Onto the water and feeling less conspicuous, I became increasingly aware of how windy it was! Bouncing through 4 m waves, I was glad I'd had breakfast a while ago. Getting to our destination (feeling rather green), I started to appreciate how beautiful the Abel Tasman National Park looked from the water. Beaches and bays were spelread along the curvy coastline, with bush springing straight from the more Ricky shores.
Bags packed into the double sea-kayak, we took to the water. I found myself in the rather squashed front seat, but enjoying the unobstructed view. To start the day, we battled our way North through the waves and into the headwind to find a surprisingly calm lagoon area. Paddling around here provided brief respite and some great scenery, before we went back out into the waves.
We were rewarded for our efforts by seeing plenty of seals, lounging about on the rocks as well as swimming - even one pretending to be a dolphin and leaping through the air. I felt incredibly lucky to then see a blue penguin swim next to us and give us a wave!
Enjoying the tailwind we were flying along towards the next island when we realised our companions had become very seasick (I didn't blame them, I was feeling particularly green at this point) so we made a detor to a beach to drop them off. Here we were treated to lunch (which was tasty but I've enjoyed food more when I've not just stepped out of a sea-kayak) before setting off South again.
The weather perked up beautifully and we took to some shallower sheltered coves. By now I'd taken on the steering and expertly (ahem...) steered us through (into) a number of rocks. I will say though, kayaks with a rudder and foot steering are a fabulous invention, if only they'd used those for the Scottish Coast to Coast! At this point, in the clear and sunny shallows, I was about to avoid a big rock and it moved - turned out it was a huge stingray. Apparently stingrays hadn't been seen in the area for weeks, and this specimen was largest our guide had ever seen - at least a meter and a half in diameter.
Watching carefully (stingrays had been known to leap onto kayaks and attach people) we paddled on to Anchorage Bay, our final destination for the day. Quite pleased to be rid of my sea legs, although sorry to leave the kayaks at the same time, I took a stroll along the bay and scouted out tomorrow's walking track.
Once done, we stood on the beach and looked over at our accommodation for the night - a houseboat on the water. Whilst we were wondering how to actually get there, a man on the boat jumped in his launch and scooted over to collect us (apparently they look through their binoculars for confused-looking people and then go and collect them). Our bedroom turned out to be on an adjoining houseboat and our be had a couple of cute circular windows looking right out over the water's surface.
Once settled and showered we could smell the meat BBQing - our first BBQ of the tip and it was on a boat! The seagulls here were just as interested in juicy bits o meat as I was by the time it was finally eating time, and so I had to guard my meat well whilst eating. Most of the seagulls here are red-billed at her than yellow-billed and have a curious red eyeliner-type marking around there eyes which makes them look decidedly untrustworthy.
Dinner successful saved from the evil eye, we enjoyed our evening on 'Cat-a-Rac' as the boat was called, chatting to other tourists of a variety of nationalities , and sharing holiday moments.
No comments:
Post a Comment