Maz NZ and Oz

It really isn't an exaggeration to say that I had the time of my life on our sailing trip in Abel Tasman. Gen, Denise and I made our way from Christchurch to Nelson on the 28th of December, winding our way up the South Island via the Lewis Pass and arriving in Neslon at about 6:30. Meanwhile, Myles and Eithne were traveling south on the North Island, getting the ferry from Wellington to Picton and then arriving in Nelson at about 12 midnight. The following morning, we headed to Marahau to pick up our boat. There, we met the owners of Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures, Jason and Brenda Brownlie. After a briefing about where the safest routes were, we loaded up Jason's semi-rigid and headed out to our boat, the Waianiwa ('Rainbow of the Sea'). Jason then went through the features of the boat with myself and Myles (Myles was Skipper and I was self-appointed vice-skipper for the trip). The boat was kitted out with pretty much everything you'd want. Pillows, towels, crockery, a CD player, clothes pegs for handing stuff out on the guard rails to dry. Even thoughtful wee touches like a deck of cards.

And then we were away. That first day, we made out way North up the Abel Tasman as far as Bark Bay. It was rough enough sailing that day - but was I loving every minute of it. I got fairly soaked, because I refused to go below - but I just didn't care... it was great stuff! When we got to Bark Bay, we dropped anchor and had some lunch. After that, we took our wee little dingy (christened the 'demi-baguette' or just 'the baguette' because it looked like it had once-upon a time been a full boat, but someone had come along and cut it in half) in to the beach. The baguette could only take two people at a time, and I got impatient, so I decided to swim in instead. We spent an hour or so hanging out on the beach before a HUGE dastardly bee came along and viciously attacked poor Eithne. She and Myles headed back to the boat and then Myles came back in the baguette to bring back the rest of us. Denise and I headed back to the boat then, giving Myles a break from rowing. We were about half way back to the yacht when disaster struck... one of the oar-locks broke, which meant we had to paddle our way back Pocahontas style instead of rowing. This was all well and good until we realised that one of us had to get the wee dingy back to the beach to pick up Myles and Genny, without the benefit of being able to row the boat . So I made my way - slowly. I eventually got to water shallow enough to walk in, so after considering my options, I threw myself into the water.... to the alarm of Genny who was on the beach watching me. After a wee rest, we went back to the yacht, Myles and Gen in the baguette and me swimming. Always with the drama!! We than left Bark Bay and headed South to the Anchorage to 'tuck ourselves in for the night" (in the words of Myles). There, we were treated to the sight of a mother and baby dolphin swimming around the boats, checking everything out. Unfortunately, they were not very co-operative when it came to taking pictures and I ended up with lots of photos of bits of sea where they had 'just been a second ago!' So I gave up and just enjoyed watching them swim around. After a few drinky-poos, we headed to 'bed'. It was close quarters for us, but we coped admirably. The next day, we headed up to see some seals on Tonga Island seal sanctuary. Again, however, the wildlife was not co-operative and the seals were particularly evasive. In fact, we didn't see any at all. They might have been off doing other stuff for the day... ah well. However, we did manage meet some dolphins on our way up there. This time, though, I was prepared and caught them on the video function of the camera.... very cool. We spent a few hours hanging out at the beach close by the alleged seal island and then made our way back to Anchorage for the night. The following morning we had to give back the boat (although I would have happily kept it for another week!). We headed out of the harbour at about 11am, but the wind was too strong for us to make the journey down to Marahau. The harbour master came over to us and told us to wait in Anchorage until the conditions improved. So we hung out for an hour or so there before sailing down the coast to where we had to return the boat. On our way however, we met the owner of the boat who was on his way up the coast to go to the aid of some people on another of his boats where the mast had broken (apparently, that's pretty serious), so we had another wait in Marahau before we could get off the boat. Denise was beginning to suffer from Cabin fever at this point, but we all survived the wait and once on shore again, we went back to Nelson to check into our hotels and have long awaited showers!

So finally - some pictures...

Jason took this picture of the five of us just before we handed back the boat. I think it's my favourite photo of the whole holidays..