Kiss from a Rose

The lyric is from Seal, because of our new best friend...a seal.

We left Nelson on a bus to Marahoua and started the Abel Tasman coastal track. It was very different from the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Instead of snow capped mountains, there were golden sand beaches and the mountain streams were replaced with rain forest and waterfalls. The first day the sun was out and for a while it was even warm enough to be hiking in just shorts. It was a very nice change to be able to have lunch sitting on a warm beach with the sun beating down on us as opposed to huddled behind any rock we could find big enough to shelter us. This quickly changed with the wind and by the time we arrived at our campsite the temperature was dropping considerably. The first night the temperature got down to about 5 degrees and stayed cold all night and morning. The second morning of the trek we were walking along beaches that would not look out of place in Jamaica in gloves and toques.

The sun made its way out near the end of the second day and when we arrived at our campsite it was out in full force. Our campsites both nights were a few feet away from a big secluded beach and bay with nobody else in site. We started exploring on our second night, finding starfish and jellyfish up on the beach that had been caught when the tide went out. After a few minutes we saw something in the water about 50 feet off shore. It was a seal that had swam in by itself and started following us along the beach and then coming in closer. Mark took a video and after watching it last night we realized we turned into 8 year olds on sugar highs when we saw the seal. It swam in very close and very fast, gracefully jumping in and out of the water, rolling on its back and darting any way with ease. Then it decided to investigate further and come on shore to see us. All grace was lost as it stumbled and bumbled its way up on the beach to within ten feet of where we were standing. We didn't offer the fact that we were Canadian, made a couple of jokes about taking our new friend clubbing and then basically just sat and watched the seal until we grew bored of it. Apparently our attention span is approximately that of the seal because it seemed to grow tired of us at the same time and swam back out into the bay.

That night the temperature dropped even lower. A possum tried to get in our tents multiple times, despite being smacked every time it came near the fabric of the tent and we were woken up by a bird that had become stuck between our tent and the fly. It poured rain all night and only stopped for the first hour of our walk. As we reached a large crossing that could only be done at low tide the rain picked up, the wind picked up and as we were halfway across the thunder started. By the time we reached the otherside we were freezing, soaking wet and as Mark's pack cover had fallen off halfway over, so were all his things. I also learned that my "waterproof pants" and "waterproof jacket" are anything but.

We hiked a few more hours and upon reaching a small campsite with a road realized we had to either camp that night with all our wet stuff and the temperature still dropping our try to hitch into a town. We opted to stick our thumb out and a couple ladies that work for the DOC picked us up. They were unsure at first, not knowing if it was against company policy but I assured them I had many questions regarding the park so they gave us a ride and a lesson about the ecology and introduced species in the area.

We arrived in Takaka last night, a little hippy town with dreadlocks and swami's offering courses on finding yourself all over. We stayed in a backpackers that has just been purchased by a retired couple and the check in procedure involved me going on a tour of every room, looking at every door and hearing about all the changes that must be made. There was a fireplace and a dog though so that kept me entertained for the rest of the night.

Mark's straps on his bag are almost broken and the next walk is a 75km difficult tramp with no options for getting out early. The weather is supposed to be terrible for the next few days so if the strap breaks we'll be S.O.L. We've decided to start hitching further south and try to find a big enough town that can repair his bag and then decide on what we are going to do, we'll walk the Heaphy on our way back up North.

That's the plan for now, stick out our thumbs and hope for the best.