The Hopeful And The Unafraid

Monday, January 31, 2011

Abel Tasman: How Not To Do It

Wel eft The Palace on a bright sunny morning to head up to Abel Tasman National Park: which had been continually built up to be one of the most beautiful parks in New Zealand. We were excited to be on the road and the drive was fantastic on such a warm day. We stopped a lot along the way and one of the highlights of the day was this little fruits and veggie store that had a bakery, ice cream, and lots of organic food. We bought tons of local vegetables that were on sale and some "real fruit" ice cream and continued on our way.

It had been recommended to us to actually drive to the end of the Abel Tasman walking track and hike back in to the beaches instead of driving to the much closer beginning of the track where it would be more populated. We took the recommendation on good faith and I'd say it was one of our poorer decisions but one we had no way of knowing would actually be a poor decision. We spent our afternoon driving for hours and only stopping for a short period of time in the Golden Bay to have lunch. The sand was literally the color of gold and the water was warm but we decided to not swim as we had been promised better on the track.

We discovered that the final portion of our journey into the park was on gravel road uphill around a mountain with giant potholes. It took absolutely forever to find where we were going and it was 5pm when we finally started our hike. The hike itself was amazing: the forest here is sort of like a cross between a North American forest and a rain forest. But better. Of course because we're in New Zealand. We reached the closest beach, Anapia, at 6pm. It was secluded and beautiful but the waves were crashing and the sand flies were biting and we were exhausted. We had such a short time there as we needed to turn around and drive the two and a half hours back the way we came and then push on down to a campsite on the highway to Westport.

We couldn't have asked for better weather and poorer planning but every vacation has a bad day: when we finally reached a town with a supermarket that night everything but KFC and McDonalds was closed. We chose KFC and just used McDonalds free wifi and bathroom. It was a long, tiring day but the full moon guided us into the night.

The Birthday Weekend Photo Post

Carrie: "Hey I'm changing into jeans over here."

Tim: "Daniel we couldn't get you a stripper for your birthday so we got Carrie to take her pants off. Happy Birthday."

From Top to Bottom: (1) The Palace!,

(2) The magical playground where everyone falls off,

(3) Will spinning Tim off,

(4) Mike on the Flying Fox,

(5) The crazy tire claw,

(6) The view from our balcony at The Palace,

(7) Me on the beach,

(8) The group with Cindy,

(9) Tim and Dan like to dive when playing volleyball,

(10) Sand volleyball on the perfect day,

(11) Mike on the beach outside Nelson.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

On Being Homeless

We're actually those homeless kids changing our clothes in the parking lot of McDonalds as people drive by in the drive thru.

We're the people brushing our teeth in the public library's bathroom.

We're the kids camping on the beach for free and using every single flushing toilet we can find.

We haven't changed our clothes in three days because actually taking them off to do anything but go swimming just sounds too difficult.

We are the people bathing in the river. Because we haven't showered in 7 days.

We have been sleeping in the trunk of our car. For three and a half weeks.

We are 4 Americans on the best 6 week vacation of our lives.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Nelson: The Birthday Weekend

We arrived in Nelson at the Palace Backpackers two days before Daniel's birthday on January 17th and it became a true Birthday Weekend as we celebrated for three excellent days. The excuse for the absurd amount of food, juice (me), and alcohol (boys) consumed was that "Heeeey it's your birthday!"

We slept in the morning of the 16th and Tim and I ran birthday errands before we headed out to the beach for lunch and a great afternoon. We purchased a Boogie Board and a Skim Board (which is a heavier wooden board that skims along the waters surface as the waves roll in and out on the beach) to use and I definitely wiped out wicked hard on the Skim Board. I hit the sand so hard I was bleeding. We enjoyed the warm waters, beautiful mountains and weather, and a great time playing volleyball. We were joined by our new French friend Cindy who was great to add to our dynamic.

After our beach day we spent time in the hostel's hot tub and decided to stay another day for Dan's birthday! We cooked a HUGE meal with Cindy: pasta, red sauce, cheese, soy sauce veggies, garlic bread, and a big salad. We stayed up late chatting and playing cards which we became addicted to.

We woke up very late on the 17th and I made Dan breakfast for his birthday as he checked his facebook for well wishes. We left mid-afternoon to go to Richmond (the next town over) to visit the cutest cooking store: Baku! The women working there, Lyn and Linda, made us tea and chatted with us for over an hour. We bought presents and we headed back to Nelson to finally have a picnic lunch at 5:30pm. We also had fun playing on this tire swing claw contraption - wait for photos on that. It was hilarious.

We picked up some other people from the hostel to come play a game of volleyball with us: we were joined by Will from Britain, Danielle from Jersey (a British Isle), and Charles from Sweden. The game was awesome -- Danielle, Charles, Tim, and I triumphed 2 games to 1 over Mike, Will, and Dan. We played on the most amazing playground post-game: there were zip lines and spinning swings and tire claws!

We had a repeat of our meal the night before and shared cake and ice cream with our new friends as we played card games and finally fell asleep exhausted.

When we woke in the morning it was raining and we decided once again to stay at the Palace and avoid camping in the rain. We had a lazy internet, laundry, napping, errand day and had a fantastic dinner of stir fry and rice. We played card games with Charles, Will, Danielle, Cindy, and a few others that wandered in and wanted to join in our silent game of Spoons. It was a fantastic night and a great ending to the Birthday Weekend.