After we finished the Queen Charlotte Track we decided to spend a couple of nights outside of Nelson before heading into Abel Tasman National Park to hike the Great Walk there.
After a very comfortable night followed by some delicious locally made bread and jam at the place we were staying, we decided to brave the rather grey day and head out for an easy walk to stretch our legs and find some lunch.
We made our way over the bridge to Rabbit Island, a sandy island in the Waimea River estuary. Like Bottle Lake forest in Christchurch where we sometimes mountain bike, Rabbit Island is an actively managed forest plantation. Parts of the island are closed for forestry, but there are plenty of tracks through the area and the occasional reminder of the old plantations.
Although the easy, flat walk was a pleasant way to stretch out our legs, our plan was to hopefully catch the Mapua Ferry that docks on the far end of the island to take us over to the tourist town of Mapua for some lunch. Standing in the drizzle on the sand next to the Waimea River, it felt like a bit of a stretch, but right on schedule the small ferry pulled up to the beach to take us across the fast-flowing river.
After lunch in the town, we caught the ferry back across the river to Rabbit Island. With the clouds beginning to lift, we decided to take the coastal beach track back. Normally this is one of the busiest beaches in this part of New Zealand, especially in the Christmas Holidays as it is known for the sandy beach and warm shallow waters, however on this rather windswept day, we had the place to ourselves.
We decided to make the most of the communal kitchen at our accommodation and cook up some dinner for ourselves. After picking up some local fresh produce and food at a nearby market, we set about cooking. The clouds that had been building all day finally burst and we were treated to an amazing thunderstorm rather unfortunately right when Eric was cooking dinner on the outside barbeque.
Luckily the storm cleared pretty quickly and we were able to enjoy the rest of our evening and get ourselves ready for our next hiking adventure which was starting early the next day.