Current location:	Queenstown, NZ
Current mood:	cold
Current music:	"Modern Way" by Kaiser Chiefs

Scenic Prettiness
Went to the Abel Tasman National Park about two weeks ago (23/6/2007). Did sea kayaking for the first time, ever.

It rained at the start. Then these happened.



Our trusty guide.



Stopped in a bay for lunch. The view was nice.







Hiked for a bit after lunch. Another nice view.



Got back to sea after that. Then saw these.






Kayakers.



Departed from the kayaking group to spend the night in a freezing hut (more like a lodge, and better than spending the night outside somewhere).

Met another Chris.



He's from Vancouver. He tells me that they're having problems in the outside suburbs of the city, which intrude into animal habitats. Specifically, with cougars hunting people. We mostly talked about Christianity, though.

It was a long walk (22 km) from the hut back to Marahau, where the bus was to pick me up. It's a coastal track, though, so there's still nice scenery.





Walking across Torrent Bay at low tide.



Got to Torrent Bay hours earlier than expected (or so I thought), so we made a detour to something called Cleopatra's Pool.



It was pretty deep in the woods, and getting there required jumping/climbing over many, many rocks in a large creek, but it was worth it, I think.

Oh, and this looked interesting.



After a while, got to the actual sign marker for Torrent Bay, which informed me that it was a 3 hour walk back to Marahau. Unfortunately, I only had 2. So that was bad.

Now, I know that those signs usually overestimate slightly, but it was still unnerving. And even going as fast as possible (and most of the track was uphill, which was lots of fun), it took 2 hours and 15. But, I still managed to catch the bus.

Here's some stuff I saw close to the pickup point, when I was too tired to bother with my good camera. I think the little one did a pretty decent job.





Next time: Pancake Rocks and Lake Matheson