abel tasman tramp

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with massive amounts of recon and multi-country coordination, our crew of 8 mapped out our invasion of new zealand's abel tasman national park... here's a link to a good online map of the area. the first two days we hiked along empty beaches, through tidal crossings, and over rainforested inland hills. after that we had 2 days of kayaking through seal colonies near tiny islands and landing on a few beaches that looked appetizing. 4 part time hobos from the US joined us for the trip- julie, smitty, jenny, and tim.

here's split rock, a geological anomaly

From n zed invasion

hiking happily along on the trail

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

we camped 50 ft back from this beach the first night.

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

day 2 brought rain...

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From n zed invasion

and rain dances...

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we had a few tidal crossings during the hike. the tide regularly fluccuates 5 meters... making the tidal flat hundreds of meters long.

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

we kayaked on days 3 and 4. never done this before, but it was a great and easy way to cover distances.

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

yus even got out and started swimming with the seals at whats called the "seal nursery"

From n zed invasion

From n zed invasion

we parked the kayaks a few times during the trip, long enough for people to get bored and decide to do some flips.

From n zed invasion

we had an incredible time with all our visiting friends... thanks so much for coming out and traveling with us!