11-14 of March, Vineyards and Abel Tasman Kayak

Hej, Hello

A slightly older Martin is now happily writing this blogg :-) The last three days here in the Nelson area has been GREAT!! Weathers been warm and sunny, I've tasted some great wines and adventures have been awesome.

Started the morning of the 11th by booking a Kayaking trip on The Abel Tasman, and then went to pick up my rental car. Pretty wierd driving on the left side of the road I tell you. But I was crusing really slow and fortunately the car was an automatic, imagine changing gears with your left hand wierd to say the least.
After about 35 min i got to Waimea Estates, arrived an hour early and bided my time in the car. Meet with there assistant winemaker and tried 5 different wines and had a very nice lunch sandwich. The range i tried was called Spinyback, very affordable and also of good quality. They apperantly have tha chardonnay at Systembolaget which I can recommend buying. I especially liked there red Cabernet Franc/Syrah which was a very elegant wine with a lot of fruit and berry characters alongside nice smooth structured tannins and also a moderate alcohol level at 12,5 % (which I considered good).
Then I drove on to the upper Moutere, to a winery called Neudorf, where Tim and Judy Finn meet me for a tasting and an interesting walk around the vineyards. There Wines where absoulutly great, world class! they had a really nice off dry Riesling which at only 9% was as elegant as a Mosel. There Chardonnay (named Moutere) could easily beat chardonnays from Bourgogne in the same price range ( two of the best new world chardonnays I've tasted to date). Thay also made two different Pinot Noirs one at lower price made from younger wine and one from older vines "The Moutere" that was at it's young age 2008 a very concentrated yet elegant and mineralic wine, with dark berries and liquorice notes. Both these wines you can by for around 300 kr at Systembolaget (vintage 2006, which just serves them), if your up for a really nice wine experience just go for it!!

My Birthday started early next day with packing my stuff and having a quick breakfast before going to catch the bus out to Abel Tasman. After about 1 hour we reached Marahau the small village at the staring point of the National Park. We got fitted out with life west and other equipment and then we where loaded on to a boat (water taxi) that would take us in to Abel Tasman where our Kayaks where waiting.
At first I teamed up with an American girl called Monica, and we handled our double kayak so professionally so we got split up after about 30min of paddling. Instead I got in the back seat of a kayak with a British girl. The Abel Tasman is just as pristine as all of the other National Parks of New Zealand, with long sandy beaches, lush forests and crystal clear green water. We paddled into Lagoons and up streams, along side cool rock formations and just paradise beaches.

After about 2 hours of paddling we reached this small island with a fur seal colony and lots of birds, the fur seals are really nice animals and I got some nice photos of one of them scrubbing it self in the water. Then we had a nice lunch sandwich at one of the many stunning sand beaches, before headed out again. Some 1,5 hours later we had reached the goal of the day Onetahuti Beach and stopped to wait for our boat taxi back to our accommodation.

Me and an English couple (Jim and Carina) where staying the night at the so called Aquapackers, which was a boat hostel in Anchorage. We waited for a short while at the beach before the came with a small boat to pick us up, on the boat over I met a Swiz girl named Christina and her travel partner Johannes from Germany. On the boat over to the bigger boat where we where about to sleep I just asked what today's date was, and Christina told me it was the 12th :-) Funny enough I hadn't been thinking about it for a couple of days so I just then realized that it was my Birthday :-)
Getting a quick tour of the boat and assigned to a bed I hurried up to the bar to get a nice cold beer. After that I decided to go for a swim. Johannes and Christina joined me after making sure the water wasn't to cold. The really cool thing was that you could jump of the roof of the boat about 5 meter, which we of course did a couple of times.
Then we had a warm shower and waited for the dinner BBQ, we got steak, sausage, rice salad, cabbage salad and some kind of gratin and the food tasted really good. Then we sat up for 4-5 hours talking, and I had a great Birthday much better then I'd imagine I'd have on my own in New Zealand.
Next day I joined Jim and Carina after breakfast on the walk back to Marahau, where the bus was going to take me back to Nelson. The walk had a little bit of undulating but mostly very easy. We stopped at a few lookouts and also stopped for a swim at one of the beaches on the way back. In Marahau our paths separated but we exchanged emails so I hope to hear from them again. After a shower and a change of clothes I couldn't help myself from falling asleep, luckily some nice people woke me up and asked if I was going on the bus to Nelson.

Another Great day was at an end as I booked myself on a bus to Renwick and a bed at the hostel there.
Best wishes !!
/Martin