Episode 3: Expeditions around Nelson

Sea kayaking in Abel Tasman National park

My first time in the non-inflatable variety. We boarded the mighty "Hasselhoff" (yes, or kayak was named Hasselhoff; photographic proof no longer exists) only to be forced to turn back in the face of an unexpected windstorm. What was supposed to be a pleasant nature tour from one island to another turned out to be a bicep smashing (bicep? tricep? quadricep? who knows- until that moment I wasn't aware that my arms contained any of those things) test of endurance. After about 20 horrible minutes of this, our not so Hasselhoffian tour guide finally decided to turn us around and let us shoot back in the direction of the wind and get water taxied to the finish line. At this point we were free to paddle around and look and seals and penguins and funny birds eating flat fish. It was nice.

Tania was born for that neoprene skirt.

Drive through wine country: Marlborough region.

We thought about taking a bicycle tour through the wineries because it sounded so charming, but then we realized that 1) it was really really hot and our scalps would have melted off, and 2) we had a perfectly good car. Scalps in tact, we very much enjoyed our trip.

Since my knowledge of wine on a scale of 1-10 is about a 2, and Tania's is probably a -4, we pretty much tried not to talk when we went into these places. We also wore flouncy scarves and hip sunglasses to up the sophistication factor. Sometimes Tania would bust out a "...so do you ship internationally?" for a good filler question. As if she couldn't wait to scour the stores for Such and Such wine as soon as she got back to Toronto. I don't think we were too convincing, but most people we met were incredibly friendly (probably charmed by our North American accents).