The South Island

February 1

We had another early start today, waking up at 6:00 am. We were ready and leaving Base Wellington before 6:30 so we could grab a quick breakfast before heading to the ferry. The bakery was a little further than we remembered it being, but it was (mostly) ready and open by the time we got there. Three scones and a Danish later, we were on the way to the ferry.

Checking in was quite simple. We handed in our ticket at the booth in exchange for a boarding pass and handed the boarding pass in as we drove on the boat. At 10 decks, it was a pretty substantial craft and my only gripe is wishing there were more power outlets. I accidentally left the netbook on all night last night and really wanted to recharge it in time for our two-day backpacking trip. This ended up requiring me to sit in a hallway for half of the trip, so I can't report on what the North Island looks like from the sea, but I can tell you that the South Island is gorgeous. The first thing that struck me about it was the color of the water. It's a beautiful light blue and when the sun hits it right it turns into the prettiest turquoise I've ever seen. If it's possible, the South Island is even hillier than the North. There was no flat land to be seen and even the creamy white clouds went rolling along with the landscape. It was very windy on the observation deck but not unpleasantly cold. You could tell the air was going to be nice and warm when we disembarked.

We somehow managed to be in the last row on two decks of cars to leave the ferry, but we eventually got out anyway and hit the road for the Totaranui Campground in Abel Tasman.

We stopped for lunch at Havelock, home of the bottomless mussel pot. But when we walked in the door of the acclaimed restaurant, we decided it was out of our price range and headed for a cafe down the street. Wes and Zach picked up a dozen mussels each there, Ian got an egg hamburger and I a fishburger. I'm really not much for shellfish. Another New Zealand peculiarity is what Kiwis (“Kiwi” = New Zealand resident, for the uninitiated) put on their burgers. Eggs seem to be common here as an optional element, but one of the ingredients I didn't have an option on was sliced beets. They were tasty enough and added a new texture to the mix, but it's something I would have never thought to put on a meat sandwich.

After lunch (where we also, conveniently, got a little bit of internet access) we drove the rest of the way to Abel Tasman. On the whole drive since leaving the boat we very rarely got up to highway speed (100 km/hr). The road twisted all over the hillsides, through plenty of one lane bridges, and through some pretty dense forest. Nothing changed as we got closer to our destination except that the road turned to dirt and the turns became even tighter, making for very slow going for the last hour and a half. This was longer than we expected and we started to get a little concerned about the tidal plane crossing we would have to make tonight. It was only about a 20 minute walk, but it would be at the very end of our hike and the timing might be close.

We pulled into the parking lot at about a quarter to six. A friendly Kiwi there informed us that we could park anywhere we liked without worrying about registration, so we put our full focus on getting packed and on the trail as quickly as possible. The other three guys each have legitimate backpacking backpacks, so I'm going to feel a somewhat inadequate with my little Targus backpack for this outing. I stuff it with as much as I can fit, tie my new sleeping bag to the strap, and I'm ready to get this adventure underway. As we head off to the trailhead, Ian's watch reads either 6:08 or 6:18 (we can't remember which) and we have until about 8:00 to beat the tide (don't forget that the sun sets later here so we'll still be walking in daylight =] ).

We hike up some

We hike down some

… and we beat the tide. The crossing is a fairly expansive tidal plane with trickles of water winding through it. The deepest of these require us to take our shoes off but don't even reach up to our shorts.

Zach picks up a few mussels along the way in the hopes of cooking them along with our dinner tonight. We are happy to reach our camp at the other side until we discover just how loud the bugs are. There are plenty of cicadas and even more of some bug that makes a lot of loud clicking sounds. We quickly set up the tent...

....and head out to the beach to make our dinner away from the noisy bugs. The tide is coming in so we realize we'll have a long walk around the water when we go back to the tent, but we decide to cut through a shallow area to save some time for now. Zach decided not to cook the mussels after all and dropped them off along the way. We're making rice and beans flavored with curry powder and we're all very hungry.

 

the stove

Since Ian's camera broke this afternoon I am the only cameraman, so I run around photographing the sunset while the water is boiling.

I had put quite a bit of water in the pot in case any of it spilled, not expecting us to use all of it. But everyone decided they were so hungry we should use the whole thing for rice, so by the time everything was cooking the pot was too full to even put a lid on without spilling water over the side. It turned out to be a good thing that we made so much because we wolfed down the entire thing in a few servings. It was a pretty spectacular dinner. The waves rolling in were peaceful, the sunset colored the sky beautifully, and the food was a nice way to recharge after a couple hours of hiking. We're going to try to get up for sunrise tomorrow, so our alarms are set for 6:00.