To the South!

After a week and half on New Zealand's North Island, it was time to head south! The ferry ride across Cook Strait to Picton takes just under 3 hours.

Picton is a quiet little town. I did a quick hike along the water and then spent the afternoon heading just south to the Blenheim area to do some wine tasting. I'm not a huge wine drinker, but this area produces some world renowned wines and it was cool checking out all the vineyards and tasting the different wines. There were some quite tasty dessert wines.

After Picton, it was on to Nelson to gear up for my 2 day trek through Abel Tasman. I didn't get a chance to spend a ton of time in town, but it seemed good sized and would've been fun to go out for a night or two.

Abel Tasman... wow! This is the most popular park in all of New Zealand. The park runs along golden beaches, lush forests, marine reserves (with seals and penguins!) granite cliffs and tidal bays, all overlooking a clear green sea. There is really no way that a description can do justice to how beautiful this place is. It seemed that every corner I turned, I was stopping to take in how amazing this place is. It's easy to see why this is the most popular. Despite being the most popular, I did not find it crowded at all and it is always great to be able to enjoy the wilderness on your own.

The main track runs about 30 miles and there a lots of other side tracks that can be done if you have the time. Since I was on a tight schedule I did the track in 2 days, although it would've been great to spend an extra day or two here and enjoy the majesty of  Abel Tasman. The track is tidal, meaning that some of the sections can only be crossed during low tide and often have no alternative route. This means that any trekkers will have to plan their days carefully so they don't get stuck. One of the cool things about a lot of the tracks in New Zealand, is that there are huts along the trail where you can rent a bed for a night. This saves you from carrying all that camping gear around, although there are plenty of sites as well if you do want to camp. Since I didn't have any gear out here, I opted for the huts. It was a LONG two days doing about 15 miles each day, but there wasn't a ton of elevation change and having a light pack made it that much easier. Although I still ended with quite a few blisters on my feet.

Next is to head south along the western coast and spend some time on the Franz Josef glacier. Until next time!