wild & wacky midsemester break - part II

our group ready to start Abel Tasman.  L-R: Alex, Jen, Suzi, me, Eilidh, Carolyn

typical view from the track

SO! On to more of my break adventures!  We left early Monday morning to hike Abel Tasman - this is both a national park and a great walk (there are nine great walks; these are DOC-sponsored, really awesome hikes around NZ).  The tramp is about 51 km.  We planned to do it rather quickly, starting Monday at lunchtime and finishing Wednesday at lunchtime with two nights of camping.  We did indeed do it in that amount of time, but it proved to be more challenging than we'd expected.  Turns out that doing it backwards (it's not a loop, so we parked our car at the beginning and started from the other end) is harder than hiking it the way most people do, because the uphills are much steeper when going from finish to start.  But we did really enjoy the tramp and felt very much accomplished when we finished.  It's a coastal route, so we would cross a beach and then hike inland, up a big hill, back down the other side, and come to another stretch of beach.  Along the way we met a German dude named Felix (at our first campsite) and he hung with us for the rest of the time.  The whole area of Abel Tasman is quite beautiful, it's  located on the northern part of the south island, so it's a bit warmer than Dunedin.  The sun didn't come out a whole lot for us but it didn't rain much either, so it was great weather for hiking.  We had a few different tidal crossings that we had to time corresponding to low tide...those were quite interesting because of how tender our feet were from hiking; add to that the fact that the sand is much less refined along Abel Tasman and most of it was covered with tiny clam shell pieces, so it basically felt like we were walking on glass.  Also, other Jen got the nastiest blister i have ever seen in my life, basically her entire heel came off.  But we made it! The really great thing about this tramp was that everything that happened was something that we learned from and we powered through every situation that we found ourselves facing.

me at one of the many beaches we crossed

typical view along the track

cooooollllldd tidal crossing!

baby seals, taken from my cliff perch

One of the coolest situations i've found myself in this semester happened during the afternoon of the first day of hiking.  We decided to hike down a side track and see a lighthouse at a place called Separation Point.  When we got down there one of the first things i noticed were some seals on the rocks below us (i hadn't gotten down to the actual lighthouse yet, and it turns out that i wouldn't because of my focus on these seals).  Seals are pretty common around the Otago area but i've never gotten very close to any, well except for that one in Kaikoura he was an angry seal.  Anyways, i wanted to take some better pictures of the seals so i walked down a bit closer - keep in mind i am still about 20-30 yards away at this point - and then i realized that these were not just any seals, they were a mama and her babies!  My excitement level spiked and i just needed to get closer.  I decided to climb this jutting cliff thing that would put me above them, able to look down and get some good shots but still be safely away from them.  Seals can get relatively aggressive in any situation (like we learned in Kaikoura) but it's a no-brainer that you don't mess with a mom and her pups.  I sat on my cliff for a whole and looked down on them as they played in the water.  By this time the mom had gone out to the sea to sun on a rock...from where i was sitting i could see her but she was facing the other direction.  it wasn't too long until i grew bored of my high-up vantage point and wanted to get closer still.  I climbed back down and made my way to the waters' edge to watch the babies playing.  Now, any professional would say that it was totally inappropriate for me to get that close to seals, but they were just babies, i could see the mum and was safely away from her and able to quickly exit the situation should she come back, and when else am i ever going to get to watch wild baby seals??  I got some really good shots and patiently waited to see if they would come any closer.  Lo and behold, when one of the waves washed in to the rocks on which i was standing some of the seals came with it.  I saw them on one side of me, about 3-4 yards away now, and stood very still while taking pictures.  Two of the little guys climbed onto a nearby rock and stared me down, as if they were having a conversation about what kind of foreign being i was.  I stepped onto a flatter rock in order to have better footing and continued to stand still and take pictures.  One of them, the more daring of the two, plopped into the water between my rock and his and climbed up very close to me, but taking his time.  At this point we were less than an arms' length (big no-no, says professional) and i was so very close to reaching my arm out an petting his head - they are very dog-like at that age - when he let out a small growl and i quickly came to my senses and moved back, knowing it would be a very bad thing if i made that mama mad.  Still, that little seal and i definitely had a moment : )  Enjoy the some photos:

wet friends on the ferry

By the time we finished the track we were more than ready to be done with tramping for a while.  I was so sweaty and dirty and ridiculously itchy from the ridiculous amount of sandfly bites i had on my feet...though, i would later realize that this discomfort was minimal compared to what i would later face under the wrath of sandflies.  More to come on that in the next post.  We piled our sweaty, smelly bodies into the car and drove off to Picton, where Alex, Suzi, and i would catch our ferry to Wellington.  We arrived into Picton about a half hour before boarding time when i got a message that our sail would be delayed one hour, due to rough seas.  We drove back to the hostel where just a few minutes prior we had just dropped off Jen and Carolyn and we all went to find something to eat.  Carolyn and i got some fish and chips and the rest of the group found some good Indian food.  We were really happy to chow down while sharing a case of beer and some wine, laughing uncontrollably at so many things that weren't really all that funny, and sitting in the car while it poured rain outside.  It was towards the end of the meal when Alex came up with the bright idea of stuffing himself so that he could get seasick and vomit off the side of the ferry later that night (boy does this sound soooo much more dumb as i type it out!).  Looking back on this situation i can now so clearly see what a really terrible idea that is, but Alex had never gotten seasick before and really wanted to experience it (what.) and we all reasoned that it would have to be the funniest thing ever for us to be able to send spewing-Alex photos to Carolyn and Jen, who were staying on the south island and wouldn't have the honor or witnessing sick Alex.  So Alex went to down on the remainder of the curry, chips, aioli, and fish (don't forget adding beer and cheap wine to that mix).  So we were off.  It wasn't too long until Alex's stomach really wasn't having the combination that he forced into it and poor Alex was a bit of a miserable lad.  He and Suzi and i checked in and waited around for a while longer and finally got to board the ferry, which was much nicer than i'd expected.  It reminded me a lot of a smaller cruise ship - they had really nice seats and little shops and a food court area and a movie theater and a bar.  We went up to the lounge on the upper deck and plopped down in some seats; Alex was looking green already.  And thus began our 3+ hour journey across the Cook Straight.  We quickly realized that when they said rough seas, they really meant it.  We stood out on the outside deck for portions of the sail and got totally soaked from the spray.  The waves we plowed therough were really huge and it was really cool to watch the fierce sea at night.  Apparently for a typical night of sailing the norm is 1 meter high waves.  On the night we sailed the waves were ~5 meters high.  It was really insane.  For the second half it was much more intense and we stayed in our seats and watched the water crash against the window in front of us.  It was quite an experience.  Oh, and quite unfortunately for him, Alex didn't get sick - how ironic.

We arrived into Wellington around 11 pm.  Alex and Suzi had arranged to stay with some Student Life guys and i was planning to meet up with Paul Fremeau (who happens to be studying in Welly this semester - what a small world!).  Cody, the first student life guy i met and the one who picked us up at the terminal, kindly offered to drive me to meet Paul, and then picked Paul up and drove us both to Paul's apartment.  I was sooo glad of this because Paul lives up this huge hill, which is awesome for the view of the city, but not so awesome for the walk required to get to and from it.  The situation couldn't have worked out much better, as Paul arrived back into Wellington airport around 10:30 pm. And thus began our time in NZ's capital city!

post Abel Tasman - our defeated poses