Found some special price on 2kg package of fish, took it and hit the road to Farewell Spit. The petrol station we wanted to take petrol at is closed, we took the risk and went further. A steep and long ascend with awesome sights – there’ll be reason to stop at our way back. And it is interesting as well, we wouldn’t expect high mountains here.
Finally made it to Takaka, all 3 petrol stations are closed and accept just their cards when closed. Decided to park at carpark (as a lot of others) and enjoy the carnival which is here.