After a number of days in the van we were looking forward to stretching our legs on an adventure in 'Abel Tasman', a coastal national park, full of multi-day bush and beach walks, alongside kayaking and boat trip options. Our base town for the trip was Motueka where, trying to be as frugal as possible to supply our camping trip, we bought one double sleeping mat and sliced it in half for us each to carry, hired a tent, and decided not to hire small gas cooking facilities, thereby buying only ready to eat food including far too many cans of tuna, bread rolls, hot cross buns, cheap cereal bars, a few apples, bananas, and portions of rice crispies for each morning. We visited the DOC office who gave us access into the park for three days and two nights, during which we would do half a day of freedom kayaking to begin, leave the kayaks on the beach for collection and continue the rest of the trip on foot. Moving onto a small town called Marahau, we checked into a campsite for the night to do our washing and have a hot shower, before 3 days which we presumed would be showerless! With the realisation that we would also be eating very boring cold food for that period, we treated ourselves to a gigantic burger at a small busy caravan cafe called 'The Fat Tui'...not quite as good as the Fergburger though!

The following day we were up early, cramming everything we needed into our small day bags as we were conscious of the amount of space we would have in the kayak. However, on arrival at the kayak hire company we were told that we could just give them our bags and they would drop them off to us when we left our kayaks at the beach before walking. Great; this meant we could take one of our big bags instead of our day bag so everything wasn't so crammed in...off we went to spend half an hour repacking before returning to hand over our bags. No such luck; another guy then told us they weren't running that service so everything we wanted to take would have to go in the kayak! With us kicking up a bit of a fuss, the hire guy then offered to help us squish everything into various parts of the kayak until it weighed a tonne! After returning to fit Barry into the tiniest parking space in the middle of the car park in fear of him being broken into while we were gone, in a slight strop at the company we were then taken down to the beach, given a safety briefing and were set to go off on our own. About three hours of kayaking would take us along the coast from Marahau to Anchorage Point where we would deposit our kayaks. As we got ready to launch our double kayak, the waves were picking up and looked pretty big from the shore. Dragging our kayak into the shallows, Sophie jumped into the front seat and was unsuccessful in getting her spray-deck secured around her before massive waves started crashing in and soaking her! With Sophie paddling out to sea, Trevor then had to run to the back of the kayak and jump into the rear seat, help paddle out past all the breaking waves soaking us and trying to push us back onto the beach, before attempting to secure his spray deck around him. After a pretty choppy start, the waves weren't too bad a bit further out, although Sophie's soaking wet hoody was making her pretty chilly! One of the hire guides had advised us that most of the route we were taking along the coast would be fine, as the majority was in sheltered bays and coves. There was however, an area called the 'Mad Mile' which, being an area completely open to the vast sea, could get very choppy in windy weather. The guide recommended that it probably wasn't going to be suitable to try and paddle it today, and to drop the kayaks off at the beach before and walk from there, although it was our decision to make according to the conditions when we arrived. After a couple of hours of paddling along the picturesque shore, past small forested islands surrounded by bright blue waters, having a look for seals amongst the rocks, and pulling into a small golden sand bay for a snack, we arrived at the Mad Mile... Deciding to edge our way towards it to see how big the waves were looking, and then edging closer still, it wasn't long until we realised we'd gone more or less halfway so there wasn't much point in turning back. The swell of the waves got quite big for the last third of the mile and having to go sideways into the waves was a bit worrying that we were going to capsize, and have to upright our stupidly heavy kayak! After some determined paddling from both and searching the shore for our final port of call, we turned into the bay of 'Anchorage Point', exhilarated at the last part of our kayak adventure, and patting ourselves on the back for our skill at navigating the waves and rocks out to sea!

Once on the beach we unloaded all our stuff from the kayak, relieved to find that it was all still dry, changed into some dry clothes and our hiking boots, and packed our bags. Whilst Trevor was loaded up with his big bag full of stuff, along with the tent and his wet clothes hung over the top of everything, making him look like the Hunch-back of Notradame, Sophie had the challenging task of trying to fit too much stuff into her small bag, attach a seeping bag and roll mat to the back of it with some kind of string contraption, and then also hang all her wet clothes over the back, transforming her into some kind of pack-horse / donkey! Both feeling the weight of our badly loaded bags immediately on our shoulders, we weren't sure how fun the walk was going to be! Nevertheless off we set, and hiked for 4 hours that afternoon. The walk took us through bush and woodland, past rivers and waterfalls, and out onto cliffs overlooking small desolate bays far below. At around 7pm that first night, with blistered toes and achey shoulders, we arrived at 'Bark Bay', the location of our first nights' camping, and pitched up our tent. The camp was set just behind a single tree line off the beach, where you could clearly hear the sound of the sea at night, and made for a beautiful view in the morning.

After a bit of a restless night on our paper thin roll mats, we were up at 7am to repack our donkey sacks, with our clothes that were still wet hanging off again, and set off early. We were tied to making an 11am tidal crossing that day, so had to arrive at a certain section of beach in time for the water level to be low enough to wade across. After rushing along, we arrived in plenty of time at Awaroa, took off our boots and waded across the shallow water from the forest on one side of the beach back into the bush on the other. After reapplying plasters to the blisters on our toes and squishing our feet back in our boots, we hobbled off again for half an hour before stopping at Waiharakeke beach to have our lunch. A small cove, we had the beach more or less to ourselves and had to force ourselves to leave and continue walking. That said, the walk that afternoon was beautiful. We were walking up steep slopes in the bush to be rewarded with the most fantastic views of cosy golden sand bays set against deep turquoise water, surrounded by high cliffs at each end, and with deep green bush lining the cliffs and bay. The array of vibrant colours set against each other was amazing, and moaning about the steep incline of the bush walk each time we left a bay was soon washed away and forgotten with the treat of the next view! Couple that with absolutely amazing birdsong surrounding us, we were only slightly niggled by our extremely painful feet! At times, the track even led us right along the hot sand of the beaches, such as in 'Goat Bay', leaving our footprints in the sand from one rocky end to the other, before ascending back up into lush bush and arriving at the next picture-perfect bay.

On arrival at our second nights' camp, 'Mutton Cove', and having dreamt about a swim in the sea throughout the hot day, we dumped our stuff and made our way in. The sea however was so cold, and after a few minutes we had got our fill of refreshment, soaked our sore feet which we were relived to have removed from our boots, and set up camp for the night. This cove was even more stunning than the previous nights' location. Small and secluded, with only a handful of campers, we set up our tent to open our door directly onto the beach...what a way to wake up! A couple of tuna rolls and a few biscuits later, we rolled into bed after an exhausting yet beautiful 10 hour trek!

On our final morning of the trip we didn't need to leave until early afternoon to do the two hour walk back to 'Totaranui', where we would catch our water taxi back to the start of the trek. Therefore we spent the morning down on the beach, soaking our feet in the sea - salt water is a cure for everything apparently! We watched a sea bird swoop and dive for fish and then come out onto the sand only a couple of metres from us to dry itself, wings spread out beside it catching the rays and the gentle breeze. Returning to the tent we saw some cheeky wingless birds called 'Weka' had gone in our food bag and dragged out a bag of pears wrapped in foil. Notoriously cheeky and thieving birds they had successfully pecked into one, although on us throwing it to them they were no longer interested in it; they'd only enjoyed the thrill of stealing them! Eating the last of our food and finally being able to pack all our clothes that had dried at last into our bags, rather than having them hanging on the outside, we set off into the bush once again. After soaking up the last of the views and the sounds of the birdsong around us, we reached Totaranui beach where we were picked up by the water taxi speed boat. Peering round the boat to copy others putting on the confusing life jackets, we sped off into the ocean, where the captain gave us a quick tour of the coastline. We stopped to watch a seal frolicking in a shallow rocky cove, and to look at a rock archway with a private beach exposed at low tide where you can get married...much to the captains' disappointment there were no volunteers.

Returning to Barry, who we were glad to see hadn't been broken into in our absence, we headed back to Marakau to return our hired tent, and treated ourselves to an Indian meal...to our surprise this made us nostalgic about India...not something we had imagined happening whilst there! We spent the evening at a campsite in 'Ruby Bay', doing piles of washing, enjoying a long hot shower, smothering our sore feet with sudocrem and being glad to be back in our comfy bed! The Abel Tasman experience had been stunningly beautiful, and although we did it with sore feet and looking like complete donkeys, we thoroughly enjoyed it. The combination of kayaking and trekking gave us both perspectives of the coastline, and we were well and truly blown away by the views, variety and the most amazing birdsong to accompany us throughout.