Sea Shells and Sand Dollars

Back to the last break!

8/27/2010

We had a lovely surprise of fresh-baked bread for breakfast! Thank you Accents On the Park! Yum! It made my boring peanut butter and jelly jam (Jelly is Jello in NZ, kiwi's get very confused when you say Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches!) toast so much better. Oh  how I miss good bread, mmm... Oh sorry, back to the story. 

After checking out, we still had two hours before we met up with Jane.So we walked down to the City Market and taste-tested everything from Lime Infused Olive Oil, NZ BBQ sauce, Seasoning and all sorts of other yummy stuff! I love how the simple act of walking through an outdoor market can be so much fun and entertaining. Everyone has something different, the people are always crazy(some guy had a live parrot in his dreadlocks) and for some reason it always seems to turn out to be a good time. 

When we finally met up with Jane, it was a short shuttle to Abel Tasman National Park. Along the way we kept entertained by explaining how Hick, Hill billy, Red Neck and trailer trash were all different to Jane's son(and assistant for this trip) Edward. Gotta love all of the different sorts of things you get asked about your home country.

We are spending the night at a hostel called the Barn. After we dropped off our packs, we went for a walk through this side of the park. It was raining just a touch, but the sun was shining between clouds, making the surrounding area glow. The walk starts out along a board walk; on one side mountains covered in rain forest soar off into the distance, on the other the sandy beach is stretched out to the sea.

We walked through the rain forest, occasionally branching off to walk across a beach. At the first beach, we stripped off our shoes and walked along the sand for a good half hour. Wading through streams, and splashing in the ocean. While waiting for our feet to dry/de-sand took forever, it was definitely worth it.

Waiting for our feet to dry

We visited two more beaches along the way, stopping to collect shells and sand dollars at the last one.

 Finally, our stomaches told us it was time to head back for dinner- Jane made  Past and Garlic bread for us, what a feast after a week of almost straight PB&J!