Paradise & Sand Flies

Hey everyone, I'm still alive... its just been awhile since I've seen a city. This last week Markus and I went out to the Abel Tasman park and took a 2 day/ 2 night kayak trip with a couple day hikes here and there. The place was gorgeous, but pretty miserable when it was raining. We had good weather most of the trip, with a couple nights of rain, but we stayed dry!The first day we went for a hike because the wind was too strong to be out on the ocean in a 2 person kayak. We hiked about 7k and then hung out in Marahau for a night waiting for good weather. Finally we got out on the water... it was nice but when the weather turned and the wind picked up, it was more work than fun trying to stay upright and not being blown into the cook straight.At our first stop we met another group of German travelers that were pretty cool, and a Israeli guy named Yossi. We hung out with them and ended up making a little commune out of our tents situating them between the toilets and the kitchen structure to try and avoid the wind. The next day was nice and warm so we dried all our gear and and hung out on the beach learning a little bit of German and getting a sunburn at 8 in the morning.

We moved along and spent the rest of the day paddling around in the blue green water watching seals, penguins and jelly fish cruise around in the water. We pulled up to a private beach to enjoy some lunch when about half way through a bagel and peanut butter they hit... the spawn of Satan... aka sand flies. They come in swarms and leave a bite that is a mix between a mosquito and a black fly... so needless to say i ate the rest of my sandwich running up and down the beautiful beach trying to avoid the little pests.

After we ditched the kayak we hiked up to another camp ground and met our friend Yossi who was hanging out there for the night as well (along with the sand flies). We hung out, talked about everything from Judaism to The Smurfs. We got up the next morning and hiked 5k to the place where Markus and I picked up the taxi to head back to our car. We parted ways with Yossi and then departed on the most nauseating bus ride ever (beats Africa).

Our next stop was the Farewell spit which is some 25k long... we only walked 5k. It was pretty cool... ate a lot of dust and sand, but it was fun. After that we checked out another beach and took some pictures of the sunset. All in all a good trip to the Abel Tasman park.

Markus and I have about 6 hours of driving ahead of us, so i better go. We are headed down to the glaciers and some of the sounds on the west side of the island for a week or more... probably spend the rest of our time making a big loop back up to Christchurch. Thank you all for your prayers and emails. I appreciate it. Until next time.