Hello again. We've been busy the last few days! From Turangi we took a long ass bus ride down to Wellington (very beautiful scenery again).

Just outside of Turangi we drove by Mt. Doom and the land of Mordor.

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We got to Wellington and took a cab out to the airport. One of the 3 ferries that crosses the straight between the north and south islands was down, so the other 2 had to pick up the slack and we would have waited an extra day to get on one of them. So, we took a flight on a little 15 seater turbo prop from Wellington to Nelson (only 35 minute flight and the scenery was really spectacular!). Nelson is a very cool town (and very busy) right between the Abel Tasman National Park and the Marlborough wine region. Wednesday morning we got up and went for a long walk into downtown Nelson and up a big hill to the geographical center of NZ. The views of Nelson were really cool from up there. Hiked back down and back along the ocean to the beach side of town (where we were staying) and stopped at pubs along the way. We had some delicious prawns at one place sitting out on a deck in the sun overlooking the ocean. The sun is finally out! It seems like the rain has been following us around.

Thursday we got up early and a shuttle from Southern Exposure Kayaks picked us up a 7am and drove over to Marahau (in the Abel Tasman N.P.) We got all rigged up with raincoats, spray skirts, and life jackets and hopped on another bus down to the ocean. There we got in the water taxi (a 25 foot speed boat with a 200 h.p. outboard). The boat was backed into the water by a tractor because of the low tide (that was interesting). We drove about 45 minutes up the coast and got dropped off on a beach where our kayaks were waiting for us. There were 8 people (4 tandem kayaks) in our group plus our guide.

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It was very windy which made paddling out in the open water rather exciting! We paddled out to an island and saw a few seals and one seal pup. Then we all rafted up our kayaks and the guide tied a sail to some paddles and we sailed (very fast) for a while before paddling back into the coast.

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Then we paddled along the coast and explored some secluded beaches where it was nice and calm. The sun came out off and on, but we also had a little rain (not bad, though). We stopped at a few places for snacks and lunch and then continued down the coast to another beach where the water taxi picked us up for the ride back home.

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We stayed in the town of Motueka that night. We were too tired to go out. I finally found the Southern Cross (a group of stars in the southeastern sky).