December 30, 7:55 am
Sussex House B&B, Nelson, NZ

We're just packing up to leave Nelson but not, we hope, to leave the sunshine behind. We had lovely weather here for a hike yesterday and had a lovely hike to take advantage of it: between Tonga and Torrent Bay on the Abel Tasman Great Walk in the park of the same name. It's about 60k from Nelson, with some lovely winding roads to get there, and once we arrived on the park's doorstep we then had to get to and from the trail. That trick is commonly done by water taxi, which is what we did. We had a high-speed motorboat drop off at one of the gorgeous golden beaches of the park, followed by a wonderful hike through dense palm tree jungles, another beach and a swim at lunch time, further hiking with the sun coming through the forest cover as we went, and a final swim before the water taxi loaded us up for the trip back to the car and the beach.

Today we're off to Picton, where we will board the 1:15 ferry to Wellington on the North Island. We've had a fantastic time in the South, and we're hoping some of the good weather mojo comes with us as we head towards Tongariro and the Bay of Islands!
posted by Tom at 1:58 PM | link |