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Abel Tasman National Park is part of the coastline at the north of the south Island. It is made up of white sandy beaches, the well maintained Coastal Track walkway, basic campsites and lots of sand-flies and mosquitoes!

Four of us decided to do a 2 night/3 day walking/kayaking trip. The first morning we drove to Marahau where we met a water taxi to bring us up the coast to near the end of the park at Totranui Bay. From here we hiked to our first campsite in Awaroa. It was a tough hour and a half as we had to carry all our camping gear and food. Due to a mix up at the information centre, we had expected our bags to be transferred for us and so had packed everything we wanted but it then turned out we had to carry it all ourselves!

After setting up the tents, we went for a well deserved sleep at the beach before strolling up to the only cafe on the beach for coffee and cake. When we got back to the campsite, it was dinner time so out came the gas stove to cook up our pasta/chorizo/tomato feast! Everything tastes better outdoors, although the onset of mosquitos was not so pleasant.

The mosquito army continued to increase in numbers and by sunset we had to dive into the tent to try and avoid getting bitten. They buzzed outside the tent all night but luckily none had gotten inside where we were sleeping.

The next morning, we left the campsite at 8am after a breakfast of porridge and fruit. Again it was hard going walking with all the gear and we were all quite tired when we reached the Ohanui Bay to start kayaking at 10am. Our Canadian guide Sally met us here and we had a lovely day cruising along the coast, going in and out, around different inlets.

We finished up kayaking around half three so after bringing all the gear to the campsite (It had been transported down by water taxi while we kayaked) we spent the afternoon on the beach, swimming and sunbathing. That night, after dinner (another pasta extravaganza) we went down to the caves at the end of the beach to see the glow worms – very cute!

The next morning, we were able to leave our gear with the water taxi before starting a walk to bring us back to Marahau at the entrance of the park. Bag-free it was much more enjoyable and we got a great view of all the bays along the way as we went along the Coastal Track. Back in Nelson that evening, it was a time for a well deserved fish and chips.

From Lima, we caught the bus to Huaraz with Movil, and checked into La Casa de Zerela, more of a guest house than a hostel, quite nice. Huaraz is a smaller city, about 8 hours from Lima. Here we organised to go on the Santa Cruz trek (4 days, 3 nights) with Huascaran agency. The following day Sally (Kieran´s  friend from Devon, a tour leader for the last 3 years in South America) arrived from Lima and we walked around town and got our supplies!

Thursday morning we got up early and met our two guides ( Epi and Janina) at six at the office. After four hours driving up the mountains we met our two mules and the mule man Alberto and we were ready to go! The mules carried all our tents, food, big bags and we just had to carry our day packs.

The first day the walk was pretty easy and we got to our campsite around four. As with the Inca trail the food was really good – for dinner that night, we had soup, trout and chips and a hot cinnamon jelly type desert that tasted much better than it looked! There were two tents for the four of us, plus one for cooking, one for eating and an extra one for the guide to sleep in. We also had our ¨toilet¨tent, which surrounded the freshly dug hole in the ground – surprisingly less smelly than those ¨proper¨ toilets at the inca trail campsites!

The next morning we were woken at 5.20am with a cup of coca tea. After breakfast (pancakes and tea) we started the hardest day. Most of the morning was literally going up the side of a mountain, really tough with the thin air due to altitude, and quite scary with the drop below, but the scenery was spectacular. We reached over 4,700m at the highest point (Punta Union Pass) , eye to eye with the bottom of a glacier.

For the rest of the trek the walking was pretty easy so we could just take in the scenery. We had all types of weather over the 4 days – rain, sun and snow. The nights were pretty chilly but we did have two sleeping bags each! We arrived back to Huaraz around 3pm on the last day and went for some pisco sours to celebrate!