Olympic Qualifying Sea Kayakers

We spent almost a week in Nelson, which was fantastic. We spent a whole day exploring Abel Tasman National Park using Kahu Kayaks. We took a water taxi pretty far into the park, did a 2.5 hour hike, where they picked us up and brought us to some kayaks, where we would paddle the rest of the way in.

We kayaked in a small group (3 groups of 2, and our fearless Canadian leader (FCL)) for about an hour before we encountered 60 knot headwinds. Now, I have not the faintest idea what that means, but it was strong. Ben and I paddled, and paddled, and paddled and ended up way in front of the group. By "way," I mean about 300 feet over the course of an hour. (Please note the whitecaps in the kayak picture below.)

Our FCL summoned us backwards, and I almost started to cry. I did not want to do that craziness again. Never fear, though: the FCL is here! We pulled our boats onto the shore, and hiked the remainder of our trek (only 45 min), leaving the boats to fend for themselves. On the way back, the rest of the group was commenting on our sea kayaking skills and asking about our training methods. 

We told them it's pretty much in our blood, being from the Midwest and all.

To polish off our time in Nelson, we did a day trip on the Great Taste Trail. There are many expensive guided tours of the trail, but we found the map the bike shop provided to be completely sufficient. We started in Nelson, and biked to the next town, stopping at only 2 breweries (our goal was 2 breweries and 4 wineries), because we found the Packer game! #priorities

This is an absolute MUST do (both the trail and cheering for the Packers).

Here are some tips for Nelson:

• We didn't get a car, but it was really a toss up. We were 30 minutes from downtown, and definitely could have benefited from one.
• Abel Tasman is actually huge, and you can do it 100 different ways: backpacking, only kayaking, only sea taxi, etc. Do a little bit of research before you get there to make sure you get the experience you want. It also would be worth considering doing it for more than 1 day.
• Also, Abel Tasman is >1 hour away from Nelson. There are ferries and buses, but this is where a car would come in handy if you want to spend more than a day there.
• It's still not that warm. It's better in the direct sun (~70 maybe), but definitely not bikini weather.
• For the bike, you can get the trail hopper from one town to the next but you need to book it in advance (another fail for us). There's also a ferry that you need to cross, and the last one is at 5 PM. Make sure to plan your route out the day before so you don't get stuck.