Playing with the golden sand at Torrent Bay

After all of the rainy weather on the West Coast (yes, I know — it’s a rain forest, it’s supposed to rain), it was great heading north to Marahau and Abel Tasman National Park, one of the sunniest spots in New Zealand. We arrived super late at The Barn, did in a much needed bundle of laundry, and crashed. This was the only night of the trip where I didn’t sleep well, the Sea Legs pills I was taking tended to knock me out pretty hard. But for whatever reason, sleep eluded me this night, which was perhaps not the greatest night of the trip to not get a good night’s rest as the next day was my most active one (plus it was New Year’s Eve!).

New Year’s Eve day dawned, and Katherine drove me to Abel Tasman Kayaks and parted ways (she was taking a water taxi out to meet the yacht we were spending NYE on). After a brief lesson with the kayak guide, Nick, we loaded up the truck with the boats (they’re boats, right?) and drove pretty much across the street to the beach (hey, beats carrying them — those suckers are heavier than they look!). As I didnt have a partner, I was paired up with Nick in the kayak, which was amazing as not only did he know exactly what he was doing, I got to hear a running commentary on what we were paddling past. Plus he did more than his fair share of the work (which is also awesome as my arms were pretty stiff towards the end of the trip).

Watering Cove, Abel Tasman National Park

While I loved kayaking, I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the length of the trip and from what I heard from a few others in the group I wasn’t the only one. Our “half-day trip” was over roughly two hours after hitting the water and I felt as though we hadn’t really seen anything. After going back and looking through the different tour options on their website, I think I chose poorly and should have gone with one of the more expensive options. Having taking the first of the “full day” tours (they counted in a 4-hour walk back to Marahau), I definitely feel that I short changed myself and know now to book a longer trek. If I were to kayak Abel Tasman again with this company (who were great, and I definitely would go with them again), I’d pick either the Torrent Bay Treble, or Seals & Remote Coast.

Perfection!

That said, the beaches we stopped at in the Park were as good as the advertising: soft sand, turquoise water, cobalt skies — it’s no wonder the kayaks were yellow, they contrasted perfectly with their surroundings! Kayaking wasn’t difficult and it reminded me quite a bit of canoeing from my Fraser Lake days. The Sea Legs pill I took the night before did its magic and I was perfectly fine on the waves (seriously, where can I buy these in bulk?).

Watering Cove, Abel Tasman National Park

Our tour ended at Watering Cove, so I set out on foot towards Torrent Bay to meet up with Katherine and our friend Florence, who was joining us from Christchurch for the holiday. I walked the first part of the track with a really nice German couple (those Germans, they love to hike!), although I suspect they were in much better hill-tramping condition than I was. The hill up from Watering Cover was pretty steep, and had me breathless by the top of it. The views were spectacular though, and totally worth the effort!

A top the hill from Watering Cove

We only walked together as far as Anchorage Bay, as they weren’t going all the way to Torrent Bay. This was the first time Ive ever hiked alone through anything, and I was pleasantly surprised not to feel vulnerable or at risk. Being in New Zealand has definitely dulled the “single female traveller” paranoia that I picked up in North America (for no good reason!), and I thoroughly enjoy being able to venture out into the wild and not be afraid to go around every single turn or bend.

Taking a well deserved break

Although, to be fair, it’s not as though the Abel Tasman Coast Walk is the barren wilderness. I came across many other people along my three-hour walk, many of them single women. The path is very well defined, and impossible to lose. I was really surprised at the variety of landscape it took me through: the tops of the hills were very dusty and dry, with hard packed desert-like pathways and scrubby bushes, while the bottoms were super lush and rainforest-y, with rivers and ponds and bridges. Best off all there were NO SANDFLIES OR MOSQUITOES! Happy New Year to me!

Parts of the track reminded me of Ontario

A scenic leaf-stained river. The colour comes from the tannins in the fallen foliage

As much as I enjoyed my walk through the Park, by the time I reached Torrent Bay I was kind of over it and just wanted to chill. All of the ups and downs of the path — and there were PLENTY — had left me sore and tired (again, lack of sleep the night before didnt help), and I was eager to meet up with Katherine and the others to have a cold drink and a snack. As the kayaking trip had ended an hour earlier than expected, I had a bit of a wait till being fetched from the beach. I didnt mind though, as it gave me a chance to lie in the sun and warm up (the last bit of the walk was through the forest and was chillier than elsewhere that day).

I’m not really a boat person. I like the idea of boats and while I definitely appreciate a fine looking yacht, they just aren’t for me. I feel like a fish out of water on them (literally, I’m a Pisces, ha!), not knowing what to do or how not to get in the way, I worry that simple things are breaking some kind of boating rule, and dont get me started on how to use the toilet (*sigh*). Even the terminology is lost on me. Add that to my awesome tendency to get motion sickness (there isn’t a Sea Legs strong enough to quell my shaky legs, it would seem), and I’m one tense lady once I’m on board, something no amount of alcohol seems capable of relaxing. (Although interestingly enough, I never had this problem at home while tooling about Lake Ontario (Kajama!) or on other smaller lakes. Ferries are fine for me as well. Its just open water that does it, I guess)

Full moon rising over Torrent Bay, Abel Tasman National Park

I wish I could have been a better guest or travelling companion while aboard the Dreamcatcher, but I felt so very out of place and uncomfortable. I was a bit relieved when my exhaustion from the day’s activities forced me to retire an hour before midnight. Yes, this was the first time in about a decade (maybe more) that I wasn’t awake to ring in the new year. From what I hear it was a splendid party, one I would have loved in other circumstances. The park set off fireworks from a barge, then everyone descended on to the beach to party hearty until the wee hours of the morning.

New Years Day dawned gloriously bright and shiny, or so I am told — I slept in till at least 9am (apparently to the consternation of the man whose yacht we were on). It wasn’t intentional, but the Sea Legs knocked me out so completely and on a regular basis that I was sleeping pretty hard core nearly every night of the trip.

Sailing back to Nelson

The original plan had been to spend two nights on the boat, but with bad weather coming in they were sailing back to Nelson that morning. I knew that as much as I didnt like being on boats, Katherine loved them, so I said yes to joining them for the sail. For the most part I was fine. As long as we were moving at a fair clip I couldn’t feel the rocking and swaying of the boat. The trip back to Nelson took about 3.5 hours, and it was maybe only halfway through that the sea sickness took a hold for real. We had turned the motor off for lunch and were kind of bobbing in the water. Not thinking about it (because, again, total n00b here) I went downstairs to get my plate of lunch and was pretty much lost my legs out from beneath me. Returning to the deck (ooh fancy boat terminology!), I couldn’t shake the discomfort, my stomach — while not queasy — just didnt feel right. I glued my eyes to the hills along the horizon, as they didnt move. Eventually I ended up standing up, hanging on to a rope or something for support, and swaying with the boat instead of sitting. Eating was out of the question.

I was the weakest link, and felt awful about it. I felt as though my being there and feeling this way was ruining the experience for everyone else, but there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it. Id taken the sea sickness pills, done all the right things. But, as Kat told me, either you have sea legs (the real ones, not the pills) or you dont. And I definitely didnt. After a while, lunch finished and we were under way once more. The intensity of my discomfort faded and eventually I could try to enjoy myself a little again.

I’d had a lot of trepidation about spending time on the yacht. The fellow was someone Katherine had met through CouchSurfing, and I had a lot of trouble agreeing to go on his boat as he had no references or verifications on his profile page. The way the system works is that you set up your page, you participate in pub nights and events, you host or surf with other people and eventually you have a network of contacts who can vouch for you and who have left recommendations on you. There are also ways to verify your location with the organization. He had none of this, and I was insanely wary. It seemed like asking for trouble. Yet as our week went on I came to see that my not going with her would be a bit of a logistical nightmare (how we would meet up, where, when, how to contact one another when there is no cell phone range in the Park). Kat had met the fellow several weeks earlier while she was in Nelson and sussed him out a little; she felt it was a good situation. Plus, when Flo said she was coming too I began to feel a bit safer (strength in numbers and all that). I’m super happy to say that none of my fears came to pass, and despite this not being the shining moment of our trip, I’m glad that I went.

Part of the reason I came to New Zealand was to step outside my comfort zone a little. So far I’ve been pretty tame, sticking with what I know. There is precious little chance I would have spent any time at all on a yacht (a yacht!) had Katherine not arranged it, so while I didnt love it, it was a good experience for me in trusting others and trying really new things. Maybe each time I go to sea it will get easier for me, who knows? At least now I know a little of what to expect ahead of time and can maybe relax a bit more and be able to enjoy myself in future.

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