November 9 Wednesday
Tracy awoke to announce a spectacular sunrise over the coastline at Abel Tasman National Park from our room's outside deck. Oy! It was 5 AM. We soon joined our tour (after wild rabbit pie for brekki) complete w/spray skirts & 2 man kayaks. Our kiwi guide, Tim was quite the character trading jokes w/us all day. Once Vic figured out the rudder and we got in sync with our paddling, we kayaked to Tonga Island to see a seal colony complete with many pups that had been born over the last several weeks. In a small cove the pups congregate to be watched over by several mature female seals. Kind of like a seal daycare center. Of course the bulls sit around looking for love, showing off & trying to look tough. We kayaked 3 hrs. & then tramped another 4 hrs. Now that's exercise! Tim, nick named Pretty Boy by Tracy since he had sensitive skin, explained the flora, including tea, shoe lace, and bug poo beech trees. The nectar was sweet, but you don't want to know where it came from. Sampling the ferns was nutty in several different ways. After taking the Aqua Taxi back to the drop off point we were hauled out of the water by tractors & driven down the road to the office. Just to explain the tide was out & the beach was now about a half mile from shore. We walked back to the Chalet, opened a bottle of '09 Tohu Rewa Blanc de Blanc ( the first Maori owned winery in New Zealand) & made a high level decision to go back to Park Cafe for dinner. We tried Bluff oysters (totally creamy w/ a crunchy factor added, newly caught flounder & 2 free glasses of wine. Back in the room we tried to figure out the various blog sites & said forget it as we were tired. BTW, we had a long discussion w/Tim & when asked what the Kiwi's thought about US politics he said not much. It wasn't important to them.
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