Archive for January, 2011
January 28, 2011 · Filed under MTB BIKE, NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, live and work in new zealand, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, bike new zealand, nz blog, auckland blog, travel blog, canadians working overseas, AUCKLAND, mountain bike new zealand, i heart mountain biking, canadians working abroad, adventure, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, travelling, backpacking new zealand, new zealand mountain biking, mountain bike
My first week back to work was a grind. Anytime you return back from a couple weeks off its painful settling back into you’re your old routine. Though I really cant complain too much because I really do enjoy my job! One of the first things I did once back in Auckland was of course get my baby ie my bike into the shop to fix the lower linkage. The shop was going to try and get a hold of giant for me to see what they were going to do. I told them I had wanted to ride that weekend and were able to switch out the linkage with one off of there shop flow allowing me to ride. Once they heard back from Giant with the redesigned linkage they would swap that out. Sweet deal.
That weekend I had planned to head to Rotorua for a full day of riding on Saturday, but a Friday night on the piss cancelled those plans. This is the first time since I have been in NZ that I wasn’t able to ride because of a big night out. After a painful Saturday it was off to rock’n roll in rotorua on Sunday. Up early and keen I was on the shuttle by 930 heading up for my first run. First run down, sweet, felt good, bike was working – nice! Second run down – hitting a couple jumps, railing some berms – Sweet! Third run down, got my flow on, hit this section of three jumps in a row; first one smooth, second one real nice, third one – ah fuck! I believe I carried a bit too much speed and landed long on the transition bucking me from my bike and landing full impact on to my shoulder. It hurt. I jumped up moved my arm around in all direction – that’s my medical check. It seemed to be fine. Nothing was dislocated and I was guessing it would be good bruise. I jumped back on the bike and continued down the track. By the bottom of the track I knew my day of riding was over. I really couldn’t raise my arm above my shoulder and it was already swollen.
Once back at the car I knew this wasn’t just a simple bruise. I managed to load the bike into the back with one arm, take off my gear and then it was time to hit the road for the long 2 hour ride home. It really didn’t hurt that bad as long as you didn’t move it. When I finally arrived home I didn’t bother collecting my gear, I just left it in the car and cycled home. I had called Michelle to make sure there was ice in the freezer and that was the rest of my day. Sitting on the couch with ice on my shoulder. I was a bit pissed off, not just because of the injury, but that I only got 2.5 runs in before I hurt myself. 2 hours is a long way to drive for 2.5 runs..argh!
I decided I would hit up the doctor the next morning because there was a noise when I moved my arm a ceratin way, kind of like a clicking. So I was back at the same doctors office when I tore my mcl.. ah fun memories! When I got to see the doctor, she didn’t think it was broken but wanted to get some x-rays to be sure. $30 later it was confirmed – no breaks, no fractures. SWEET! It ends up I tore part of my supraspinatus. Off to physio I go. It looks like it will be another 6-8 weeks before it is all healed up.
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January 27, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, nz blog, auckland blog, canadians in auckland, travel blog, work abroad, work in new zealand, AUCKLAND, canadians working abroad, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, backpacking, travelling, palmerston north new zealand, palmerston north, mt ruapehu, desert road new zealand, desert nz, kaimanawa ranges
The Desert Hwy, New Zealand
Woke up to more rain in Palmy, but it didn’t matter as we were in batch and would be on the road for 7 hours getting back up to Auckland. We took a different route home. On the way down we went a long the coast this time we zipped right up the state highway. The best part had to be driving the desert highway. The highway runs through the windswept plain called Rangipo Desert. It is alpine semi-desert that looks like a wild desolate wasteland. On one side there are the densely forested foothills of the kaimanawa ranges. On the other side you’ve got the outline of Mt ruapehu with its dark canyons and scree slopes. It is a pretty amazing spot to drive through, especially with a storm and fog settling in. I am regretting not stopping to take a couple photos now that I look back at the trip.
After cruising through the desert hwy got the bad news that our fish Francine had died while under the care of Michelle’s family. Shitty, but she did live well beyond what she was expected too. She is now floating and kart-wheeling in the big fish tank in the sky. We then headed towards Rotorua where everything became very familiar as I drive those roads lots for mountain biking purposes. Instead of following the state highway we drove down the ‘middle’ cutting a half hour off the trip.
Once back in Auckland we headed straight to Michelle’s parents place to give her dad back all the gear we borrowed. We had to put the tent up to air it out, wash up the coolers and of course send Francine off to fish heaven.
Overall it was a great trip. I loved Nelson and could totally see myself living there at some stage. I would totally recommend checking out Nelson and Abel Tasman is a must do if you come to New Zealand!
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January 26, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, live and work in new zealand, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, work new zealand, canadians in auckland, travel blog, work in new zealand, canadians working overseas, working abroad, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, backpacking, travelling, backpacking new zealand, palmerston north new zealand, palmerston north nz, interislander
Michelle on the Interislander heading back home to the north island.
Today we woke up to rain, which is a huge pain when putting away your tent. It just means that you have to air it out later, so we would later have to put the tent up and having to take it down again. Argh! Our ferry ride was for 6pm, so we had heaps of time to kill. We decided to go into Nelson to see if we could catch a movie, but there was nothing playing that would work with our schedule.
Instead of hanging around Nelson he headed out Hwy 6 toward Picton. This was the hwy that we couldn’t take into Nelson because it was washed out a couple weeks earlier. The first hour of the drive you really didn’t see any damage to the road, but you could tell there was a lot of rain as you could see the mudslides in the bush. Then you could see tarmac in the fields, trees ripped out of the soil and strewn along the side of the road, mud slides.. it was one hell of a storm!
As we were driving Michelle decided to call the interislander to see if we could hop on an earlier ferry so we wouldn’t have to wait around in Picton for a couple hours. By this time we were 45 mins away. We were told to ‘get our skates on’ as boarding was in 40 mins. I put the peddle down! At 1:30 when we were supposed to be boarding we were 10 mins away and I thought we missed this ferry, but luckily enough even though we rocked up late they still hadn’t started to board. We managed to get on the earlier ferry! We drove on to the ferry, grab a few things and headed to find a seat.
The ferry wasn’t as rough as it was coming to the south island. We had a flat white, watched a bit tennis, read and that was our ferry ride. Once in Wellington it was off to Palmerston North as that is where we planned to spend the night. Palmy was about a 2 hour drive and then it took us roughly a ½ hour to figure out where we wanted to stay. We ended up in a small batch at a camp ground – I couldn’t be bothered with putting the tent up again.
That night we treated ourselves to some Hell’s Pizza and a bottle of Cider from the brewery we visited on our wine tour. Our trip was winding down.
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January 25, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, bike new zealand, canadians in auckland, travel blog, work in new zealand, canadians working overseas, canadians working abroad, adventure, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, iep new zealand, travelling, nelson nz, nelson new zealand, tours new zealand, wine tour new zealand, wine tour nz, wine tour nelson, things to do in nelson new zealand, tours nelson nz, tour new zealand, vacation in new zealand, vacation new zealand, wine new zealand, new zealand wine, nz wine
Today we had a wine tour booked. Ive done a couple wine tasting and had a bit of a wine tour of waiheke on our Christmas Party of work, but this was my first official wine tour! We were picked up at our accommodation by Bay Tours.
There are heaps of tours in Nelson, but from everyone I spoke with Bay Tours is the best. We opted for the Explore the Plains tour, which was 4 vineyards. Luckily enough we scored a free brewery tour as well! Sweet! All for $78!! Not bad for a days tours! Unfortunately I didnt get any photos. I guess I was pre-occupied with all of the great wines!
They picked us up at we were off to sample chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, riesling and pinot gris, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, shiraz, gewurztraminer and rose. We visited Golden Hills, Te Mania, Siefried and one more vineyard.. yup.. cant remember it. My favourite was Golden Hills, funny enough it was the most expensive of all vineyards.. I didn’t know that until after I purchased a bottle. At Siefried’s we had a bite to eat and got to know everyone else on the tour. There was a kiwi couple and a bunch of Americans.. boo! These Americans had the gull to tell me how they tell everyone they are Canadian since when they say they are American they don’t get the kindest reception. Yah.. I was not impressed. I told them, very nicely, that Canadians HATE it when they call themselves Canadians. They didn’t really seem to care.. what a bunch of dicks! I am not a fan of Americans!
After all the wineries we hit a local brewerie. It was great; the samples just kept on coming!! Everyone was in a pretty good state at this time. I got a bottle of the wheat beer and Michelle got some cider.
The wine tour was great. It was a lot of fun and our guide Brian was great. He explained the wines and also that wine is very personal, so everyone has a different opinion and that is all ok! Overall I would totally recommend doing this tour.. great time was had by all!
We were dropped off at Tahuna where Michelle and I finished off a bottle of Wheat Beer and then it was off to bed. The next morning it was on the road for our long trip back to Nelson.
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January 24, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, live and work in new zealand, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, nz blog, travel blog, canadians working overseas, backpakcing, canadians working abroad, adventure, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, travelling, backpacking new zealand, tours new zealand, new zealand south island, new zealand holiday, trips to new zealand, nelson new zealand accommodation, nelson accommodation, nz travel, accommodation nelson nz
After a restful night in a small batch on a mattress.. luxury! We decided we would stay the rest of our time in the south at Tahuna. It was cheap and had everything we needed. Though our new camp spot wasn’t in as nice of spot, it would do for our remaining new two nights.
After setting up the tent we headed back into Nelson where we had a coffee at the boat house. It’s a great little café on the water.. worth the stop. Then chilled out downtown, hit up the local mini golf course for a rematch. The last time we played it was in Hanmer Springs, and yes Michelle smoked me. So I was on the war path for a win, which never happened. She beat me again…argh! We grabbed some groceries and some beers and then went back to our campsite. The day was sunny and clear, typical of Nelson so we spent the avro at the beach.. Tahuna Beach park has a mini golf course, so we hit that up and it wasn’t impressive. The course was pretty lame. It was only $2.50.. so cant really complain.
For tomorrow we booked a wine tour with Bay Tours. It would be another early morning, so it was once again early to bed.
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January 22, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, nz blog, canadians in auckland, travel blog, work in new zealand, backpakcing, outdoor adventure, canadians working abroad, adventure, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, backpacking, travelling, backpacking new zealand, farewell spit new zealand, farewell spit nz, pu pu springs new zealand, pu pu springs nz, canadians in the south island of new zealand, travel nz, travel in new zealand, travel in nz, travel to nz, springs, information on new zealand
Some of the clearest water I have ever seen!(this photo is a poor representation - my bad)
Today instead of the birds waking us up, it was some cows. We had a quick breakie and headed to Pu Pu Springs, which was just 10 minutes away. The springs are known for the clarity of the water, and the volume of water discharged. At the entrance to the walkway to the springs, the Department of Conservation has placed a sign: “Te Waikoropupu Springs are a taonga (treasure) and waahi tapu (a sacred place) for Māori, both locally and nationally. The legends of Te Waikoropupu are told in the stories of Huriawa, its taniwha (guardian spirit). In Māori tradition the Springs are wairou, the purest form of water which is the wairua (spiritual) and the physical source of life. The Springs provide water for healing, and in the past were a place of ceremonial blessings at times of birth and death and the leaving and returning of travellers.” People are not supposed go in the water or camp in the area. Unfortunately when we rocked up there were a few people there that had stayed the night. Fuck eh! This is a scared place to a whole culture and some cheap travellers are paying no respect it. Argh!
The water had to be the clearest I have ever seen. We chilled for a while and then made tracks for Abel Tasman to get our Kayaks. It took us just over an half-hour to get to the kayak depot where we got safety instructions, a map and a short lesson on how to kayak. We could have opted for the guided option, but I would much rather be on our own schedule. Ive kayaked before so I wasn’t too worried about that. It was michelle`s first time, but she picked it up very quickly.
Michelle kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park.
We loaded our gear into a dry bag and pushed off. First off we headed a long the coastline and into the first bay where we hit up the beach to chill and just take in the amazing scenery. It was all golden beaches, native forest and sculpted rocks that make abel tasman so famous! We were warned that the wind and waves were going to pick up and to be aware of this. If we could not make it back we should hit up a house and call them to come to tow us back. This was in the back of my mind for the entire kayak. It was my first time to kayak in the ocean, but after a half hour of crashing into some waves we were both fairly comfortable and confident that we would be able to handle the water. After chilling at the beach we decided to head a little bit further off the shore line to kayak around two separate small islands. That was pretty cool and we were able to get quite close to some birds that nest on the sides of the cliffs. After we circled both small islands we headed further a long the coastline and into a couple other bays. We had a bite to eat and then decided to head back to drop off the kayak. We had been out for about 3 hours we were supposed to return the kayak by noon, which was an hour away!
One of the many amazing golden beaches of Abel Tasman National Park.
The wind and waves had really picked up and we noticed that the group that went out before us were having difficulty. Some of the kayaks had to be towed by one of the guides around bends. Luckily for us we were able to manage the waves and winds and had no real problems getting back to the beach to drop our kayak.
Finished with our kayaking we headed back to the River Inn to take down the tent. Now all packed up we headed further north to Collingwood. Collingwood is the most northen village on the south island. There is really nothing there. Café, bar, a couple stores and that was it. We passed through and made our way to Farwell Spit.
The farewell spit seems to go on forever!
Farewell Spit is a narrow sand spit situated at the northern end of the South Island. Known to the Māori as Tuhuroa. It forms the northern side of Golden Bay and is the longest sandspit in New Zealand, stretching for about 26 km above sea level and another 6 km underwater. The spit runs in from west to east, and is made from fine golden sand. Predictions state that the spit will grow almost 2 km in the next 5 years. The tide here can recede as much as seven kilometres exposing some 80 square kilometres of mud flats; a rich feeding ground for the many sea birds in the area but also a death trap to the frequently stranded whales. Here we took in the views and had a bite to eat.
Farewell Spit the longest sand bar in NZ.
We then decided to head back towards Nelson. A long the way we passed through Kaiteriteri which is a small beach community. It was packed full of people – I believe a lot of Nelson heads here to escape the crowds of tourists that head to their fine city. The beach here was beautiful. Golden, teal blue waters, amazing rock formations.. breath taking! We knew that accommodaiton would be all booked so we just checked it out and then kept on trucking. I am keen to head here as they have a mountain bike park .. maybe next year!
Knowing we would have no problem finding accomomodaiton in Nelson we decided to find a place there. Instead of going back to the camp grounds we ended up in a small batch at a much smaller park. We figured we deserved a bed for the evening after camping all week. For dinner we scored some fish and chips and that night we had the comfort of a mattress.. nice!
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January 18, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, nz blog, travel blog, backpakcing, outdoor adventure, adventure, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, travelling, backpacking new zealand, taka new zealand, taka nz, what to do in taka
The view from Hawke's Point.
Today we were on the move. We decided that we would head to Golden Bay and hopefully find a place to stay in Taka. After an hour of taking down the tent and loading everything into the car we were ready to go. Our plan was to hit the Nelson New Years fair before hitting the highway.
The Nelson New Years Fair was your typical fair. It had some food stalls, lots of arts and crafts and games for the kids. We did pick up some food seasoning that was tasty as! It is voted best seasoning in New Zealand.. well that is at least what the guy at the stall said.
Our first stop on the way to Taka was Motueka where they were having a market as well. This one proved to be more entertaining. Motueka is a small village so it was packed full of characters, mostly arty types. They had antiques, crafts, honey, tie-dye shirts, food/coffee, artists singing and playing instruments. Here we picked up two old school smurf toys from the 80′s. Michelle was a huge fan of the Smurfs as a kid, so when I saw the box of smurf toys I knew someone was going to be happy! She dove into this box like a kid on Christmas looking to find the perfect smurf figurine and not 20 seconds into her search she had found ‘the one.’ It was smurfette roller skating – I wasn’t overly shocked she chose this one. We also found a smurf on a bike so i picked that up for myself. He now lives in the car and will be my ornament hanging off of my review mirror. I also found this really cool toy, that i cant explain since I will be sending it home to my nephew for his birthday. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, so I am leaving it at that. I’ve never seen anything like it and I think he will be pretty stoked with it!
Once finished with the market we hit up the local bakery for some pies and then hit the road to Taka. To get to Taka you have to go over Taka Hill. You go up for about 25 minutes. It was a fun road to drive; twist after twish! We stopped at the top to take in the view from Hawks Point.
It was now about 1pm so we started to ring campsites and hostels for accommodation. We went into to Taka which is small arty/alternative community which is packed full of tourist during the summer months. From what we hear everyone from Nelson comes to Taka for the holidays to get away from the tourists that come to Nelson. Our accommodation search wasn’t going to well – every place in Taka we visited was packed full and everywhere we rung was full too. MIchelle was getting stressed about not having a place to stay and i was thinking if worst comes to worst we will just free camp for the night under the bridge. Yup, live like trolls for a night ehehe. We did find this one camp site that had accommodation, but it was only for climbers. I guess there is some amazing climbing in Golden Bay and this backpackers is geared to them. If you are not a climber you cannot stay. The guy at the front desk was cool and said that if we cannot find anything to come back and we could crash the night there. We decided to head further north to see if there was anything there but like everything else, it was all booked. We then decided to return back to the climbers backpackers for the night but a long the way I noticed ‘the River Inn’ and decided to pop in to see if they had a place where we could toss out tent up.
The River Inn was like nothing i have ever seen. It was an old farm house with pastures surrounding it and the house was broken into rooms for travellers, plus a bar in the front. It really had this creepy horror movie feel to it. There was no one around and no staff to be seen. There was a sign that read ‘check yourself in’. Only in the South Island this would happen. It had room numbers and names beside the rooms on a white board and I you just write down your name by the room and it is yours for the night. There was one double room available so I jotted down my name to reserve the room and then continued looking for staff. After about 10 minutes of searching we found someone who said we could just toss our tent up. Sweet we had a place to stay for the night. We put up the tent and unloaded the car. Once setup we headed to the bridge down the road to go for a swim and chill out. There were heaps of locals and other travellers around doing the same thing. Trying to keep cool on a hot and beautiful day in Golden Bay.
After a brief swim it was into Taka to hit the grocery store for food,beer and ice. Once back at River Inn we decided to have a few beers and relax as it turned into a stressful day since we had such a hard time fining accommodation. We still hadn’t paid for our accommodation for the night so we went into the Inn to find the manager. We found him at the bar with a bunch of locals. This place had heaps of characters – I love this kind of thing. It was your typical country bar. Everything was old and kind of dirty. It was a place off the track that is filled with locals not many other internationals. The pub was filled with all locals. They told me about the area, what they do for fun, the must see’s and what i enjoyed most of all – what they thought of travellers. For the most part they like seeing people enjoying themselves and discovering new zealand. What they hate is the free camping, well people taking advantage of free camping. Free camping allows you to pretty much toss a tent almost anywhere. The problem with this is that people are using the side of the road and bush for a toilet. I saw a program on tv earlier in the year about this and if i were a kiwi i would totally get rid of free camping. People are just not respecting the land, the locals or pretty much anyone. They leave shit everywhere and girls just leave there feminine products lying around. Pretty disgusting. If this was there home would they want this? It really pisses me off they people do this. It was great convo and great to get the locals perspective of travellers. For the most part we are loved, but it only takes a couple of dicks to give us all a bad name. It’s not that there is no washrooms either. Every community pretty much has a public toilet, so really there are no excuses. Overall is a great night filled with interesting conversation. Michelle and I had booked some sea kayaking in Abel Tasman early the next day, so when the sun went down we went to bed.
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January 17, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged adventure, backpack new zealand, backpacking, backpacking new zealand, blog new zealand, canadian working in new zealand, canadians in auckland, NEW ZEALAND, travel blog, travel new zealand, travelling new zealand, work abroad, work in new zealand, work new zealand, working abroad, working overseas
Kite Boarding is pretty popular in Nelson! Looks like heaps of fun. I wouldnt mind giving it a try sometime.
After staying up to greet the new year we were up rather early thanks to the birds as they seemed to be our wake up call everyday. Being that it was the first day of 2011 we planned to have a bigger breakfast than usual – eggs, bacon and bread. Yup pretty glamorous!
Our plan for the day was to hang out at the beach and to just relax. Not a bad way to start 2011. After breakie we cleaned up and I ended up gong back to bed for a 2 hour nap. When I got up from that it was noon so we had some lunch and headed down to the beach. I went for a swim while Michelle sun tanned and that was pretty much the day. It was a beautiful day and the winds were up so there were heaps of kite boarders out. Nelson is one of the best spots in NZ to Kite Board. Looks like heaps of fun and I wouldnt mind giving it ago sometime.
The free Miyazu Garden in Nelson.
We also took a tour in the late avro and visited the free Japanese Garden, kind of stumbled upon that. It was ‘ok’. Wouldnt make a special trip to see it, but it killed sometime. We also drove up the coast and took in the scenery. The ocean here is so blue! It is so stunning. You can really just tiki tour around and find some amazing spots!
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January 15, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, live and work in new zealand, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, bike new zealand, nz blog, travel blog, work in new zealand, canadians working overseas, backpakcing, outdoor adventure, mountain bike new zealand, i heart mountain biking, canadians working abroad, adventure, travelling new zealand, travel new zealand, backpacking, travelling, backpacking new zealand, mountain bike dunedin, new zealand mountain biking, mountain bike, nz mountain biking, nelson, nelson nz, mountain biking in nelson new zealand, new zealand nelson, new years eve new zealand
Tahuna filled up on New Years Eve!
Now I havent been on my bike in a week and a half since it was christmas, so i was keen to get out for a ride. Nelson has some amazing tracks and I had already researched 8 or so that I wanted to ride. Day 5 was my day to get out on my bike and enjoy. I had been looking forward to this since we decided to come to Nelson for the holidays.
I woke up early to the birds – this happened everyday so far – argh! The sun comes up, the birds start chriping and I get out of bed to make coffee. It wasnt a struggle to get out of bed today since i was excited to get out and ride. After a small breakfast I loaded my bike into the car and I was off. The tracks were only about 15 mins away. As I approached the park I was stopped by security to ask if I had a permit to ride. I told him I just got to town and didnt know i needed a permit. He let me pass but told me to stick to the dirt roads and not to ride the tracks since I didnt have the park pass. Yah right. I agreeed to it knowing all well that as soon as I came to the track enterance I would be in the bush riding.
After reviewing the trail map board and knowing the tracks I wanted to hit I headed up! As I started to ride up the hill I noticed the bike wasnt running right. There was a knock in each peddle stroke.. i couldnt peg what was wrong but my initial thought was that I snapped my lower linkage.. FUCK! This isnt something you can fix on the trail. Acutally it is a design flaw with my make of bike. Ive been reading about other riders with the same model as mind the Giant Reign X series who have snapped there lower linkages under peddling duress. When i orginally heard about the problem I went to speak with some Giant retailers who said that if it did break it would be warrantied. Great, but if i am in the middle of the wop-wops riding and I break it my ride is fucked. Not good. I wasnt 100% sure that was it, but since I was now at the top of the hill decided to ride the downhill track down. Wholy fuck – steep and rocky as hell and toss in some sharp turns and you have yourself one amazing downhill track. It was great fun to ride!
I come out of that track pumped full of adreniline and then head to ride some single track. I rode Supplejack, which is a technical single track with rocks, roots and switchbacks and runs down throuugh a rocky creek bed.
After tha track I hit up Matai which runs down through native forest and like Supplejack is filled with rocks and roots.
I also rode Sharlands Creek Track which has several creek crosings and a couple carries as well. It was a fun track.. farily easy.
The final track of the day was R and R Rush. This trail had a couple different sections. You start off on some single track. It does get a little trickers as the track narrows and gets a little more rocky, and also has a pretty good drop on one side of the track!
The tracks were great, but to be honest I didn’t enjoy the ride as much as I would have liked since the bike was working to well. It was a pain to peddle, so by the last track I was ready to quit. I would be keen to come back to the Hira Forest to ride again. They have heaps of trails to play on!
The day before I popped into a bike shop – RIDE – to talk with the mechanics about trails and places to ride so I headed back tothe shop with my broken bike. I walked in and told the mechanic what i thought it was and it said ‘naw man it is just the i bolt here on the shock -$20 fix and I can have it back to you in a couple hours.’ SWEET!
I left the bike in his hands and went back to the park to grab michelle so we could get some groceries and chill out in town. We hit up a couple shops, Michelle picked up a nice hoodie, we were able to skype my brother from a Star Bucks and then I headed back to the bike shop to pick up my bike.
Well, I was right. The mechanic told me I had snapped the lower linkage on the drive train side and that there was really nothing I could do. He is not a a Giant retailer so he wouldnt have the parts and plus since it will be under warrenty I will have to hit a giant dealer. My riding for this trip was over. FUCK! I really didnt even scratch the surface of what I wanted to ride, but what are you going to do?
In the avro we had some in wine and cheese. This is gormet camping!
After returning back to Tahuna the park had filled up even more. I guess lots of people planned to do some camping over new years as most of the sites were now gone. In the avro we hit up the beach and then chilled at our site. It was New Years Eve so Michelle and I had some sausages and sald plus heaps of beers and ciders to consume. We cracked the case of cider and i mourned for my bike ahaha. It wasnt long before we struck up a conversation with our camp neighboors – Tony and Lynn from Invergargal. We brought 2011 in together having a wee yarn and some good laughs.
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January 13, 2011 · Filed under NEW ZEALAND · Tagged backpack new zealand, NEW ZEALAND, live and work in new zealand, blog new zealand, new zealand blog, canadian working in new zealand, nz blog, canadians in auckland, travel blog, work abroad, work in new zealand, canadians working overseas, outdoor adventure, working abroad, canadians working abroad, adventure, travelling new zealand, backpacking, travelling, backpacking new zealand, abel tasman national park, abel tasman new zealand, hiking the abel tasman national park, aqua taxi new zealand
The golden beaches of the Abel Tasman National Park.
Today we were off to Abel Tasman National Park to do the Seal and Sand with Aqua Taxi. The package included a 1-2 hour aqua taxi ride to our drop off point with a few stops a long the way to check out some seals and pick upsome other passangers luggage. I really didnt know what the Aqua Taxi did, actually I never even knew it existed. I figured they would drop you at your destination and that was about it. It turns out that you can have your luggage picked up and dropped at another beach so you do not have to lug all your gear along the able tasman walking track – genious! Espically since if you plan to walk the whole thing – 3-5 days so you have to take tents, gear and food.
Can you see the Kiwi bird rock formation..
To launch the boats they have tractors pull the boats out to the deeper water. The tide was out when we arrived so it was quite the scene to watch tractors pulling boats through the low tide. It turned out that the tractor pulling us ended up getting stuck. So there we sat in a boat attached to a tractor in shallow water going no where. They ended up having to call another tractor to come and pull us out so we could launch the boat and get on to our destination.
The track takes your from beach to beach! Not bad way eh!
With the boat launched we headed off into the park to pickup travellers bags and drop us at the start of our tramp. After an hour or so we reached our beach drop off and we waded through the water to thebeach to start our days tramp. Actually it was only a 4-5 hour tramp depending on your fitness. When we reached the beach we dried out feet, tossed on our shoes and started down the track.
The track was pretty easy to walk and took you a long the coast. Stunning!
The walking track was geat! It took you through the native bush and had some great views as well. There were heaps of people walking the track. We walked from beach to beach usually taking about 2 hours of tramping to get to the next white sand beach. The beaches were beautiful and golden! The ocean was a blue/teal colour and the weather couldnt have been better. It was sunny with a little wind, which helped keep you cool as you walked. At every beach we hit I had a swim – it was perfect! The water was actually pretty warm. I would love to go back to do the whole track, though not at this time of year as there were too many people for my liking.
After our tramp we were pickedup by the Aqua Tax at a assigned beach where they took us back the office and we loaded back onto the bus that picked us up from Nelson. We were both beat and quickly fell asleep for the 1.5 hour ride home.
Once back in Nelson we celebrated with some nice cold beers and a roasted chicken. It was a great day and Abel Tasman Namtional Park is Amazing. We will be heading back into the park in a couple days to do some kayaking.
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