Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman was a Dutch explorer who arrived in New Zealand into this area in 1642. He was greeted in the traditional Maori way, which apparently he interpreted as a threat, and fighting ensued. By HUGE contrast, we were greeted by white sandy beaches, beautiful untouched coastline, emerald sea and dense forest.

We traveled first by water taxi to the top, the jumped into some kayaks (well, not literally....) and paddled out to Tonga Island to see seals. You know when you read something in a brochure but you don't really believe it, well I didn't really believe I would actually see live seals. But we did and plenty of them. (Grey) mums basking on the rocks, enjoying the sunshine. (Darker, smaller) baby seals taking their first steps up around the rocks. And the slightly older kids showing off to the tourists with a beautiful display of water aerobics. My favourite move was when they were floating on their backs and rubbing their nose/face between their fore paws. So cute! Suddenly there was a shoal of fish under our kayaks and the seals got excited, and so did we. They jumped out of the water and dove straight back in. Copied the trick from dolphins? They were so busy chasing fish that they didn't even realize they were centimeters away from our kayaks. What a spectacular experience!

After a couple of hours of sea kayaking, we stopped over for lunch at yet another beautiful beach and lagoon, and then continued the rest of the way by foot. For the next 2 hours we were walking in a green dream. We were both in our element. Harri was loving the greenery, the 10 different species of ferns, the trees, the plants - all great ideas for his next greenhouse. Friends and family be warned: he was filming video while walking, so you will be expected to sit through hours of "this is me walking through the rainforest..." footage. I was loving walking in the forest. I mean I don't mind walking in general, but do find exercise sometimes boring. Not here. I have finally found the cure to boring exercise and overeating. Just put me on a good track, with plenty of interesting scenery/trees and I will quite happily walk for hours. But I wasn't too keen about the swing bridge. Beautiful river views on either side. But there was a warning that there should be a maximum of 5 people on at once, which not everyone, well no-one, read. The result was quite wobbly (both the bridge and myself).

Overall a fabulous experience. Seals up close, and a fantastic walk through a rainforest. Highly recommended!