Distance: 48.94 km
Ride time: 2:38:02
Average: 18.6 km/h
Total: 19510 km
After the “night of action” at my camp spot I woke up at 5 am and made my way into town for a morning coffee. It was a cloudy morning, but from the weather forecast I gathered that the clouds would clear around midday and the afternoon should be sunny. No need to hurry then.
My plan was to cycle out to Abel Tasman National Park to do some hiking. On the way out there I saw a sign stating “National Park” 14 km to the left and 17 km to the right. In Denmark there would be no reason to take the longer route, but in New Zealand you read the sign like: Left might be shorter, but you can be sure there is some crazy climbing to be done. I went for the climb, and boy was it hard. Probably the hardest I have done in NZ. I still don’t think it beats the volcanoes I was I was climbing in Indonesia but it came close.
Having arrived in Abel Tasman I went for a great 4 hour hike along the beaches. I had no idea New Zealand had turquoise paradise beaches like this. The nature here just continues to surprise.
As I was sitting at the beach having lunch (tuna sandwich as usual)and talking with a group of kayak paddlers I was feeling truly happy to be right there, doing what I am doing. The life style requires some compromises, but I wouldn’t like to be doing anything else.
