Day 17: Soggy shoes

Well, the forecast for today was pretty much bang on: rain.

There are basically two ways of getting into Abel Tasman NP: on foot, or by boat.
We chose for the latter, as the full Abel Tasman Coastal Track will take about 3 days to complete. And with the current weather, that amount of time outside is just intolerable.
We booked something called Abel Tasman Day Explorer, which means you embark on a boat at Kaiteriteri to go all the way north to the most northern point in the park, after which you get dropped off somewhere along the way back.

We chose to do a two hour walk from Torrent Bay to Medlands Bay, as this is the most beautiful part of the entire Coastal Track. We considered doing the longer 4 hour walk from Medlands Bay to Anchorage Bay, but decided it would be a bad thing if we were to walk in rain the entire time. Remember, we had to choose this morning, during breakfast, and you can never be sure of the weather here.

Considering the title of this blog, you probably guessed it: we chose well. Our entire two hour walk was wet, with rain varying from drizzle to near torrential. Everything got wet, even through our raincoats. We were very glad to not be outside for 4 hours or longer, but were kind of miserable anyway.
On the plus side: the cameras and other equipment all survived this ordeal, and by now most of the stuff we carried is not soaking wet anymore. On the down side: the walk and the views should both have been really wonderful, but I’m afraid we didn’t quite experience those aspects of the trip very well. Too bad.

Weirdly enough, by the time we arrived back in Kaiteriteri around half past 4, the weather had cleared all the way up, and we hurried to go to the beach! With temperatures never dropping below 20 degrees, it definitely was not cold and with the sun on the beach it could even be considered to be very nice!
This was a very nice end of an otherwise quite miserable day.
Thoroughly warmed and very much drier than before, we headed back to the B&B.

Tomorrow, we have to do some shopping for New Year’s Eve as the place we are going has absolutely nothing. It is going to be a very special 31st of December! So, Punakaiki, here we come!