We're on the 9:05am Interislander Ferry heading north on a 3.5 hour cruise through the Marlborough Sound and the Cook Strait after 2 nights in a tropical resort on the north shore and a layover in the port town of Picton. Just FYI, I booked the ferry tickets online and it was a breeze to return the rental car at the terminal, get our boarding tickets and check our luggage before settling in a giant space that looks like a cafeteria with big viewing windows (and free wifi...whoop whoop). Also FYI, when I rented the car online I rented from Queenstown to Auckland and then sent emails to the Avis NZ office to arrange drop off in the South and pick up of the new car in the North, although it is possible to take cars on the ferry. For future reference, don't forget to leave your key with the contract when you return the car on the south side because it's embarrassing to still have it in your pocket on the north side. It's quite a blustery day here in NZ...rainy, waves, gale force winds so it's good not to be on land hiking today. The crossing was a bit rough at times, the outer decks were closed and unfortunately, we had no views of the Sound. Let's hope the weather clears in time for our Tongariro hike in the morning (and our drive from Wellington to Tongariro this afternoon.). Update: weather never improved entire ferry ride or on drive to Tongariro!
The days at Abel Tasmen were quite pleasant. We arranged (through our hotel, but there are many outfitters offering a variety of water/land trips) for a water taxi to take us to a cove where we hiked 2 hours north to a beach where we enjoyed a picnic lunch and some sunbathing. The water is magnificent but freezing to our Florida standards! Another water taxi picked us up and we went south a bit to another cove where we boarded kayaks to begin a 2 hour sea kayak trip back to the main port. Saw a few seals resting on rocks along the way, but not much sea life, especially after seeing thousands of sea lions last year in the Galapagos. We wished we had inquired about Cleopatra Falls/sliding rock before we departed because we missed that. Had a yummy meal at the local/tourist favorite, The Fat Tui food truck, where we waited an hour for a hamburger covered in shredded salad, aoili, carmelized onions & relish. The night before we also had a yummy meal at Hookers, talking to the waitresses, having cocktails and lamb! Marahau is a beachy town and everyone is so laid back and friendly; our lodge hosts had moved their young family from London to live in this peaceful friendly environment. The Kiwis are so natural. Hard to describe people who just seem happy to be alive.. Our gracious hosts, Joce and Scott, the new owners of the Abel Tasman Marahau Lodge, had such pride in their newly renovated lodge, with most chalets updated with a clean look (we had a triple), a spacious, clean and well stocked community kitchen where we prepared breakfasts (and could have cooked a full dinner too) and large commercial laundry machines. Funky birds (black feathers, blue belly feathers, orange legs with big orange claws that looked like a chicken) woke us up with shrieks and pecking on our sliding doors.
AT has a lot of hikes if varying length, but generally a water taxi is needed to get you to a trailhead. The beaches and sea water were absolutely beautiful, but cold and windier than a Florida beach. A great tropical diversion, but by the 3rd day we were ready to head off towards Picton. After a quick beach hike to see Split Apple Rock, we drove through Nelson and the Marlborough Sound region, even heading up into one of the "fingers" extending up into the Sound, the Charlotte Track, a twisty road through tropical beauty, but could have easily head into wine country for a tour. We stopped in Haverlock for locally harvested green mussels and spent the night at Kippilaw House in Picton. Our host Margaret made us a multi course gourmet dinner with wine and a magnificent 3 course breakfast at 7am before we headed to the ferry.
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