Raving about rafting

Leaving Wellington bright and early, we caught the ferry across to Picton in the South Island. We have really been looking forward to our time down here & we had a very good beginning with our kayaking/walking trip on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. One of NZ's 9 Great Walks.

We had perfect weather & had an excellent guide, Steve from Kiwi Kayaks . I think Steve was a bit concerned with my rather pathetic practice run, he just looked at Andrew, shook his head & said 'you are going to get very wet mate'. Luckily once we hit the water it came naturally to both of us & we had no nasty 'wet incidents'.

We spent a few hours kayaking up the beautiful coast stopping for the yummiest blackberry & white chocolate muffins & lunch. It always comes back to the food doesn't it? Spent a cosy night in a park hut (after we moved the mattresses into the kitchen - the only place with heating). It was great fun & we met some fun Germans who shared their wine with us as well as some Californians. It was like a kiddies sleepover, but with booze.

Walked for about 5 hours further up the coast the next day where we were met by a water taxi which brought us back to civilisation. Really stunning coastline & heaps of natural beauty - for pictoral proof, click here.

Unfortunately Zombie has a bit of a headache right now as Andrew somehow managed to chop off some of her head (extended roof) on a sign as we left the Kayak place. WOOPS. Luckily this is the first time we actually spent the extra money on full cover with no excess. Talk about good timing.

We are now planning to follow the good weather wherever that may appear so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

One this is for sure - it will be beautiful.