Hi! Let's be friends! Smell my armpit!

Let's see where we left off. We spent the night near Blenheim, then the next morning hitched a ride from there to Nelson. Nelson is a cool city, with lots of arts and music happening in the city and many people out at night. We spent the night here, then headed out for the Abel Tasman Coastal Track the next day. The track is 51km long, but much easier than the Waikaremoana track in terms of ground cover and grading. It's also quite a bit busier, however walking along the track was nice as it is right along the ocean for the most part. The views were beautiful, we had wonderful weather, and we took it much easier this time as far as how much walking we did, having much shorter days. It was quite relaxing, although the track was slightly boring due to lack of roots and rocks like the last track. There were also water crossings, which we had to time with the tides, so watching the tide tables, then figuring out when we could cross, although we still got wet. Sometimes the water came up to my waist! It was really neat walking with my pack on in the water, which was cold and something I hadn't done before! We had two tidal crossings in our first day, after taking a water taxi in the morning (which was great! We saw seals, birds, and also the side of the coast that we weren't able to see from the track. It was so amazing to see all the rock formations and it was nice to be able to imagine those formations on the other side of the coast track as I was walking)then having a nice break in the day sitting on the beach waiting for the tide to go out, I dried my underwear on a tree, and Adam watched the crabs in the water for a long time. We stayed the night in a place called Tonga Quarry, which was an old granite quarry from 1907 turned into a campsite, right on the beach. We had dinner and breakfast on the beach, watching the sun dance along the waves and the little island out in the distance. So peaceful!
Our second day was also relaxing, with us only walking for about 4 hours instead of the estimated time of about 5. We had another tidal crossing, which meant more beach sitting waiting for the tide (I am by no means complaining, we busted out the solar panel!) There we met a girl from Korea by the name of Hyejin (say Hay-jchin) who was also doing the crossing, but by herself, so we offered to cross with her and hike with her to her campsite. She ended up telling me that she didn't know how to set up the tent she borrowed, so we invited her along to have dinner and stay with us for the night. After being helped by those two outdoor educators on our kayaking trip, I feel very sympathetic to backpackers (especially solo) who are just looking for some company. Just like our other hiking friend Thomas, we met her, and less than a few hours later we were cuddled up right next to each other in the tent!
We got off the track yesterday, feeling good, although awfully stinky. We're back in Nelson though, staying at another backpackers and looking to go back to Picton today to rent a car. How exciting! Should be fun to have a bit of freedom and be able to go where we'd like.
Happy Halloween to everyone at home! I was hoping to be able to be Inspector Gadget, but I ended up finding purple ballons and made myself into a bunch of grapes. Adam was a gigantic hershey's kiss, and he won first place in the costume contest!