There are a half dozen walks that you are supposed to take in NZ. One of them is this one in the Able Tasman Ntl Park. This is it. It is so gorgeous that you just walk with your mouth open all the time. No roads into the park, you have to get a water taxi from the town just outside the park and they drop you off on a beach like this, and you hike for 4 or 8 hours or 2 days or whatever, and they pick you up at a different beach. We chose a "6 hour" hike, which only really took 4 hours, but we spent an hour at the beach eating lunch and I took a quick swim, even tho it was cloudy and a bit cool. It rained for the second part of the hike, but it was not cool when we hiked, only when I was trying to get in the water. I don't like cool water..... I like hot springs, but after standing in the water to my waist for 20 minutes or so, I can make myself get my head wet, and then things are OK.
Note the trees here are fern trees, not palms, altho there are certainly palm trees all over the place.
We are in Westport tonight, which is interesting because the town itself is not just sleepy, it's comotose. We've been here for 6 hours or so, and have seen maybe 2 dozen people. It's true that it is new years day, but my god, it's hard to find anyplace to eat. You could sit in the middle of main street, and not be run over, or for that matter, even noticed. All the people are hiking in the Tasman Park.
1 comment:
Wow. I love taking walks around the city (Portland, OR) or on the outskirts, but obviously they're nothing like this. Like you, if I took this walk, I'd go absolutely gaga.
Some of your other hikes sound as if they were pretty invigorating, too. Appetite inducing? Death-defying? In any case, I'm jealous.
Enjoy the fresh air and the sun (regardless of the ozone amount), and keep the stories coming. And don't fret about any repetition. Didn't some famous mathematician say that repetition is a good thing?
Take care.
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