Rick had hired a bach, just off the beach powered only by solar panels - so plenty of lovely hot water for showering, but no electricity for drying hair or charging phones etc. When we arrived the weather was still fine with little sign of the deluge to come. So we had a nice glass of champagne on the beach.
We walked part of the Abel Tasman track on Wednesday morning. Rain had been forecast so Chris and I had purchased two rather ugly, but very useful rain ponchos.
(We have some at home which are known as 'Duane Dibleys' after a character in Red Dwarf - but we forgot to bring them. So these were christened the 'Murray Dibleys' being an NZ equivalent. OK, you had to be there.... C)
It started drizzling as we were setting off and by the time we returned 4 hours later the rain was torrential. Although our bodies were dry, our feet were drenched. It continued raining for the rest of the day and all night only stopping about an hour before we had to leave. The national park was magical. I'm guessing it was a bit like walking through a rain forest. The flora was stunning and the bird noises were amazing.
Torrent Bay is an exceptionally beautiful place. OK - I'm aware this blog could get very boring indeed with everywhere being stunning, amazing, magical, beautiful blah blah - so I think maybe I'll just forget the superlatives and you can judge for yourselves from the photos.
On Thursday morning the rain finally eased off. It had poured non-stop for about 15 hours. There were a couple of Kayaks under the bach so Rick and I decided to make the most of the couple of hours before the water taxi came.
And so we left Abel Tasman - all too short a visit - but we got the general idea. This is the kind of place you could spend a month and 'find yourself' or maybe write a classic album. Well - we shot the cover anyway!
No comments:
Post a Comment