We arrived late yesterday into Able Tasman National Park. We are staying just on the outskirts of the park, and it is just beautiful! The best way into the park is via water taxi, since there are very few access roads (and they close often).
So we headed out early this morning on our first Able Tasman NP water taxi ride, and that was an interesting experience. First, they load you up onto the water taxi while it is sitting on the trailer in the parking lot.
They use these old refurbished tractors (circa 1970 the captain said) to take you down the road. The captain drives the tractor until he reaches the water and then hops back in the boat…
Pretty chaotic…
I asked the captain how the tractors held up with all of the saltwater, and he said - “Ahe - they do fine. It’s loads of fun to submarine them - we have contests to see who can get them the deepest without needing a tow out”!
But the real highlight of the taxi ride was spotting this penguin! They have a couple of different names (Fairy Penguin, Korora Penguin, Little Blue Penguin). They are only about the size of bowling pin, nocturnal, and very difficult to spot. I guess this little guy was confused what time it was, but he swam right up to the boat (captain said this was very odd behavior - they are typically very shy, but he seemed very curious about us)…
He posed for a few pics…
Okay… more than a few! I took as many as I could - he was SO CUTE!!
… and then he swam away.
Oh yah… then the boat dropped us off and the captain promised to pick us back up in 5 hours further up the coast..
so we starting hiking…
… after we left the beach, it felt like it was all uphill - but it was beautiful!
A great day of hiking - will sleep well tonight! Planning on some kayaking tomorrow!