New Zealand - Kaiteriteri

Day 23 - Tuesday, February 14

As I mentioned in the last post, the stopover in Wellington was only for about 12 hours - got there at 7pm, left at 7am to jump on the ferry to head from the north island to the south island. It was cloudy and rainy, so no pictures from the ferry ride.

After the ferry we headed west along the northern coast to Kaiteriteri, which is a small beach town at the edge of the Abel Tasman national park. The northeastern part of the south island (Malborough region) is home to a lot of wineries.  I've really enjoyed all the time I've spent in wine country in CA, so I was a bit sad that I was on the bus and couldn't stop in to do some tastings. Apparently most of the wineries offer free tastings or charge a nominal amount. But from what I can tell about the only thing they do well in New Zealand is a few varietals of white wine, so I'm just gonna tell myself that it probably would've been a disappointment compared to Napa and Sonoma.

I had heard amazing things about the full day kayak up into the shores of the Abel Tasman, so I was planning to do that the next day. Unfortunately, the standard KEX stop in Kaiteriteri is only for one night, and the full-day kayak trip requires 2, so that night I had to say goodbye to a lot of the folks I had been traveling with for a while.

Day 24 - Wednesday, February 15

Woke up early and headed out to the beach in Kaiteriteri where our journey started.

From New Zealand - River Valley & Kaiteriteri

Those weren't our kayaks because the full-day kayak involves a water taxi up the coast a fair way into the national park where our kayaks were waiting for us, so that we didn't have to double back, and because the prevailing winds tend to make it easier to paddle back towards Kaiteriteri.  One of the selling points of kayaking through the Abel Tasman is that there are a lot of seal colonies, both adults and pups at various points in the park. One of my fellow kayakers got to see one up close and personal:

From New Zealand - River Valley & Kaiteriteri

Okay, not really. That's from the website of the company I went with. Unfortunately none decided to come swim out to our kayak. But we did get pretty close to quite a few them that were playing along the shoreline, and I must say baby seals are pretty darn cute. I didn't get any great pictures of the pups, but here's one of a handful of pups playing in a little pool close to shore:

From New Zealand - River Valley & Kaiteriteri

We also saw some penguins, but they tend to keep their distance from the kayaks.  It was a gorgeous spot to kayak - beautiful coast line with clear blue water. Lots of pictures in the picasa album if you're curious. After lunch we had a fairly large bay to get across, so rather than paddling, we just threw up a sail. Sailing in a kayak, no big deal:

From New Zealand - River Valley & Kaiteriteri

The last little stop of the trip was in a bay that's home to "split apple rock."

From New Zealand - River Valley & Kaiteriteri