Kayaking the Abel Tasman National Park and the West Coast

Kayaking the Abel Tasman National Park, originally uploaded by jokecamp.

We took a full day Kayaking trip up into the Abel Tasman National Park on the Northeast corner of the South Island. The beaches were some of the most amazing and unspoiled beaches I've ever seen. We travelled South down the coast visiting small islands and lagoons. Saw several seals lounging on the rocks but kept our distance. In the end we had travelled around 16 Kilometers and my arms could feel it.

After leaving Nelson we stayed one night in Westport. There isn't much to do in Westport with a population of five thousand. It was a Sunday night and a ghost town. The highlight was playing soccer on a rugby field with a friend against two locals Kiwis. One of the Kiwis was playing in jeans, his socks. a long sleeve dress shirt with a white t-shirt over that. Not your conventional soccer uniform. We probably wouldn't of done so well if they had asked us to a game of rugby.

After a day in Westport we stayed a night at the Mahinipua Hotel and Pub. It was in the middle of nowhere wedged between the west coast and the Southern Alps. There we had a steak dinner cooked by the famous Les and a themed party in the pub that couldn't be beat.