Abel Tasman National Park-Marahau

Yesterday we decided to take a hike throught the National Park to Apple Tree Bay. It took us a little over  an hour and we found a secluded spot on the beach. The beach stretches for miles here and it was so nice -that it wasn't crowded. It got to be about 77-80 degrees and we spent a few hours at the beach and then decided we better pack up and go so we didn't get a sunburn. Well, we both got pretty sunburned on our legs so it's a bit uncomfortable today!
Today we got up and met at Kaiteriteri at  for our kayaking excursion. This was one adventure I was in charge of booking about 6 weeks ago. When we got up to the "Wilson's Kayak" booth they didn't have any such booking number but were kind enough to check with their neighbor booth and they had the booking number--except we were supposed to be back at Marahau station and not in Kaiteriteri! So, the kayak booth we were supposed to be at was literally right next door to the Lodge in Marahau we are staying at! For luck we took the water taxi and caught up with our group at Tonga Island. Our guide's name was Garrith and it was pretty ironic but he lived in MN for a few months about a year ago. It was pretty neat to be able to talk about common things from home with our tour guide! We also originally thought our tour was a half day but then realized we were signed up for the full-day tour. We kayaked for a couple hours, had lunch with the group, and then hiked a different area of the Park. We had a nice and small group with just two other couples-one from Holland and one from England. We had quite a full day and had dinner at one of the two cafe's here in town called the Park Cafe. We may head back later to check out if they have music playing being it's Saturday night here.

Tomorrow we are considering going to Golden Bay which would be about an hour's drive. It's supposed to be another nice day as far as the weather goes. So far we've loved Queenstown and Marahau the best. It's been such a great time!

Random thoughts....

I thought I'd write about just some random thoughts/observations that we've noticed in the time we've been here so far....
    *The toilets DO NOT flush the other direction!  I was disappointed in finding this out, but it seems that all toilets just have a huge blast of water and flush pretty much straight down.
    *Everyone here is very very polite.  New Zealanders ( "Kiwis" ) are all laid back and very friendly.
    *The roads are incredibly windy here due to having to pass through a lot of mountains.  It feels a lot like driving on a go-cart track....and going 50-60mph.....with the steering wheel on the right side of the car.....driving on the other side of the road.....and sometimes even having to drive through sheep and their shepherd coming down the road!  It's quite fun, but also a lot of work and concentration.
    *There does not seem to be any squirrels or gophers or other rodent type animals here.  Awesome!
    *It's very beautiful here.  You find yourself saying "That's very pretty" at least once a day.
    *Prices (after taking into consideration the good conversion rate) seem to be pretty much equal to prices back home.  Except for gas which seems ridiculously expensive.
    *There are sheep everywhere!
    *There are a number of one way bridges on the highways-which are pretty scary until you get used to using them
    *"No worries" and "cheers" are very common phrases here.  They take the place of "Not a problem" and "thanks"
    *Like the States, they call soccer soccer, not football like the rest of the world.  However they are now changing this and going to officially call it football.
    *The food here is quite good.  Rach and I have been very lucky in that everything we have eaten has been delish.  I think a lot of it has to do with it being fresh food and organic.  They are very green here and everything is very fresh. 
    *This is definitely the place that offers the perfect combination of adventure and relaxation!

That's all I've got for now.  Maybe I'll post some more random observations again later on.  Cheers!