Workout in paradise

Thanks to Carsten's back exercises and the whirlpool, my back feels surprisingly good. It has to, because today is action day. The weather is supposed to be good, so we are exploring the Abel Tasman National Park today by water taxi, on foot, and by kayak. Today, we are doing a full-body workout. A water taxi will bring us around 9:00 am,

along the beautiful coast, to our first stop, Onetahuti Bay.

From there, a 6.5 km walking track leads to Bark Bay, the starting point for the kayak tour.

The sun is burning down by now.

The track follows the coast in the first part, always in the shade of the trees.

Up and down, although I would say more uphill than downhill, we continued through the dense forest.

There was quite a lot going on on the track. One backpacker chasing the next, and they were all so young (I would say most of them around 20). I already wondered if this is New Zealand's Camino de Santiago.

Thanks to the tides, we also had to walk an extra kilometer, the high tide track. The tides in this region have a range of about 5 meters.

At least we had some fun on a suspension bridge.

After about 2 hours, we had made it. Our guide, consisting only of tendons and muscles, said that you can do it in 1 hour and 15 minutes, but he was only half my size and without a heavy backpack.

I really need to do something about the weight of my backpack.

After a short lunch, we got into the boats, the kayaks. We have already paddled on the Leine and Ihme rivers this year, with canoes. Then in Australia on a river (more dragging than paddling). But today, we went out to sea, always along the coast. That was quite different from a calm river. Especially since the sea was quite rough today, despite the sunshine. So we jumped into the boat with full enthusiasm and started paddling. We can do it. We were also in perfect sync, but somehow, after a few strokes, everyone else was already several boat lengths ahead.

And somehow, they didn't paddle more or faster than us. Carsten thinks it's the weight of our boat, but just to be sure, he asked the guide if anything got stuck in our steering rudder at the back. Once the guide had removed the seal, which was being towed by us, it immediately got better 😂. But maybe we still need to work on the weight of the backpack. During the tour, we were able to admire seals and cormorants on an offshore island

, and halfway there, we paddled into a beautiful lagoon.

This lagoon can only be navigated during high tide, as it is dry during low tide. A fantastic backdrop, crystal-clear water, white sand, a dream. After 7 km and 3 hours, all I wished for was, "Lord, give us a tailwind and someone to bring us home". Unfortunately, I was not heard and had to paddle on myself.

Unfortunately, a great day also comes to an end, so we board the water taxi after a refreshing swim in the sea, which takes us back to Kaiteriteri to our whirlpool.

Too bad we still have to pack today.

And the first time seeing the starry sky in New Zealand.