Nelson(not) and then Waikeri Beach in the Abel Tasman, New Zealand South
03 :31pm NZTime

Trying to remember all that happened since the last posting,... I'm sitting in an organic cafe in Wellington now after a night at the not-so-tasty holiday park in Wellington. Definitely hit or miss around the larger cities when it comes to quality and location of the holiday parks. It seems that the inexorable spread of capitalism has begun to take its toll on the holiday parks in the nicer regions.. developers come in to a park and offer the owners a billion dollars for the choice beach-front land and all of the sudden, all the holiday parks are in light-industrial areas.... shame.

Anyway. We left the amazing holiday park by the river and headed towards Nelson, which we had heard so much about... groovy, eco-friendly, small.... unfortunately, it was none of these. Greeted by strip malls and Kentucky-Fried-Chicken joints, we saw our first car lots FULL of American SUV's... really dissapointing. Deb and I made the realization later that we were expecting Nelson, BC Canada... so we built it up a little more than we should have. Anyway, we escaped that and headed on up the coast towards the Abel Tasman which is this amazing Big Sur like area with warm water and jungles. Stopped at the holiday park there (which was amazing again) and pulled into the campsite... right next to Susan and Tom, the two cool Germans! We immediately decided to have beer and celebrate and did so into the evening.

Next morning, we rousted the kids and traipsed down to the beach to hire some kayaks. About twice the price of a kayak in Monterey, but they had us, so we paid... I've had a few of those experiences here... The kayak was wonderful and I got some pretty good pictures I think. The light (sun) here is really intense and I'm having a tough time, even with a polarizer and an ND filter to chill out my images... feels like the daylight scenes from Vin Deisels Pitch Black.

Cooked dinner that night with Tom and Susan and a Kiwi on a motorcycle we had befriended earlier. I nursed my cuts and abraisions from climbing on mussel-covered rocks and a great time was had by all.

Woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning and headed back to Picton for the return leg of our journey. Deb had remarked earlier that this was really the turning around point,.. that from this point on, we were no longer heading into the unknown, but returning to our home... I feel pretty good about this actually,.. more on this later, but I feel like it's a really good thing to be in Pacific Grove right now. No plans to move here.

Got the ferry back to Wellington, found the holiday-industrial park, and crashed.

Kids awake to a new fun-filled day of vacation! Seems like Kaya might be ready to get back to PG now...

Pineapple and toast for breakfast... yum.

Kenna kitted out in her "togs and jandles" (swimming suit and sandles)

My feet. Covered in some kind of thereputic green mud that Deb applied to combat the incredibly itchy sand-fly bites... They only attack your ankles...

Qick panorama of the beach not twenty meters from the campsite. (click for bigger one).

Kenna paddling on the way out to "split-apple rock". NOTE: The Sony waterproof camera failed and died right as we got out on the water... REALLY dissapointing....

Deb and Kaya zooming past us... they couldn't figure out which one was in charge of steering..

The first beach we came to.. really cool place.

Deb found a cave (she wants me to tell you she's not peeing).

I followed her into the cave to seduce her, but she scampered away... rats.

Pasty man poses by a large rock. (time to get on the bike when I get home man...)

The kayaks and kids on the beach.

Deb's Treasures.

The second beach we found had these amazing caves. We hauled out right inside one and swam and frolicked for a few hours.

Deb and the critters in the cave.

Girls exploring the caves... there was actually a giant land-squid in the back that I had to fight off before we left... really.

Another test of my ability to work with highly varied lighting conditions... oops.

Girls in the cave. Used a flash and it worked... better...

Boats parked... the tide went out and I ended up having to hoist them out of there to the water...

Back at camp, Kaya and Deb play a wicked game of Uno.

Tom and Susan. Really cool people.

Me and Susan,.. not sure why she's displaying the needle... but there you have it..

Kaya teaches Susan to levitate.

Super yummy dinner of barbecue and steamed mussels Tom and Susan caught on the beach.