Abel Tasman National Park

So we woke up the morning of Monday, March 18 and had a very long drive to Motueka. We made a couple good stop including one at Punakaki to see the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes which were really cool limestone formations right over the water that look like giant pancakes stacked on top of one another.  We stayed there about 15 minutes and got on our way. We finally rolled into Motueka around dinnertime and I was on cooking duty so we had to get to work right away. We made some pretty delicious tacos, which I was pretty proud about. After dinner, we hung out and little bit and went to bed pretty early.

The next day, we had an overnight camping adventure to Abel Tasman National Park (which isn’t accessible by car). Half of us kayaked and half of us hiked. I was in the kayaking group and the weather was amazing. We kayaked around islands on some beautiful water. We stopped on a beach around lunchtime, which was when the weather rolled in. For the second half of our kayaking adventure, it rained and during that time, we were no longer in the protection of the bay and instead out on the sea waters. We did a stretch known as the mad mile where giants swells of water and choppy waves tossed us around like a popcorn kernel. Finally, we made it to the campgrounds and met the other half of the group. Other than the fact that it was pouring, the campsite was pretty cool. We got all set up, but there was a little bit of commotion because one the girls in the hiking group was missing (big time code green). An hour or so later, our professor found her…turns out she took a wrong turn. Anyways, after having our tents set up, we set out to cook dinner. We mostly had bought food in groups to cook, but we only had a couple stoves, so we had to alternate. Apparently, there was a middle school field trip their too because the place was swimming with little kids. After we ate, the rain was really coming down and we sucked it up and ran from the shelter to our tent for an early night. There’s really not much you can do on a camping trip when it’s pouring rain. I probably laid down around at 8:30 and didn’t sleep the entire night. The mat was about half an inch thick and did nothing to form a pad between the ground and my back. Not to mention, the tent started getting wet from the rain.

After the worst night of sleep of my life, I was more than ready to get up. It was freezing outside, but I couldn’t decide what was worse: laying on the hard ground in my sleeping or standing up freezing cold. I decided to just be up and move around. I felt like I was still wet from the rain and feeling pretty miserable. Thank God the sun came up that morning. It ended up being a beautiful day and the kayakers and hikers switched. The hike was great and was really more of a walk through the woods than a hike and I got some incredible pictures out of it. When we got back to Motueka, I headed straight for the showers before dinner. After dinner, I had another late night of work because we had a module due in the morning, but I lived and finally got to go to bed around 1 AM.