31st March 2011
Who knew you could get seasick in a kayak?
Today had an unpromising start. We had to get to the kayaking office for 8:30am… only to be told that we wouldn’t actually start our day of kayaking until lunchtime. There would be a briefing first, and some instruction, and then some hanging around waiting. Nice. Mind you, the instruction was useful – we’ve been kayaking four times on our travels already without anyone giving us the tiniest bit of advice about how to paddle properly or recover if your kayak turns over.
So eventually we were dropped off in the middle of the Abel Tasman NP and began our paddle. It’s a beautiful stretch of coastline, turquoise waters and amber beaches backed by hills of thick forest. It became even more beautiful as the afternoon wore on and the sun dropped lower to give some nice golden light.
We got to two different places where fur seals live, and delightfully the new pups were quite interested in swimming over to see what the big red floating thing was. Just like most kids they were a charming mixture of curiousity and shyness. We were enthralled by the soppy little big-eyed aliens.
Eventually we had to leave them to make sure we reached our day’s end by 6pm. This was a beach called Anchorage where we had to pull our kayak ashore and then wave to the sturdy catamaran sitting in the bay. They sent over a little dinghy to bring us aboard, as this catamaran is actually a bijou backpacker hostel inventively named Aquapackers. There were only three others aboard, so there was plenty of peace and quiet in which to enjoy the magical evening light. Of course the gentle rocking of the boat didn’t help with the seasickness I’d developed earlier when the swell was rocking our kayak back and forth like a cradle. No wonder babies throw up so much. Mind you, it didn’t hurt my appetite when the skipper served up barbecued steak and sausages for dinner.
And neither seasickness nor a dozen sandfly bites could keep me from falling soundly asleep long before midnight.
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on Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 10:59 am and is filed under New Zealand.
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