Come again some other day

The weather was great for a couple days and has now turned back to crap. Apparently, pouring rain makes it very hard to fly a helicopter up into a glacier, so the tour here in Franz Joseph was cancelled today. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me to be able to go tomorrow. But, once again, I'm making the most of a rainy day. I spent the afternoon in the jacuzzi with a bunch of Brits and a bottle of Merlot. No complaints there.

Amazingly, the weather Gods did smile on me earlier this week. First they brought me an impressive rainbow over the small town of Nelson.



Then it cleared enough for us to spend a lovely day in Abel Tasman National Park. Not that it got exactly hot and sunny, but the sun shined and it was warm enough to kayak in nothing but a life jacket



with my new friend and traveling companion, Natalie.



We paddled around the gorgeous beaches and coves of Abel Tasman all morning.



And then hiked through the forested hills all afternoon



with amazing views of the coastline.



It was a pretty perfect day. But the highlight was riding back to the starting point in the water taxi. They let us stand up in the back and ride the choppy waves like a jet ski, holding on for dear life. Then we got towed into shore by the famous New Zealand Water Tractors. Bizarre.



I'm serious about the crossing of fingers for me. Not that the hot tub wasn't lovely, but I REALLY want to head up to the glacier tomorrow.