Learning New Zealand: Flying solo: Abel Tasman and traveling

The second day of my trip I woke up early and got on the bus to do part of the Abel Tasman Cost to Coast walk. It's supposed to be a really pretty walk, and I was doing a relatively easy "holiday" walk. The bus ride to Kaiteriteri was pretty - saw the sun rise just past the mountains. I took a boat around to Anchorage, which was really cool. I met a German guy and an American family of eight who were traveling, though I was the only one to do the exact walk I was doing.

The ferry brought me to Anchorage, which was absolutely gorgeous. Apparently during the summer the bay is filled with yachts because there's not really any waves, but as it was "winter" (aka sunny with need for two light layers of clothing) it was completely deserted. I felt a little alone as the boat pulled away, but started out on my journey towards Marahau. I will admit that I was not expecting it to be a four-hour, 12.4km walk. I thought it would be about half that. The walk up the mountain from the beach was brutal. It was very steep and I stopped for picture breaks (aka catch-my-breath breaks) every few minutes. I was worried that the whole walk would be like that - thankfully, it wasn't. The views of the ocean were incredible. Seriously so beautiful. The rest of the walk, which did take almost four hours of walking, was good. However, I took a few breaks to drop down to the beach, one of which I lay on the sand and read my book. By the end of the walk I was definitely ready to be done - one of my knees hurt. :( But it was an awesome walk. Very peaceful. Also, I didn't see another human for two hours. It was strange.

At the end of the walk, I ended in Marahau. There are these wooden carvings at a shop, whcih I explored for a bit before catching the bus back to the hostel. Then I ate my free soup, talked with a traveler from Seattle, and went to bed by 9pm. It was a good day. Again, traveling solo? Awesome. Get ready for twenty pictures, mostly of scenery from the walk. (I took about 200 pictures on this walk, by the way. Twenty is not many.)

looking cool as always

cute as

Papa-tu-a-nuku and Ranganui

The next morning I took the bus from Nelson to Picton. The bus ride was beautiful. Lots of tree-covered mountains, while I listened to music that matched the road-trip feel. And didn't fall asleep! Probably the only time I was in transport on the trip where I didn't fall asleep. I got to Picton and had a little over an hour to kill, so I explored. Went in some souvenir shops, ate some unfortunately gross fish n chips, and then boarded the Interislander ferry to Wellington!

The ferry ride through the Marlborough Sounds was gorgeous. So many pretty trees on the land coming out of the water. It was rather windy on the deck so I didn't spend too much time there. Not to mention once we got through the sounds - which, again, were beautiful and very peaceful for being on a massive ferry - and reached the Cook Straight.. that was less fun. The crew announced that it was "less than favorable", and less than favorable it was. It was like being on a rollercoaster for two hours, up and down and up and down. Seriously not fun, I felt so seasick. I had my motion sickness bag at the ready but thank goodness I didn't need to use it. I sat in a reclining chair inside and tried to sleep; it kind of worked. My iPod was dead so droning out the very loud man on his cell phone was pretty much impossible..