Then I head up the coast to Kaiteriteri to one of the kayak tours :) The kayaks are for two people and I jump on an afternoon tour and meet up with my group.
I am introduced to Mark, our guide for the day. Mark is from Cornwall in the UK originally and he kayaks every day here in Abel Tasman in the summer and gets paid money for it :) Then in the winter he heads back to the UK summer and kayaks there. He has beaten the system ;)
I meet Rebecca from Melbourne, a really chatty and lovely Aussie who is, like me, easily burnt by the sun. We remind each other to reapply lotion. There is a chap from Yorkshire whose wife is too scared to come in the kayak and there is also an Asian chap and his father. The son, a doctor, looks about 35 and it turns out he is 61. I am properly stunned by this and I can't work out if he is joking. His father is 82 and that looks about right but when he talks you'd think he was the same age as his son. These chaps are a walking advert for healthy living, as this is what they claim is the cause of it. "It's what you do in the first 50yrs of your life that matters!" the doc says. "I am still staring at him genuinely confused!"
I really don't know what to do with this information. I feel like I should definitely review my chocolate for breakfast plan at the very least.
We are instructed into how to kayak. I have done kayaking before and in fact 'canoe rolling' before in a swimming pool so I am pretty confident I can nail this and even do a 360 if required! ;)
We set off and I feel the difference in my arms from yoga! I can now rocket through the waves and I'm feeling impervious to the sun with my spray on factor 50 (reapplied twice ;) This is good! L
We eventually get out to split apple rock and are told some tales of how the gods argued over a dragons egg and accidentally killed it and then it cracked and turned to rock. We then get asked "how to you think it really cracked?"
I take a guess...
"Did it have a crack or a seam of something that absorbed water and then that cooled and expanded cracking the rock?"
"Haha trust the scientist! Yes this rock has a Quartz seem running through it!"
It's nice to know enough to make educated guesses sometimes :D
Look at the chin strap on this awesome hat! Oh yeah it works a treat!
Still working a treat here too!
We pull the kayaks up on the beach for a little picnic and I have a quick coffee and jump in the water for a swim over to near the cool split rock :)
Then it's back on with the t-shirt, shorts and hat and back in the kayak. It's about half way back when a strong gust of wind whips off my beautiful hat. I had not used the chin strap when I put it back on!!! Arg! We try to reverse but the rudder runs over my beautiful hat and sends it down as an offering to Davy Jones!
Waaaaaa! I morn my hat for longer than I expected to. A good 5-10 minutes later and I've made a plan to go hat shopping the next morning! My next hat will probably cost more than the £3 eBay bargain that that hat cost but I need a sun hat here so it has to be done.
We arrive back to shore and there we share congratulations and thanks for the trip and then I head off to find some dinner! I find a pretty spot and ask if they have anything gluten free "nearly everything can be made gluten free!"... Of course it can *grin*
I order a pizza and it is amazing!
After I eat most of this pizza I am hit by a carbs-sun-exercise sleepiness that tells me I need to get an early night.... In the hostel though? Hmm
I head back and by the time I have prepared to check out the next day it's getting late and so I try to get some sleep with the bunk bed only occasionally rattled to disrupt my snoring: *embarrassed face*
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