Whoa! New Zealand: home of EXTREME sports - let's go kayaking!

Okay, so it's not THAT extreme, but we'd all agreed that we were up for anything that didn't involve throwing ourselves off or out of anything. That 'we all' refers to the usual honeymooners plus Helen and Pete, our chums who are currently on a two year holiday in New Zealand. Sorry, a two-year period of VERY hard work. It was great to see them, and jolly good fun was had - belated Christmas crackers & hats and all.

We started Friday night in Nelson, looking for something to eat at about 8.30pm - much more of a challenge than we had anticipated, we ended up eating in a curry house at 10pm. But the curry (at Cafe India) was worth the wait - just always remember in New Zealand to ask for your curry two levels hotter than you would in the UK - the most popular dish here is Butter Chicken which is like a Korma but without the heat! Nelson at this point appeared to be a bit of an odd place - easier to find a strip joint than a meal - but then the next morning, it turned out we'd just been looking in the wrong place and it's a decent, if touristy, town.

The main event of Saturday was Sea Kayaking in Cable Bay (http://www.cablebaykayaks.co.nz/) which was good fun in a cracking location... though REALLY hard work! And having to think about steering with the feet while independently operating the arms AND looking at the great views is not something a man should have to attempt on holiday - yep, a bit too much like multi-tasking. Good fun tho. That evening we deservedly threw shrimps on the barbie and had a yummy dinner with real NZ lamb. Ace.

More outdoor pursuits on the Sunday as we drove to Abel Tasman National Park (an hour or so) and got a water taxi up into the park proper, to undertake a four-ish hour walk back to the car. The Abel Tasman Track is another of NZ's great walks (again, you could spend four days doing the whole thing) and you can see why it is so loved as it follows the coast passing bay after bay, through dense bush. It's a real credit to NZ's Dept of Conservation (DOC, pronounced "dock") that they have so many parks and tracks all over the country, free to use and so well maintained. If anything, the part of the Abel Tasman Track that we did (Anchorage to Marahau) is almost TOO well maintained - when the couple with two kids in a double-buggy are going faster than you, you start to think that maybe your 'tramp' isn't all that hardcore! Seriously, though, there are tracks, parks, lookouts and all sorts of great outdoorsy stuff and it's all really impressive.

We were really lucky with the weather - as we approached the car park at the end of our sunny walk, the heavens opened and it chucked it down in a massive way for the rest of the night - we really weren't sure H&P's mini private jet would be able to take off that evening but in the end they made it.

Oh, and we stayed in a hostel that served up FREE hot chocolate pudding and ice cream every night. Who could ask for more.