Abel Tasman Trail – Day 0
Friday January 19, 2024
Distance/ Total: 0 km / 0 mi
Today I’m crossing to the South Island to continue my Te Araroa Thru-hike, but before I do that I’m going to take another break. This time a hiking break. I’m taking a few days to do one of New Zealand’s Great Walks – The Abel Tasman Trail. It’s a 60 km trail that follows the coastline of the Tasman Bay.
But first I need to get there. I checked in at the Bluebridge Ferry at 7:15 and we were leaving port at 8:15. It’s a 3 1/2 hour trip across to the South Island. I took advantage of the time to catch up on my blogs. I had gotten pretty far behind.
Since I was still wasn’t burned out on tacos after last night I ordered a plate of chicken tacos on the ferry and they were quite good.
I arrived in Picton ( on the South Island) at 11:45, collected my backpack from baggage and headed to catch the bus to Nelson.
The bus ride out of town was very scenic as we headed up into the mountains. There was lots of pine forest in various levels of growth, obviously planted after logging the native forest. There seems to be even more logging here than the north island.
I arrived in Nelson about 3:30, checked into my hostel, then headed into town to find some food – those tacos didn’t last very long. I found a brewery that made their own IPA (a rarity in New Zealand) and ordered a 474ml glass (very specific size). It’s about 16 ounces. I also ordered some jalapeño poppers excited to find a place that had them. Unfortunately it’s not the same jalapeños stuffed with cheese that I was anticipating. They were hush puppies with diced jalapeños in them. What a disappointment.
Back at the hostel I was able to use their good Wi-Fi to finally upload my blogs I was behind on. Despite the fast internet it still took quite a bit of time.
I went back into town to an Italian place I saw earlier for dinner. The food was great, but the atmosphere was just a little too formal for me.
I returned to the hostel and packed up what I could in order to make things easier tomorrow. I crawled in bed about 9:30 but the room was too hot to sleep. Once again no A/C and pop out windows that only open about 4”. I was in a 4 person bunk room and the other 3 roommates all came in together about 10:30. I still wasn’t asleep because of the heat so it didn’t wake me up. Dang! I need to get some rest for my hiking trip tomorrow.
