Abel Tasman track

Just been in the north of the South Island for a week, which involves catching the ferry from Wellington to Picton. I hooked up with my friend Kaya, who I last saw in Gokarna, India a couple of months ago, and went tramping for 4 days and nights along the Abel Tasman track. One of NZ's nine Great Walks, it is mainly coastal path, with some bits of native bush in between bays.




Native bush usually has a high percentage of ferns in it, including tree ferns - or ponga (pronounced punga) - amongst the southern beeches and manuka trees. This makes it feel pretty primordial. Why? I guess because all the artists impressions one sees of dinosaurs include ferns. They are known to be one of the oldest forms of plant life still in existence.

The manuka trees remind me of tamarisk trees in Greece.

One of our campsites.

I was dreading this. Kaya loves feeding all of god's creatures..... especially the cute ones..... ..... and possums love being fed, and are cute, and are a real pest around campsites. One of them actually tore a hole in the side of my tent to get at my scroggin one night. So perhaps you can understand why I really didn't want Kaya to meet one. But whaddayaknow....

Oh yeah! Scroggin. Kiwi for a high energy mix of chocolate, nuts, dried fruits and seeds. This was a particularly deluxe mix of my own creation.