My trip to New Zealand

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The Abel Tasman Track

After spending two days in Picton (neat little town) we went to do the Abel-Tasman track. This is the most popular track in NZ (Milford track is the best 'known' one, but it is restricted to 40 people a day). It is a coastal track - you walk along (and on...) the coast. It is nice, the tides are unbelievable there, but all in all I think it's not such a good track. Of course it's very easy, and that makes it great as a first track - to get into shape (you have to get used to carry that backpack full of food with you...).
The beach on the Abel-Tasman track.
 Some bridge on the Abel Tasman (not an utterly exciting photo, eh?)
 First hut on the track (er, Anchorage hut I think)
 Ho-hum, some more AT beaches.
 Everybody getting ready to leave the hut and cross over the beach.
Okay, I'm gonna cross now...
Okay. Last picture of the beach in the Abel-Tasman. While it looks nice, the water's really cold - too cold for an israeli, anyway (The kiwis seemed to like it, though)

The Queen Charlotte Track

The Abel Tasman was my first track, and I really enjoyed it. Most of my trip was about tramping, and it's great. Straight after the Abel Tasman, I went back to picton, where I wanted to do the Queen Charlotte track. The reason I was so excited is that I was told you can do it with a mountain bike. Doing that track on a bike was so much fun I cannot begin to describe it. It was also extremely hard, and painful (I had several really nasty falls. I still have some scars from that ride!). It was the first time I went on a mountain bike (but not the last!). The nice part about that track, is that you can have a boat deliver your bag from place to place (so you leave the bag where you stay at night, and it waits for you on your next stop). And you sleep in backpackers and not in huts, which is nice, too (well, actually I learned to really enjoy the huts in the tracks). The views in the track are stunning of course (although I took little notice, because I had to maneuver the bike...)
At the start of the track, I spotted some Wekas. They are some cute kind of flightless birds.
 On the track. You can see the (extremly-cool) mountain bikes!
 Another picture of the mountain bikes.
 The beautiful marlborough sounds.
 Marlborough sounds again.

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