The ferry ride from the north island to the south island was interesting because it wasn't a simple straight shot from port to port. On both ends, the ferry had to weave around islands, which made it much more scenic than expected. After driving off the ferry, we took a long and winding drive to get to the northern border of Abel Tasman National Park. The road was of course two lanes and the one side went pretty much straight down--a long way down. It was so scary, our camera battery died, preventing us from getting any pictures of it.
This was taken from the ferry--looking out the front. We had to dodge a lot of little islands, which made the ride scenic--while I was awake.
We stayed in Takaka, a town that was vying for smallest village to house Andrew and Emily. The plan was to get up the next day and kayak down along the park. Unfortunately, the sea was too rough the next day, so they weren't letting people out in kayaks. Not a lot of luck with the ocean activities for us in New Zealand. We were of course a little disappointed, but we went to Plan B, which was to make a plan.
After stopping by the local iSite, which are tourist centers conveniently located in pretty much every New Zealand town, we figured out what to do. First stop was the "dancing sands," where one could see the largest natural springs in New Zealand shoot dirt off the floor as they well up from the underground vents. It turns out, the sands weren't up for a show that day. So, even though the water was really clear, we really didn't see much on that little hike. Pretty much anything that had to do with water in New Zealand besides the caves did not want us to see it.
This face sums up how we felt about the "dancing sands," which would have gotten slammed by the "So You Think You Can Dance" judges. We did see a cool reverse periscope thing though, which let you see under water. A cool concept, but we didn't see much in that thing either.
No bother, we had another stop lined up: the Labyrinth Rocks. The limestone rocks were carved out by water and open to the sky so you could wander through them without any danger. They were interesting rock formations, but people had "decorated" them with tiny figurines, which kind of detracted from the experience. The figurines and the facts that we were the only ones there and the rocks were kind of a maze made the whole experience a little creepy.
The labyrinth rocks came in cool shapes.
Look! It's rocks . . . making a labyrinth.
Stop number three was a two-hour, round-trip hike into Abel Tasman National Park to a waterfall. The path started with a high density of cows so you knew coming back when you were nearing the end. The hike wasn't too difficult, and we did get to walk on a one-person suspension bridge, which was a little scary but fun. The path led to the bottom of a waterfall, where we sat and had some snacks before heading back.
My memory has the view from this bridge being a little scarier than this photograph is showing. But you get the idea.
Emily had no problem crossing and enjoyed it.
The waterfall was no Niagara (I assume since I haven't been there), but it seemed bigger when we were there.
Next stop: lunch. All of the towns around Takaka had restaurants with plenty of space for people. However, they were all empty because it was off season, meaning we often had them to ourselves. Our lunch spot was no different. We checked green-lipped mussels off of our food list. I'd like to say they were the best mussels I've ever had, but those would be from Passion Fish in Pacific Grove. However, they were the prettiest and the biggest ones I've had.
Green lipped mussels did not actually have lips, which would have been a little creepy to eat.
After the hike, we decided to check out the beaches, which were different from other beaches that I had seen. During our drive to the kayak spot, we saw four or five beaches that essentially disappear when the tide comes in. They are so flat that they are completely covered. There are a couple of similar beaches on the Abel Tasman Track that make the path impassable at certain times of the day. While they weren't the amazing white sand beaches of the Caribbean, I found them very interesting. We walked along one for an hour or so, watching the birds dig for clams and enjoying the views of the tree-covered cliffs.
In the very center of this picture there is a rock. Note how faraway it is from the waterline.
This is the rock close up, where lots mussels happily live. The water comes in pretty far during high tide.
Our ad hoc day ended with a bottle of wine we bought from the winery in Turangi, some internet, a bad movie, and some Top Gear. It turned out to be a pretty great vacation day, despite it not going exactly according to plan.
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