On A Sailing Adventure – Split Apple Rock – Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand

After our jet ski adventure a few days ago, we decided to take it easy and let someone else do the work while we enjoyed the views. We spent the day in Abel Tasman National Park, an outdoor wonderland where you can hike, swim, kayak, sail, relax on a beach or simply enjoy the views. We chose to take in the sights, sailing on a catamaran (sailing on a catamaran has been a dream of Christine’s since she saw it on the Bachelor years ago…it should be said that not all of her life’s goals come from trashy reality dating shows, just some of them). We spent the morning cruising around, seeing different areas of the park. Our first stop was Split Apple Rock, shown in the picture. Apparently people like to name rocks; we encountered this a lot in Ireland. Suddenly squinting at a rock, trying to envision what someone saw when they named it, becomes a tourist attraction. Luckily, this rock was round and split in half…like a split apple, so little squinting was required. We took a lunch break on a secluded beach, where Christine made friends with a flock of seagulls.  If you feed them, they will come… She’s that girl. The rest of the afternoon was spent sailing the bay in search of wildlife.  We spotted some seals with pups, smaller and cuter, than the ones we saw earlier on our trip.  Later on, Christine pointed out what appeared to be a seal playing in the water.  “Oh, that’s just a seal eating an octopus” our guide said.  Over the next 10 minutes, the seal thrashed the octopus through the water, devouring its tentacles one by one.  After sailing, we finished the day at Split Apple Rock beach.  The tide had receded by about 15 feet, revealing a lovely beach, mazes of caves to explore, and much more of Split Apple Rock itself. Kevin was quick to swim out and do some climbing!