Kayaking Abel Tasman State Park

Luck was on our side and we had three beautiful days of kayaking the shore along the Abel Tasman State Park. We started out from Marahau in a beautiful yellow and purple kayak.

Unlike some of our recent kayak trips, we did this one without a guide.  Abel Tasman kayaks rented us the equipment, booked lodging in the park, arranged for a water taxi pick-up at the end of the trip and gave us a map.  After a quick water test to see if we could kayak he took our picture and we paddled off on our own. Sweet.

We paddled for about three hours with a generous lunch break on the beach and arrived at our first night's lodging at Anchorage Bay.  We stayed in the Anchorage Bay hut in bunk beds with about 34 of our soon to be closest friends, 8 beds to a room.  It was a mixed group of trail hikers and kayakers. It was pretty quiet in the room, with the only sounds to be heard in the night were Calvin and I coughing as we are both on the tail end of a nasty cold.  Most of the hikers got up early to start on the trail, but Calvin and I got a leisurely start at 10. We were waiting for the tide to come in so we didn't have to drag our kayak so far to the water.

We paddled along the shore for a little while and then took a break at Frenchman's Bay where we shared the beach with a friendly seagull.

There was a cool tidal lagoon just beyond the beach that we paddled into as the tide was coming in, then headed across the channel to Pinacle Island where we saw several fur seals sunning in the rocks.

That didn't take very long, so we poked our nose into Falls River, a tidal river at almost high tide.

We paddled to a rock fall in the river under a swinging bridge.

By this time it was time to pull into Bark Bay to check out our accommodations for the night.

Seven sleeping pads on the bottom and seven sleeping pads on the top.  Luckily we arrived in time to get the bottom row.

After claiming our sleeping pad there wasn't much else to do so we set out on foot to explore.  Here is the swinging bridge that we saw from Falls River.  I thought it was a little scary but Calvin thought it was fun.

Then we hiked up to South point for a great view of the coastline we had paddled in the morning.

and a view of Pinacle Island where the seals hang out

After a restful night with our new best friends, who weren't too happy with us because we were still coughing, we started our last short paddle. This is what Caslvin sees when he is paddling.

This is what I see

Calvin si a good sport.

This is what I would see if I had eyes in the back of my head.

The beach behind Calvin is where we waited for the water taxi. An easy place to spend a couple of hours.