Abel Tasman National Park
Alright, I'm going to start using my blog again. Now that I am out of contact with everyone so much it is much more useful. If my internet stays cheap I hope it will mostly be pictures with explanations , but they charge by the Mb transferred here so no guarantees. Anyways this should be the first of many posts to keep you up to date on my journey to the other side of the world. This post is all about my first travel weekend when I went to Abel Tasman National Park. You can look for a post about Wellington, where I am living, later. I am also going on another trip this weekend so I should have more exciting pictures for you to look at in a few days if you like these. 
We only have class Monday to Thursday here so on Thursday afternoon fourteen of us left for a weekend at Abel Tasman. Abel Tasman is a beautiful coastal park at the North part of the South Island. Wellington is at the South end of the North Island so we took a ferry through this sound (Marlborough Sound) to get there.
Abel Tasman has enormous tide fluctuations that can go for over a mile. At low tide you see a lot of boats just sitting on the ground. It's pretty crazy how much farther you can walk during low tide.
This is a picture of the same place about two hours later. The tides can come in very fast; some friends and I almost had to swim in from a sand bar we walked out to, but luckily we noticed soon enough to run back to higher ground.
This is Doug and I in front of our Teepee. We stayed at this hostel just outside the park for about twelve US dollars, not too shabby. There was also a house with a bunch of bunk beds and an old camper that you could stay in; it was an interesting place. We had a lot of fun.
The first day in the park all of us went on a guided see kayak tour. It was beautiful and really fun to be just above the water zooming along the coast.
After several hours of rowing we were all ready for a hot tub. We actually got all fourteen of us in it. I think we displaced about half of the water in that tub before we got out.
The second day everyone went hiking. We split up in a few groups depending what we wanted to do. My group didn't want to waste money on a water taxi, but we wanted to go to a place fairly deep in the park. Everyone told us we wouldn't have time to get where we wanted and back in the twelve hours we had. We took that as a challenge and decide to do it anyways. We got up at five in the morning and hiked for half an hour in the dark to make it. It was totally worth it because we got to see the sun rise over the ocean from our path in the mountains.
We also got to see a lot more of the bays and lagoons than the people who went on shorter hikes. I have over a hundred pictures that are equally as stunning as this one.
This is about five hours into the hike I think. Somewhere between peanut butter and jelly sandwiches two and three, haha.
We hiked so fast that we made it even further than we planned, (Never doubt team hardcore!) and we had time to stop for a lot of good pictures . Mike, Doug, and I thought this rock was the perfect place for a sorority girl pose. I don't think Mallory thought we pulled it off very well. That's it for today; I should have more for you in a few days. Feel free to leave me some comments from America!
We only have class Monday to Thursday here so on Thursday afternoon fourteen of us left for a weekend at Abel Tasman. Abel Tasman is a beautiful coastal park at the North part of the South Island. Wellington is at the South end of the North Island so we took a ferry through this sound (Marlborough Sound) to get there.
Abel Tasman has enormous tide fluctuations that can go for over a mile. At low tide you see a lot of boats just sitting on the ground. It's pretty crazy how much farther you can walk during low tide.
This is a picture of the same place about two hours later. The tides can come in very fast; some friends and I almost had to swim in from a sand bar we walked out to, but luckily we noticed soon enough to run back to higher ground.
This is Doug and I in front of our Teepee. We stayed at this hostel just outside the park for about twelve US dollars, not too shabby. There was also a house with a bunch of bunk beds and an old camper that you could stay in; it was an interesting place. We had a lot of fun.
The first day in the park all of us went on a guided see kayak tour. It was beautiful and really fun to be just above the water zooming along the coast.
After several hours of rowing we were all ready for a hot tub. We actually got all fourteen of us in it. I think we displaced about half of the water in that tub before we got out.
The second day everyone went hiking. We split up in a few groups depending what we wanted to do. My group didn't want to waste money on a water taxi, but we wanted to go to a place fairly deep in the park. Everyone told us we wouldn't have time to get where we wanted and back in the twelve hours we had. We took that as a challenge and decide to do it anyways. We got up at five in the morning and hiked for half an hour in the dark to make it. It was totally worth it because we got to see the sun rise over the ocean from our path in the mountains.
We also got to see a lot more of the bays and lagoons than the people who went on shorter hikes. I have over a hundred pictures that are equally as stunning as this one.
This is about five hours into the hike I think. Somewhere between peanut butter and jelly sandwiches two and three, haha.
We hiked so fast that we made it even further than we planned, (Never doubt team hardcore!) and we had time to stop for a lot of good pictures . Mike, Doug, and I thought this rock was the perfect place for a sorority girl pose. I don't think Mallory thought we pulled it off very well. That's it for today; I should have more for you in a few days. Feel free to leave me some comments from America!
posted by Patrick at 6:54 PM
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