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For my 40th birthday we decided to tick off the Abel Tasman kayaking expedition that weve had on our list for years.
We were very blessed with amazing weather. Special thanks to my family who took the girls to the family batch for the week, they had a blast and didnt even miss us!
We flew into Nelson from Auckland, wearing masks as per NZ flight regulations. Its a short flight. We then hired a car and spent the night in Motekua.
We flew into Nelson, spent a night in Motekua and then the next day we went to Marahau to start our kayaking. Huge shout out to Kahu Kayaks, they were brilliant! After sorting out our stuff, dry bags and all, we packed our tent, cooking gear, sleeping gear, clothes etc, food into our of our double sea kayak. A quick refresher of paddling and we
were off. As we were in the National Park we had booked tent sites at DOC (Department of Conservation) sites. Another shout out, DOC doing an amazing job, native birds are flourishing and the camp sites had that back to nature feel ?
Day 1: We kayaked at a leisurely pace from Marahau to Akersten Bay. A beautiful, small beach with only 3 tent sites. What an amazing beach to start with. We felt we were in our own little paradise. We headed out to Pinnacle island to see some seals and then around the corner to pick some mussels from the rocks for a snack. Long drop toilets are not my fav, but they were all clean and perfectly fine. Water was at each campsite, but we had to boil, filter or treat it before drinking. Murray enjoyed getting out his aqua tabs again, a staple in his travels around the world.
The white sand beach, crystal clear water was and youd think you were in a tropical island, and then you swim ? ummm maybe its called paddling?! as it was FREEZING!! We are definitely spoiled for water temperature, from our time at Sri
Day 2: We kayaked from Akersten bay to Mosquito Bay. Mosquito bay is very tidal, beautiful at high tide, or carry your very heavy/full kayak for 200meters when the lagoon emptys out. We managed to time it right, and even stopped in at Falls river and Frenchman harbour along the way, beautiful, still, crystal clear water, stunning rock faces, green bush filled with native bird song and cicadaes chirping. We had flat calm weather, unfortunately in the afternoon high winds and swells started, thats when Murrays sister and joined us. There are water taxis around and they caught a water taxi with their kayak on board, kayaking from Anchorage to Mosquito bay to join us. Mosquito bay is the start of the marine reserve, so no more mussels.
Day 3: We kayaked from Mosquito bay to Onetahuti. The weather wasnt great with our windiest day, I got a bit cold this day, with waves splashing us a bit on our paddle. We went to Tonga Island and saw some seals, which was very special/scary! We then went past Onetahuti to Shag Harbour hoping to see some baby seal nurseries, which werent there.
But still a beautiful harbour and a peaceful change from the wind and the waves. We then went back to Onetahuti exploring another harbour on the outgoing tide. Then set up camp at Onetahuti campsite, a bit bigger campsite and FLUSH toilets! What a stunning beach! A bit busier with the trampers/hikers now at the same camp. We still had a sea view/beach front camp site.
Day 4: We kayaked from Onetahuti to Anchorage farewelling the Guppies on the way. We kayaked to the Arches near Tonga Quarry to Falls river and then back to Bark Bay with them, a beautiful waterfall and bridge and had lunch on the sandspit.
