A Summer Vacation Day, With Less Driving

We thought we would spend the day exploring the national park up in this corner of the island (Abel Tasman) and we headed that way.  We found ourselves unexpectedly in another intensively cultivated area, with vast vineyards and orchards.  Super tidy, many fields covered with netting, lots of sturdy structures holding up the apples and peaches and hops and grapes.  Drove past equipment dealerships -- the tractors are huge here, as we may have mentioned before -- and irrigation stores and later in the day we passed the biggest fruit processing place we have ever seen (judging by the gigantic stacks of empty bulk bins).

This is a crop we understand, beans.

Some kind of tree fruit, like apples, under a 20 ft cover.

Grapes as far as the eye can see.

This represents maybe 5% of the bulk bins we saw at this packing plant.

Our first stop, on the way to the park, was a sandy beach in a protected bay with lots of people swimming, kayaking, going out in boats, playing in the sand. Jon had been thinking of going out in a kayak but he decided he didn't want to. I decided I really wanted to get in the water, even if it was cold. It was that gorgeous deep blue and quite calm.  I went in twice and it was delicious.

Hana exulting.

Many kinds of water craft, from cabin cruisers to paddle boards.

Then we headed off toward the park, winding up a very narrow and tightly curving road (tighter than the last few days), eventually coming to another beach that was much, much wider -- it was a long walk to the water. People were digging for something like clams, but they were too far away to see clearly.  There were tractors parked on the sand because that is how they pulled boat trailers to the water.  Too risky for trucks.  We had lunch at a picnic table and it was so windy that I had honey sprayed all over my dress by the time we were done. (We have been trying to eat through our various purchases all week, and we bought a jar of local honey that is still not finished, but dribbling it all over myself did put a dent in it.)

On the way off across the tidal flats to drop off the kayakers.

They use a wide variety of tractors to tow the boats to the water's edge.

At low tide the boats are just stranded on the tidal flats. Tide height is around 3 meters.

Then we finally headed off to the park but found ourselves thwarted by another one of those stoplights that manage the single lane roads when there are washouts and rock slides. This one said 6 - 12 minutes. Oh, never mind. We turned around and looked for other entertainment.  Everything is interesting and we have spent several days in national parks.  We headed for Nelson, on the other side of the bay.  In the guidebooks they don't say much about Nelson, but it is a real city. We parked in a downtown parking lot and went to a knitting store and then out for some tea.  It is a real pleasure to have tea the way I like it, on real dishes with real tea and cream and sugar. So civilized.

On our way back out of town we came across yet another wide and gorgeous beach, with lots of summer revelers. The sand could have been used in an hourglass, it was so fine.  We stopped to look and then decided we may not have another chance at a beach of this magnificence for many more years. It was fun to be in a place where there was a family playing cricket and there were little kids digging in the sand (wearing the new style of swim suits, the kind with long sleeves and shorts to keep the sun off) and pretty young people soaking up the sun.  So we put on our suits and went in the water.  Warmer than the earlier beach and shallower.  SO nice.

First we just put our toes in, but it was too wonderful not to put on our bathing suits.
Note the small figures at the top who are fully out of the water on a sandbar at low tide.

We are in a commonwealth country so we play cricket on the beach.

Then a little ice cream snack and time to go back home. It was about 5:30 by now and the day had turned out to be a beach day by accident.  Decided we didn't actually want to eat in a restaurant so we went shopping again (the menu started with the onion we have to eat) and got some vegetables and chicken with some sort of marinade, to be grilled.

I forgot to say that last night we finally, finally got to see a sky full of stars.  No clouds, no moon yet and no houses with lights.  Jon used his phone to de-code what we were seeing in this hemisphere. We found the Southern Cross and actually saw the Milky Way and even saw a few shooting stars.  This was after nights of too much light (the sun continues to have an impact until almost 11 PM, on the edges) or too many clouds, so Jon was very happy.

Our host's sheep, everyone has a few.

The next door neighbor's sheep, everyone has a few.