"A three hour cruise..."

C'mon, you know the rest..."There's Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire and his wife..." Bet a loonie you'll be singing this theme song for the rest of the day--sorry! The connection is that we indeed took a 'three hour cruise' today, to Anchorage Bay in the Abel Tasman Park. This park is the most celebrated tramping track in NZ, with good reason, as it borders some of the most beautiful coastline in the whole country.

The day started off a bit slow...

Our cruise boat picked us up from the beach at Kaiteriteri, about 20 minutes' drive north of our current cottage, and paralleled the coastline in and out of beautiful bays, with the captain giving us the history of the area, for about an hour. This is the area where the first European, Abel Tasman (a Dutchman) came ashore on NZ in the mid-1700's (before Captain Cook, contrary to popular belief). Eventually we were dropped off at the Anchorage Bay beach (see below) where most of the others hoisted packs and disappeared onto the tramping track. We, on the other hand, spent a lovely hour having our picnic lunch and enjoying the sensation of being on a deserted island!



Then our water taxi arrived, dispelling the solitude, and we had an exhilarating ride back to our point of origin. You can see what Frank thought about it all...

Here are a couple of other photos from this week, one of a lovely Japanese garden that is just outside of the central shopping district of Nelson. It is a public park created to honour Nelson's partnership with a sister Japanese city. Very lovely.

And here's Frank enjoying the parasailing on the beach earlier this week...


And another gorgeous sunset that followed yesterday's rain (which this area desperately needs--it is unusually dry this year, we are told).

Not much more planned for this area this week--a drive up to Farewell Spit (the northernmost tip of the S. Island--and I promise not to spit) tomorrow, perhaps. It has been a wonderfully relaxing week. Next week is our time at a working sheep station atop the Southern Alps, so stay tuned for more vigorous news!!

P.S. I have finally mastered rotating and re-sizing my photos prior to posting them (thanks to John's ever patient tutoring!), but please let me know via comments if there is any decrease in quality from your end, or any other problems--thanks!