Skywire

We were due to commence our sea kayaking today but we woke early to rain! The weather on the trip so far had been ideal. We dripped over to the kayak headquarters to see if the trip was on or off. There was a general hope it was postponed and this was soon confirmed. Although this would mean a hell of a drive to get back to Christchurch we rebooked for the day after and sought an activity for today in the rain. We headed down the coast for breakfast and entertainment. On the way we came across the world’s longest flying fox (1.6km) and felt it had to be worth a go. By the time we reached the sky wire the rain had almost stopped. We were encouraged by the ‘fearless’ kiwis that came up to the summit with us to go first as the operator was saying “if it stops along the way don’t panic it sometimes gets confused in the sunlight I’ll just have to switch it to manual…”. Thankfully we plummeted off the hill like clockwork, were hauled up the other side of the valley and were then treated to the whole experience again in reverse. According to the speedometer we reached 86.8mph, beating the timid kiwis. As the weather had improved so much we returned to Abel Tasman (Marahau) to do some of the coastal walk that we had planned for after the kayaking. The consensus would later be that the kayak is the way to sea (see) the park best.  During the walk we found Appletree beach which was our own (until some other people started to set up camp) but we conquered a tree (no apples in sight) and badger made a bid for freedom.