Well it's been a wild week in New Zealand. I escaped Sydney after ten pin bowling with Chris Cuthbert, Sally and their kids Oliver and Christian, and their friends. Chris came to pick me up in his very flash new old Aston Martin, which was great although the heater was stuck on! Sally won the ten pin bowling of course. That night we had a great dinner; Stephen and Annabelle joined Chris, Sally and Christine Forster (Nick was AWOL) at a nice Chinese retaurant and we bored each other about old times and who had the biggest willy back in 1987 when the girls last saw one. After a final dinner and improved babysitting attempt (aided by the cartoon of Peter Pan on video) I ran away from the Burleys to New Zealand.
The flight out of Sydney gave some spectacular views of the downtown and the coast, (all in the Sydney set) and there were some great ones also of the New Zealand coast. I spent one night in Auckland and flew straight to Nelson at the north of New Zealand's south island. My first day there was spent at the doctor (as I think I have gout in my foot and it hurts!) andf my first night there was spent with a young Korean student called Ally (as in McBeal) who told me she liked beer and tried to drink me under the table. Apparently she was seasick out kayaking the next day.
I went on a three day kayaking trip the next day, led by a guide called Shay working for Kiwi Kayaks. We went into the Able Tasman national park (or rather just off it). Along with me our group had a couple of young-ish German girls (Jeanette and Steffi), two glamorous Danish midwives (Ulla and Ann-Lus), a german-Swiss couple (Cosa and Elma) and an English lad called Ben. Other than putting up with Ben's snoring and winding Cosa up into some choice rants about America and the world, it was a great trip We saw a few seals, the odd penguin and lots of beautiful coast line. Because the coast is so well hiked (tramped in Kiwi lingo) there are very well set-up camp sites with real loos and even toilet paper! But they are next to gorgeous beaches and at times I felt that I was back in Thailand, especially when the Danish girls stripped off to their bikinis! Highlights included lots of hard paddling, meandering very close to frolicking seals and sailing in a raft of kayaks.
All the Abel Tasman pictures are here
