ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK

Wednesday morning was a stunner, flat calm and warm sunshine.  Truce and I absorbed the heat, the damp wet of Fiordland and the West Coast quickly evaporated away.  The morning was spent pottering around, doing odd jobs and tidying the boat up after our trip up the West Coast.  There are always maintenance jobs pending after any trip.

Ngozi arrived mid-afternoon.  She was driven from Nelson Airport by Ian who I had met in Milford Sound and lives in Nelson.  A very kind gesture and helpful as Tarakohe is not easy to get to from Nelson.  Ian then took us to the supermarket in Takaka to buy fresh food.  After which we took Ian for refreshments and a pleasant time was had by all.

My birthday is on the 27^th and Ngozi had brought a new Lavac Toilet for me from Auckland.  Quite an unusual birthday present but very welcome.  This is a replacement for the old toilet which, although still working well, has a cracked lid that has been repaired with glass fibre.  It looks unsightly so a new toilet will replace the old one.

In late afternoon Ian departed back to Nelson and Ngozi and I had a bar b que of lamb chops on board.  This is only the second time this trip the bar b que has been used and I am questioning the value of hauling it around.

The following day the sun shone again, beautiful weather, we decided to stay another day in Tarakohe and do not very much.  In the morning we went for a walk to find a café for egg and bacon breakfast.  In this venture we were unsuccessful, everything was shut.  Only some sad old pies on sale at the local store.  Back to the boat and we soon had a reasonable breakfast produced minus the bacon.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, walking and enjoying the warm weather.  A final trip to the laundry and showers completed the day, everything and everyone on board clean for the next part of the trip.

On Friday morning we let go from the dock and motored out of Tarakohe Port.  Once again, we had sunshine and calm weather.  Our destination is Abel Tasman National Park, just a few miles along the coast.  I had visited Abel Tasman last year, a wonderful place.  Although it’s only a small area with just a couple of sheltered anchorages I think it’s one of the nicest spots to go boating in New Zealand.

We meandered along the coast and around Separation Point.  Separation Point features on the daily weather forecasts, the weather to the north of this point can be vastly different to the weather south.  Usually, weather south of separation point is more benign than to the north.  We stopped and fished off Separation Point for a while, nothing doing so we continued on.

At lunchtime we anchored in The Anchorage.  A fairly sheltered bay and one of the anchorages in Abel Tasman that is considered by some as all weather.  After a leisurely lunch a breeze with some sea came into the anchorage, we decided to move around to Adele Island, an anchorage that I know from experience to be better.

Adele Island is a pest free island and the native birds have flourished.  The birdsong on the island is wonderful and can be clearly heard from the anchorage.  In the late afternoon we went ashore to the beach with some cold beer.  Sitting on a convenient log we watched a group of young seals frolicking in the shallows, the birds sang around us as the sun set.  Very enjoyable.

Today I realised I had crossed my outgoing track of last year so have now completed a circuit of the South Island.  Having completed a circuit of the North Island last year it seems I have now circled both big islands of New Zealand.