The Able Tasman National Park is considered to be one of the most beautiful spots in NZ. The jury's out for me, but it's pretty darned nice. There's a 4-day coastal track that is very beautiful and also lots of opertunities to rent kayaks for part of the way. Since my camping stuff got nicked and I was to lazy to hire gear, jumped on a 1-day kayak trip that would end up at a house boat where I could stay and then spend the next day hiking the trail out of the park.

Fen & some others were really right -- once you get into the smaller backpacker places in the middle of nowhere, people and things in general tend to be a lot better than the party-stage-people-filled places of the more touristy areas. People still tend to be pretty young, but every once in a while you might run into someone in their 30's. And Fen was also right about the Germans. Not that they're bad or anything (they do have their quirks) but ... just so many!

As I was warned, it was tough to find people who wanted to paddle the coast line independently, and you had to have at least two people. So I went w/ a tour group. A bit restrictive as you had to stick w/ the guide and group in place and time (a bit too little, a bit too fast), but still fun and beautiful. After the river kayaking, I was really prepared for the ocean paddling to be a yawner, but I'm now definitely a fan -- such an incredible way to see the coast, as well as the many estuaries and rivers that go so far inland.


When kayaking I learned if you put your camera snuggly in one of those water tight boxes so it doesn't rattle around, and the inside of the box manages to depress certain buttons, you end up w/ dead batteries in about 2 hrs. So, full pics of one of the most scenic parts of my entire trip are not available. Which sounds like a good excuse to go back to me...

This area is amazing in that there are so many huge tidal flats -- many are just off the coast at low tide, and others are estuaries that come inland. There's no shortage of yummie Green Muscles that can be found at low tide, taken back to the backpackers and boiled.

I began to employ the strategy of picking places to stay based on how lengthly and convoluted the directions to the place was. One gem of a find was the Shambala, and eco-friendly-off-the-grid place that was 12km north of Takaka (a teeny town) and then 3km down a dirt road, set right on the beach in the middle of nowhere. The only problem was that there were no (count them, 0) outlets where laptops could be run and camera batteries charged... Beautiful place, though.


This is Pupu Springs -- there's a longer name for it which escapes me. It doesn't look like much, but it's the place (sacred Maori place I'll add) where a huge underground aquifer dumps out to the surface such that a fairly large, fast and strong river just comes out of nowhere. It is also said to be some of the clearest water in the world. To be honest, it doesn't look like all that much -- maybe you have to dive (scuba) in it to appreciate it -- you can and people were when I was there.

What can I say? This is easily the most stunning beach I've ever seen or could have imagined and definitely on the short list for one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. And of course I took tons of pics and they don't really do it justice


And what better way to wind up a bunch of New Zealand photos than with a bunch of SHEEP! (There's some cute ones in there)

I've most certainly reached travel burn out. It's a refreshing feelling to actually really want to go home (where ever exactly that is). See friends, play tunes w/ people I miss playing with, focus more on some work projects, not have to hunt for electrical outlets and internet. I think what I miss most is 1) hanging out w/ people that you know and actually know you well and 2) just having a better degree of stable private space, which was so much easier in India and Thailand than New Zealand or Oz.

So this is it -- the end of the trip. I guess I'm supposed to write something climactic here. This has been more of a photo album than a place for all of my inner deepest drama (which is barely fit for writing down much less posting on the web). It's going to take some time to gather thoughts and impressions, but I'll do what I can to write them down and get them up here. Later....