For the second week of mid-semester break some friends and I headed down to the South Island for another adventure. We all had the goal of hiking one of the great walks of New Zealand entirely, so we took on the Abel Tasman trail.
This was a backpacking trip of 60 km. I had never been on a backpacking trip before, but came to New Zealand with a backpacking bag and full intentions of doing some trips. It took us four days and three nights. Throughout the whole thing we got to walk up in forest areas and down on the golden beaches. It was an interesting juxtaposition of landscapes, but it allowed us to see many cool scenic views.
One of the days we passed the campsite Bark Bay, and some of the locals we met along the trail showed us how to find mussels growing on the rocks. They also showed us how to cook them, and they were actually pretty good.
Throughout the trip we had to carefully time our walks with the tides. There were several areas where we could only cross during the low tides. This added an extra challenge to the trip, but in my opinion made it even better. We woke up at 4 a.m. to get to one of the tidal crossings. This had us going over the sandy low-tide area right as the sun was rising. It was an amazing view.
On the last day of hiking, two friends and I split from the group to detour up to a peak called separation point. From there it was said you could see several seas meeting. When we got there it was beautiful and we were able to spot some seals swimming!
I loved this backpacking trip. It was very rewarding being able to walk an entire trail with everything I needed on my back. I definitely plan to continue backpacking in the future.
Cat Hauser
<p>I am a biomedical engineering major and a studio art minor. I play field hockey for the University of Rochester and I love to exercise and be outdoors. If I'm not playing field hockey my exercise of choice is running, Crossfit, waterskiing, wakeboarding, skiing, hiking, kayaking, canoeing, and anything else that gets me outside.</p>
