What a trip!

I spent the last 2 days in an amazing place- Abel Tasman. I headed there with Dustin and Sheena, and after catching the bus at 6:55 am on Monday we were en route to the park. We arrived and after paying got onto another bus which winded it's way along a very twisty road- not too good for those of us (me!) that get motion sickness! After about 20 minutes of sick moments, we arrived at the location of the water taxi where we met our guide for the day- KP. We took the water taxi to where our kayaks were waiting and began getting ready for our day. Things were moving along smoothly until I got stung by a wasp- in the armpit! Did that ever hurt! After a short while we were off in the kayaks, paddling around white sand beaches in search of seals. I got to go with our guide, who was a NZ native, so I got to hear some great stories and pieces of history. I got to see my first penguin- the sad news is that it was dead in the water- KP said that they often die naturally of lack of food. As the blue penguin is nocturnal, there was little chance that I was going to see one alive. It wasn't long before we found some seals- most were being lazy, though there were a few playing around. KP then took us over to a seal breeding area, where there were lots of seals of all ages (the babies are so sweet!) and there was a lot of noise being made by the seals- it was great. After watching them, we stopped for lunch on a beautiful white beach, and had a quick swim in the sea. Back in the kayaks we headed out to sea and tried our hand at sailing the kayaks- it was great, especially since I didn't have to do hardly anything! We arrived back at Anchorage, which is where the park was that we camped at. There were some other people we knew camping there, so we all hooked up and set up tents together. We sat and ate some dinner, played some cards and I had a nap that lasted a few hours! Once up, I played some more cards, then it was time to head to the fire. We sat around talking to some different guides, and other travellers until we all agreed that it was definitely time to head to bed. The sleep was okay, though the kayak company forgot to send our foam beds, so it was kind of a hard sleep! When we woke in the morning it was unbelievably hot and sunny- not how you want to wake up in a tent! We packed up camp, and began our tramp home. We did some side walks, and after about 6 hours of walking we finally got back to our pick up location. The ride home was long, and we all smelled bad, but it was so worth it. If anyone ever comes to NZ, you MUST go to the Abel Tasman!