After two days in Auckland I was back on a plane for the hour long flight to Nelson. The thing about New Zealand, is it's breathtaking by air as well as on land.
Um also, how small is this plane that it has propellers? My eyes saw them as blurs, but the camera caught them as individual blades. To back up for a moment, flying to Nelson was the easiest airport experience I've ever had. I arrived, walked to a kiosk (with no line), scanned my passport and it automatically brought up my reservation and printed out my boarding pass and my luggage tag. I took my luggage to the next kiosk where I checked it in myself (with no line). I then waited for my flight to be called, scanned my own boarding pass and walked onto the plane. No security. Weird right?
I do wonder if that will change. While I was in Nelson there was a shooting at several mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The reaction of the locals was despondent. It made me realize how desensitized we are in America to these tragedies. I think their reaction is more appropriate. Both as a people and as a government. On my walk I met five New Zealanders who worked in the hospital in Christchurch, some of them were there the day the wounded came in. Can you imagine? Why do we ignore these things? How do we justify our lack of action about our own gun control laws? I know I'm guilty of sweeping it under the rug.
I spent the first morning of my hike having coffee overlooking the beach at the entrance to the park. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of myself. I arrived at my hostel at 4pm and made all of my arrangements, rented gear, bought food, and packed by 8pm. If I hadn't done it all the week before in Patagonia I would have been so much more hesitant. Instead I was the girl who did a double walk the first day, skipping the first hut and heading straight to the second.
Abel Tasman is lovely. It is on the North coast of the South Island, and is a seemingly endless string of beautiful bays with golden beaches interrupted only by green hills rising to meet the brilliant sea. The water color changed as the day went on, silvery in the morning, aqua mid day, greenish in the afternoon and deep blue in the evening. The trail was smooth packed earth, it wove through the trees along the shoreline, occasionally crossing the beach.
The first night I slept in a hut called Bark Bay. I arrived around 4pm, and immediately walked down to the beach and went for a swim. It was me, a group of four people down the beach and some sea birds fishing for dinner. There were 15 of us staying in the hut, after the 50 or so camping each night on the O this felt like true solitude.
After my swim I walked the beach, drying off (I'd forgotten to pack a towel) and looking for shells. Such a great shell beach! Mom you would have loved it! I didn't want to carry them around the world, so here is my digital collection (please note the artful wave in the picture, it took me about 10 tries to get this one).
I walked into the hut full of strangers and by the end of the night I'd met everyone staying there. It still surprises me how quickly the strangers feel like friends. There were three other solo travelers (a German girl who was a doctor, another who was a social worker, and a South Korean guy who only took one week of vacation a year... and I thought Americans were bad) that I'd end up walking with for the next two days. But my favorite group was the five Filipino people who worked in the Hospital at Christchurch. They'd all emigrated to New Zealand at different points over the last ten years and has such energy and warmth. They even spontaneously shared their authentic Adobo dinner they had brought with them. I didn't know until now that everyone in the Philippines goes to school in English, apparently its common for people from other Asian countries to go there to study the language. Their accents were impeccable, they sounded like Americans to me. Apparently that is common for the Scandinavian countries as well. For them it is because they watch all of the American TV shows and movies. They do in Germany and France as well but those countries are large enough to have voice overs in their own country so they more accented English (this is what the Germans I've met tell me anyway).
In case it wasn't obvious up until this point, I'm meeting people from all over the world daily. I'm staying in group rooms with 6 or so other people a night. Usually women, but some of the dorms are mixed. You end up chatting with people in your room, or in the common spaces, the kitchen, the back yard. They all speak English, most of them really well.
On Day two I set out with the German doctor girl. I have to admit, when I met her I thought she looked 18, it turns out she's 28. I hope people are making the same mis-judgement about me ;) It was nice to have company after 6 hours of walking alone the day before. Sometimes my thoughts are nice, and sometimes it's nice to take a break from them.
That night we slept at a place called Awoara, it was inside of an estuary. when we first arrived the tide was completely out, so far out actually that we got lost. We walked an extra half hour and had to back track to the hut for the night. This was my favorite place that we staid. It was a relatively easy day, we arrived around 2pm and literally there was nothing to do but watch the tide come in and fill up the estuary for the next six hours. It wasn't boring, it was completely relaxing. Here, let me give you a taste. This is what it looked like when we got there:
I took this picture from the deck of our hut, we were only about 15 feet back from that sign. Sometime between this picture and the next we met Connie, a 30 year old Chilean girl who had been living in New Zealand for two years (later I would meet her again at the airport on our way to Queenstown, we would randomly have seats next to each other on the plane and she gave me a ride to town when we got there - it really is a small small world).
This was two or three hours later, you can see the progression. In between this picture and the next we met a French girl, Celine, who's boyfriend of 10 years broke up with her so she sold her house, took a one year leave from her job (Europeans can do that), and planned an around the world trip. We also met a pair of New Zealand women, a mother daughter duo walking the trek together. I have to say to all of you mothers out there, this woman was at least 65 and out there killing it.
Three hours later the water was reaching it's height, the moon was rising, and the sun was setting. The pastel sky was enchanting. I'd done nothing but sit on the porch of the hut, talk to the random strangers that happened to choose this particular place in the world to sleep that night, and eat a little dinner. A French guy joined our group. We all sat up late, looking at the stars. Connie showed us which stars made up the Southern Cross, Celine had the app on her phone that showed the names of the other constellations. It felt completely disconnected, serene. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever spent the night.
The next morning there was nothing to do but wait for the water to go back out. High tide was at 8pm and 8am (roughly), but we could only cross to the next part of our hike a low tide. It was the first time that tide tables affected my hike, and I was pretty happy about it. I liked being on Mother Nature's schedule and not my own. By noon the water had receded enough for us to cross the estuary and pick up the trail Even though the tide was low we took off our boots, crossed in bare feet and were wet up to our thighs. Never done a hike like that before.
Honestly that was the highlight of the trip for me. There were other beautiful views and vistas.
There were beaches I walked across and was the only person on them.
And there was another day I walked alone, after my friends had stopped, and had more time with my thoughts.
After the end of my hike I took a water taxi back to the start. A boat ride back along the coast. It took an hour to undo what had taken 20 hours to do. But I loved every second of it. In a way I don't love hiking. Being on the water affects me differently.
I think I need to learn how to sail...
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