Blane and I said goodbye to New Zealand and made the 15+ hour flight home today. The time difference is about 19hrs so we landed in Seattle about the same time we left NZ, 6pm Saturday. Our second week in New Zealand was fantastic. We spent Monday through Wednesday hiking (aka tramping in NZ) along the Abel
Tasman national park. The track runs along the northwest coastline of the south island. We caught a bus out of Nelson at 7am a
nd headed out on the trail around 9:30am. The hike was a nice mix between walking in the bush and along the coast to see the many beautiful golden sand beaches. We stayed in rustic huts each night, but to our
surprise all huts had filtered drinking water and flush toilets - no stinky outhouses! There were lots of other people out hiking the same track so we had lots of company, which was nice especially
when we had to do a 6AM
tidal crossing in the dark. I think we covered around 30 miles, pretty good. We caught a water taxi on Wednesday to catch the bus back to Nelson and lucked out with our driver. He took us out to Tonga Island just off the coast which local seals use as a nursery for their pups so we got to see loads of seals swimming around and playing together. There is also a
dolphin that has been hanging out in the area for the past year and a half and Mike our driver did some tricks to get George's attention. He was jumping and playing in our wake and was just hanging out - amazing. Wednesday we spent the night in Nelson and enjoyed some pizza and beer after living off pasta and snacks the past three
days on our hike. In the morning we rented our rad red racer for $28 bucks a day and zoomed over to Blenheim/
Renwick for some wine tasting. We were able to use bikes from our B&B and spent the afternoon touring around to a handful of wineries. There are about 25 wineries within a 5mile radius so there were lots to choose from. After Blenheim we popped up to
Picton for our last full day in NZ.
Picton is the port where the pass
enger ferry from Wellington lands and it was DEAD - I swear we made up 2 of the 10 people out walking around town. In talking to the locals they are all enjoying the slower season as during the summer they get as many people arriving by boat each day as there are living in the town, 4,000+. We got up Saturday morning and went for a jog out in Queen
Charlotte Sound to see as much as we could before we left.
The area has tons of peninsulas and islands making up this national park. We then packed our bags and headed back to Nelson to do some last minute souvenir shopping and grab lunch before jumping on our flight. We are both glad to be home though we are already starting to think of where the next destination will be.
Blane and I said goodbye to New Zealand and made the 15+ hour flight home today. The time difference is about 19hrs so we landed in Seattle about the same time we left NZ, 6pm Saturday. Our second week in New Zealand was fantastic. We spent Monday through Wednesday hiking (aka tramping in NZ) along the Abel Tasman national park. The track runs along the northwest coastline of the south island. We caught a bus out of Nelson at 7am a
nd headed out on the trail around 9:30am. The hike was a nice mix between walking in the bush and along the coast to see the many beautiful golden sand beaches. We stayed in rustic huts each night, but to our surprise all huts had filtered drinking water and flush toilets - no stinky outhouses! There were lots of other people out hiking the same track so we had lots of company, which was nice especially 
when we had to do a 6AM tidal crossing in the dark. I think we covered around 30 miles, pretty good. We caught a water taxi on Wednesday to catch the bus back to Nelson and lucked out with our driver. He took us out to Tonga Island just off the coast which local seals use as a nursery for their pups so we got to see loads of seals swimming around and playing together. There is also a dolphin that has been hanging out in the area for the past year and a half and Mike our driver did some tricks to get George's attention. He was jumping and playing in our wake and was just hanging out - amazing. Wednesday we spent the night in Nelson and enjoyed some pizza and beer after living off pasta and snacks the past three
days on our hike. In the morning we rented our rad red racer for $28 bucks a day and zoomed over to Blenheim/Renwick for some wine tasting. We were able to use bikes from our B&B and spent the afternoon touring around to a handful of wineries. There are about 25 wineries within a 5mile radius so there were lots to choose from. After Blenheim we popped up to Picton for our last full day in NZ. Picton is the port where the pass
enger ferry from Wellington lands and it was DEAD - I swear we made up 2 of the 10 people out walking around town. In talking to the locals they are all enjoying the slower season as during the summer they get as many people arriving by boat each day as there are living in the town, 4,000+. We got up Saturday morning and went for a jog out in Queen Charlotte Sound to see as much as we could before we left. 
The area has tons of peninsulas and islands making up this national park. We then packed our bags and headed back to Nelson to do some last minute souvenir shopping and grab lunch before jumping on our flight. We are both glad to be home though we are already starting to think of where the next destination will be.
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