Catching up

Internet access is few and far between! So I'll attempt to catch up a bit here. Before I even got to Nelson NZ, and Abel Tasman national park, I missed my flight out of Whangarei because of fog. Air travel and me on this trip has been a problem, and I thought the Maori Tonga I received would help with that , but I was corrected in that assumption, and told the Tonga is for safe travel, not good luck in traveling. Damm. The bad luck did continue, as I found out something even worse than getting stuck next to a crying baby, extreme body odor. Wow, I had bad de ja vous of France. Finally got into Nelson after a 3 hour delay, and a roaring headache (holding your breath while flying not a good idea). My luck changed!! My driver was waiting, which I was concerned about since Iwas late and the other teacher I was meeting made the earlier flight. Gordon, my driver, was a pleasant Brit, and collected my luggage, whisking me off to the Mercedes S300 to drive the hour out to Marahau NZ to the chalet we had booked! Beautiful area, nestled between 2 National parks, and a mountain range. Unfortunately the computer access I have right now does not allow me to upload my pictures!
As I mentioned earlier the 1st hike was cancelled, which was a good thing really as a monsoon rain fell throughout the day. On and off between down pours we did manage a walk or 2. the 2nd hike on day 2 was awesome. We were taken by boat up the Tasman sea coast, past seal colonies, bird, and marine sanctuaries. The water is a beautiful aquamarine color, and the coast varies from rocky cliff face, to sandy beaches. the hike was a 4 hour trek up and down the coast, mostly in rain forest, some along the beach, and a varying altitude levels. Absolutely the best hike I've ever taken. Rounding corners would bring into view a waterfall, a stunning lagoon, and of swinging bridges suspended over rushing rivers. Surreal. I slept like a baby.
Tuesday we talked Gordon our driver into picking us up early and taking us into Nelson to look around. Nelson receives the most sunshine of anywhere in NZ. It is a harbor town surrounded by mountains on 3 sides, which protect it from the wicked southerly weather. We made it back to the airport in time to begin our 10+ hour journey of traveling to Australia. Entering both NZ, and Aus. require anyone entering to either country to fill out a form, with the usual stuff, but also a couple of questions asking where you had recently traveled, i.e. farms or coastal ares are of concern, so of course Mary Lou and I got pulled aside at immigration and asked to produce our tramping shoes which they carried off to some unknown location, but soon returned with the shoes nice and clean and packed in a plastic bag.
Got into Cairns @ 11:00pm, checked in to The Bay Village Tropical Retreat and crashed.