Day 158 -Abel Tasman National Park, South Island -Thursday 22nd March 2012

It seems the New Zealand and the UK has something in common - in inability to predict the weather……..

We woke up rain but after having a shower and some breakfast it had cleared to show blue skies and glorious sunshine. This was exactly what the weather forecast had said, rain in the morning but will clear quickly to bright skies for the rest of the day, which was a bit of luck (on some planning on our part) as today we planned to explore the Abel Tasman National Park by boat and foot.

We trundled down to the boat jetty, departed with our money and sat on Kaiteriteri beach whilst we waited for our 10.30am water taxi. The sun was beautifully warm and we'd both dressed accordingly in shorts and t-shirts - I'd even put my bikini on underneath in case one of the many coves along our walk showed swimming and lying on the beach potential!

Our boat arrived and so we were quickly on and drinking in the sights along the coast. We'd signed up for the discoverer day which consisted on going the entire length of the Abel Tasman National Park's coast from our pick up on Kaiteriteri beach all the way up to Totaranui and then back down again to Bark Bay where we would jump off the boat and do the 3 hour walk to either Torrent Bay or Anchorage Bay and be picked up again by the boat at 4.45pm to head back to our starting point. The cruise up was divine; we stopped at all the little bays and checked out the sights, including split apple rock, the seal colony and even a couple of far off rainbows, whilst our captain gave a commentary on the area. After two hours on the boat we arrived at the southernmost point of the trip, Totaranui, where we had ten minutes that we could get off the boat and have a look around. Literally five seconds after stepping from the boat a grey cloud came overhead and the rain started. Unprepared in our shorts, Ad and I quickly ran back to the boat to take shelter. "Ah it's just a brief shower and will pass any minute" came the reassuring words of the captain. Now this is the thing with the weather in NZ - it lulls you into a full sense of security by showing some sun but within ten minutes it's raining cats and dogs and is freezing cold. Someone told us that NZ can have four seasons in one day and they certainly were not lying. Anyway, an hour passed and we started our approach to Bark bay, our drop off point, and the rain was still coming down. So I hovered around the captain and gingerly suggested that we might not get off the boat if the rain continued as we had no waterproofs and didn't fancy getting soaking wet. To this, the ever helpful captain produced two little bags of white plastic and told us not to worry, we could use the rain poncho he kept in the boat and within five minutes we were off the boat, standing on the beach watching the warm and dry boat depart from the shoreline. The rain was still hurtling down so we quickly took shelter under a tree and unwrapped our little parcels to find what looked like a large white plastic bag with a hood and sleeves. Well sod it we thought - it's better than getting wet! So picture this, Adam and I both in shorts and trainers with a very large white plastic bag over our bodies and head walking for three hours in the pouring rain whilst other, obviously better prepared, walkers passed us by in their posh Northface waterproof jackets - needless to say, we looked like a pair of right plonkers.

We finally arrived at Torrent Bay but were an hour early for the early boat (by this point we'd already decided to get the early boat of 3.45pm rather than sit around in the rain and wait for another hour for the 4.45pm boat) and so there was only one thing for it - walk to the next pick up point, Anchorage Bay. You see the rain, although still coming down, had lighted and so the pesky sand-flies were back out again and nipping at any exposed bit of flesh they could find and so the thought occurred to us that it would be harder for them to land if we were in motion - this idea didn't truly work as we soon found out later in the evening when the bites started to show.

So another 30 minutes on and a bit wetter from walking through the pools of water, we arrived at Anchorage Bay and eagerly awaited our ride home. Back on the boat we were delighted to find they sold hot chocolate and sweets and so one hot chocolate and a Cadburys fruit and nut later we were happy souls - isn't the healing power of chocolate amazing!?!

We sailed back into Kaiteriteri beach much the way we'd left it - in the bright sunshine; rainbows even greeted us as we came into the shore. Is this some kind of sick joke we wondered. It seemed that whilst the National Park was covered in low lying cloud and rain, the beach from where we'd left, a mere way down the coast, had been basking in warm sunshine all day - we think we may have upset the weather god!

Back in the van we dried off, has some tea and toast and then started our drive towards Nelson to find somewhere to freedom camp for the night. It seems that Nelson is a bit of a b***h to freedom camp in - every rest area has very large signs stating in capitals "NO CAMPING OR OVERNIGHT PARKING". And so in the end we passed through Nelson and finally found a rest area on the road towards Havelock. Feeling slightly defeated and with the rain setting in again we settled down for the old British favourite - baked beans and cheese on toast with a cup of tea. A couple's of hours later we were fast asleep in between wildly scratching at those horrible sand-fly bites!