up and over the mountains.

the road took us up and over big mountain pass, esesntially circling
the boundaries of Abel tasmin park.

the little island in the distance was one of placed we explored in the
kayaks, and spent one of the nights at a campground in the bay. gun to
get a good look at the coastline from above.

it was a nice mild day, but slightly overcast with dull light... which
didn't agree with the iPhone camera so much.

getting ourselves set up for road tripping

we made several stops early on to load ourselves up with road trip
gear (little cooler, cutting board, etc), and groceries. found auttle
park on the outside of town to make our frost road picinic lunch, and
get sorted. the day was progressing a bit slower than planned, but all
necessary stops.

finally we hit the road to journey to the top of the south island.
heather had a lead on a spectacular beach at the tip of the island,
and we were determined to make an adventure of finding it.

the driving adventure begins!

we spent the morning at the hostel repackung our bags with clean
laundry and resorting our stuff for the car part of the adventure.

we arranged a duper shuttle to pick us up and take us to the car
rental place back at the airport. since we were not pressed for time,
the driver detoured up and around the hills, and gave us quite a local
tour of Nelson. a much bigger city than either of us expected. pretty
gorgeous views from the top of the hills. 180 degrees of coastline,
and 180 degrees of mountainous hills. skies were clear enough to see
back to Abel tasmin, and the mountains beyond to the north that we
were set to explore.

heather took the wheel driving out of town, and I took on co-pilot
duties. mainly comprised of repeating the mantra "stay left, stay
left", and navigating through the many roundabouts.

bye bye able tasmin!

said goodbye to our fellow travelers, and jumped on the bus back to
Nelson with barely a minute to spare. picture below shows the bay
where we landed the kayaks. the bay us so shallow that the water
completely empties out on low tides. the little black spots in the
middle are actually big tractors that are used to pull the water taxi
speed boats with giant kayak trailers attached. it was pouring on the
first day when wr loaded up the water taxi, and I am bummed we don't
have any pics of that! quite the sight. big speed boat with all our
gear, us, and 7 big kayaks stacked on the back.

anyhow, returned to Nelson for the night. heather and I busted out a
few loads of laundry, showered, then found a nice little pub for
dinner, and watched a few minutes of the olympics. so tired by the
time we got back. managed to do a few online hostel bookings before we
passed out. next adventure.... car rental, and learning to drive on
the left side of the road! oh my.

kayak sailing...

wind kicked up just a touch on our way back to home base, so our guide
dawn led us in one last little adventure. we ragged our boats up (held
them together side by side), and hoisted a big sail onto paddles, and
cruised across the bay as a little pod. didn't go too fast, but it
sure was fun. except I wax a sail paddle holder, and it was quote a
strain on the arms! they were jello after that. oh well only had to
paddle in the last 5 minutes. dawn wanted us to spend every moment of
the trip on the water... so we landed, loaded the kayaks, and had to
unpack and be on the bus in under 30 min. ha.

continuing south along the coast

made it through the "mad mile"... a fun and funky section of exposed
coastline with shoals that kick up some pretty big waves. sun still
shining bright, we made one last lunch stop on an island. sandwhiches,
wine and a last bit of sun before the clouds rolled in.

heather's turn

weeeeeeeee...!

of course I went down the slide!!

super fun... :)

waterfall and waterslide

cleopatra's pool

short hike brought us to cleopatara's pool. little waterfall of water
fed into a natural waterslide and pool of chilly fresh water below.

baby goat

if you look in the center of the picture you can kinda see the little
baby goat we encountered on our hike.

river hike

sunny girls

followed the estuary way back to the rocks blocking further progress
up the river... jumped out of the boats and hiked 5-10 min farther up
river to some fresh water pools.

heather paddling away...

kayaking day three, blue skies, glassy water

woke up to perfect morning conditions on our third day. nice casual
pace to begin the day... waiting for the tide to rise so we could
explore more estuaries.

ditched all the rain layers, lathered up in sunscreen, and we finally
were able to get some sun on the skin!

happy paddlers

we had a fantastic morning exploring the coastline, and to everyone's
amazement, the storm completely passed by by mid-day. we spent another
late afternoon basking on the beach soaking up the sun. with a few
hours of precious time, I FINALLY finished the lady Harry potter book!
done!

spent a nice lazy evening gorging on too much food again, and chatting
with our fellow travelers swapping stories.

river and waterfall at the end of one of the estuaries

exploring estuaries

once we made it into the more covered bay, the conditions improved a
ton. waves were smaller, and we were a bit more protected from the
wind gusts. still pouring on and off, but our bodies stayed relatively
dry, and it wax just warm enough that we were not chilled at all.

we made if off the beach at a great time on the high tide, so were
able to spend the rest of the morning exploring the many estuaries
along the coast. only accessible on the high tides, and empty to mere
rivers on the low tides. beautiful, calm, and fun to kayak around the
areas!

gloomy start to day two...

we woke up to sunshine on the second morning, but received an updated
weather report that the wind had been upgraded to gusting up to 35
knots, starting as a tail wind, but turning in the afternoon to a
headwind. basically insane winds for kayaking. anything over 25 knots
would stop us from moving. and rain "heavy at times" was forcast for
the day.

our guide dawn rallied us to get going as soon as we could to get
around the most exposed section of coastline before things got crazy.
the second we finished breakfast, the clouds rolled in, wind and rain
started.

our group packed camp and the kayaks in record time, we bundled up in
raincoats, paddle jackets, and set off.

the waves were getting big, close together, and very irregular from
the wind. we powered through, keeping the boat as straight as
possible, while trying to edge around an exposed point 45 degree angle
to the waves. it was a little dicey for a bit, but heather was an
awesome captain! all the while in the pouring rain. quite an
adventure. after we got around the point, I was able to breath again.
wind at our backs was much better. we just had to time our paddling to
keep the boat from surfing.

beautiful dusk...

amazing sunsets haven't really been the norm here, but we have had
beautiful dusks. sun seems to set later behind the mountains, but the
views from our beach were quite nice. after an amazing dinner cooked
by our guide dawn (it was unusual, but I did nothing to help!), we
walked to the end of the beach, and waded into a cave filled with glow-
worms, yes, glow worms. awesome!