This is a bit of a catch up blog because I was too knackered yesterday to explain what we'd been up to. So here goes...

We'd booked a trip with Kiwi Kayaks to go sea kayaking around Abel Tasman National Park so got the bus to Marahau at 6.30am, with a driver who seemed to think he was an unofficial tour guide for the entire Nelson region, imparting unsolicited information on soil types and generally setting the world to rights. Jim summed him up best when he said the guy's world view was "when I were a boy, all ths were fields..." Thankfully, he didn't posess a microphone.

Anyway, once we arrived at HQ we were introduced to our tour guides, Ricky and Hamish, and the other people doing the trip, a lovely French couple called Fabien and Marianne. We then got briefed on our equipment and got suited up, donning very attractive thermal tops, a rubber "skirt" that clipped onto your kayak to keep it watertight, a kagoul and the all important life jacket. Once we were all dressed we headed to Sandy Bay and took to the water.

Jim and I were sharing a two man kayk, with him behind operating the rudder with his feet and me "navigating" at the front (I think I said "go left/right" about five times all day). We were surprisingly good as a team though and it wasn't long before we were speeding ahead of the other couple.

Sea kayaking really is the ideal way to explore Abel Tasman - the waters are really calm and the coastline is absolutely gorgeous, made up of a series of bays with golden sandy beaches, coastline covered in dense green foliage and transparent, deep turquoise water. And it was beautiful sunshine too, though wierdly only 14 degrees. We paddled up the coast past Fisherman Island, taking little breaks to drift whenever we got tired or when Ricky was telling us points of interest.

After a couple of hours at sea we had a tea break at Appletree Bay before heading back out into the Tasman Bay, travelling past Adele Island and Observation Beach, for another hour and a half. We landed at Te Pukatea Bay for a picnic at lunch time, strolled up to the lookout and then completed our route to Anchorage before getting the water taxi home.

It was a brilliant day; the scenery was gorgeous and our guides were ace, chatting to us pretty much constantly (oh yes, they seem to think Philip Schofield is a Kiwi! - answers on a postcard). Quote of the day came from Jim: "That's the first time I've ever high-fived a Frenchman."

Lots of love x x x