Abel Tasman - Day 2

Our second day started out with a MAGNIFICENT sunrise. We'd been so inspired by EVERYTHING the night before, that we decided to wake up and watch the sun rise as well. We sat on a driftwood log on the beach wearing all of our warm clothes, winter hats and wrapped in our sleeping bags to ward off the chilly morning air. Since we were up waiting for the sunrise, it obviously hadn't had a chance to be warmed by the sun for a good 12 hours. It was the equinox, too, by the way. They do their daylight savings on the equinox, which makes it easy to remember, although still no less confusing for me. Especially here in the southern hemisphere: do you still spring forward and fall back? The answer is yes, by the way. And, as far as I can tell, the water I was watching go down the drain yesterday was swirling counterclockwise. Oh. The sunrise was wonderful though. It was of course indescribable. Can you ever really describe a sunrise? This one was entirely unique from anything I've seen. There were thick clouds on the horizon, black with the orange of the rising sun around their edges. I was convinced that we were looking into the crater of the sky volcano and the sun was about to erupt right out of clouds, fully formed. The clouds lifted just in time to see the sun rise up over the horizon, however. So we did watch a sunrise instead of a sun eruption. Before the sun had even had a chance to fully lift itself above the horizon, it began to disappear into that dark layer of clouds and a few minutes later, we were treated to a second sunrise of sorts, as it reemerged above the clouds. After this grandiose show, Karin went back to bed for a while, while I stayed on the beach writing letters. Our "second" morning, after Karin reawoke, started out with poor Karin stepping on a wasp while packing up the tent. Luckily we were kayaking instead of hiking, so she was able to stay off it all day. This was the day where we kayaked just a short way up the coast and then out to Tonga Island in the Tonga Island Marine Reserve to see the seal colony. They were so funny. We passed a group of adults on the exposed side of the island, paddling around on their sides amongst the boulders, one flipper and one fin in the air, just going in endless circles, apparently keeping themselves happily occupied. We continued around to the northern side of the island, where we paddled into a little cove formed by the rocks. There, we were greeted by multitudes of baby seals, playing, swimming and oh so cute! We pulled ourselves up against a rock at the edge of the cove and watched them play. There were 3 playing "King of the Mountain" on one of the rocks that stuck out of the water a bit. Others were swimming around together, leaping in and out of the water as part of their forward motion (like I was talking about before in the Little Mermaid...). We had a few that were especially curious about us and our paddles, swimming up next to our boat and jumping up out of the water to bounce our paddles on their noses! One climbed up onto the rock we were hanging onto and did the same thing. I guess he was too lazy to get himself out of the water. He just wanted to bounce our paddles the easy way! Another one startled me when I suddenly felt whiskers snuffling up against my elbow and turned to see him looking inquisitively at me. As much as I wanted to give him a pat on the head, I was good and knowing that he was a wild animal, I moved away a bit. Or as much away as you can get while still hanging onto a rock in a kayak. I at least moved out of the way so there was no direct contact! He apparently decided that this wasn't quite close enough for him though, since he dove back into the water, swam around to the other side of the rock, where he resurfaced and climbed onto the rock and from there onto our kayak, sitting on the middle section between us! I had to keep my paddle between me and him to keep him from crawling up into my lap, since he looked like he was trying to come that-a-way. I am going to have to get myself one of those plush seals to hug, because even now when I'm writing this, I just have such an urge to cuddle that cute little seal! Lunchtime rolled around as we were sitting there watching the seals and our bellies got us moving around the rest of the island and over to the far side of Onetahuti Beach, where we relaxed on a boulder in the shade and ate our crackers with tomato, cheddar and sausage. Plus some carrots and apples for dessert. Can you tell we were trying to eat up the heavy stuff before we began our hike the next morning? We had originally planned to start out hiking to stay further up the trail that night, but Karin's foot was bothering her and we were at this amazing beach... it didn't take much convincing to stay there for the night! We had a great time just hanging out along the beach: swimming, writing in our journals and once again enjoying the moon shadows at night.