Walk doesn't always mean walk

I had a glorious weekend. On Friday I flew from Wellington to Nelson - a whole 25 minute flight. At the airport I didn’t even have to show ID or go through security. Weird. I had booked a day cruise/walk online for the Abel Tasman National Park, which is about a 90-minute bus ride from Nelson. My bus (or coach, as they said here) was going to pick me up at my hotel at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. However, as I was getting ready (say, at about 6:45) my phone rang and the front desk said that my coach to Abel Tasman was there to pick me up. Ummm… my email said 7:30. Anyway, there was a coach at 7:30, so I was ready for that one. Whew – didn’t really want to rush to get ready.

The scenery just driving to the National Park was gorgeous. I had been worried about the weather – it’s been rainy and cloudy here in NZ, but I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. The boat ride along the coastline was gorgeous – windy, but gorgeous. I kept singing How Great Thou Art in my head as I was watching the landscape go by.








The package that I booked was the Seals & Beach walk and cruise – walk was a little misleading. The description online states: Enjoy a 2hr 15min (5 kms, 3 miles) walk over a forested saddle and around the golden sands of Bark Bay Estuary with its cascading waterfalls through lush native forest. However, walk was not the right word – it was a fairly strenuous hike. At least I didn’t wear flip-flops, but I did wear my traction-lacking Converse shoes, so the wet and muddy (and steep) paths were a little difficult to manage. I only slipped a few times. So for future reference, walk = hike. On the boat ride back to our originating point, I had a great conversation with a woman from Minnesota and her traveling buddy from the UK, as well as another guy from Sydney. The woman from Minnesota (I think her name is Kat) and the guy from the UK (crap, can’t remember his name) want to meet up next weekend in another city on the North Island, so I’m working on the scheduling for that.









On Sunday, prior to my flight back to Wellington, I just walked around Nelson. They have a huge cathedral right next to the hotel where I stayed. As I walked around the cathedral grounds, I noticed several people in the parking lot with dogs, and I also saw some rabbits and guinea pigs. I thought to myself, wouldn’t that be funny if this were like that Vicar of Dibley episode where the Vicar holds a service for everyone’s pets? Well, a woman stopped to talk to me while I was walking around and asked if I had been to the service. She said it was a great service because it was a pet service (pronounced peet). Hilarious!

Gorgeous weekend, so much fun!!