Wedding anniversary!

Wow the blog has been going strong since 2006, and so has our marriage! We had our second wedding anniversary in very pleasant surroundings.

Trying to keep the trip a secret from Karen was difficult, but it was worth it in the end as she was most pleased with what I had arranged! A long weekend near Abel Tasman national park. A short flight on an eight seater Cesna jumped us across the Cook Straight, and then we hired a car to drive up to Kimi Ora health resort at the northern tip of the South Island.

A beautiful resort run by two Germans, they have installed a variety of water treatments (such as a vibrating sauna and a steam grotto!). We spent most of the time by the pool, but also ventured out on a guided sea-kayak trip up the beach-lined coast of Abel Tasman. The guide took us and four others to Tonga Island (a seal sanctuary), where the seals played around by doing co-ordinated spins in front of our kayak!

Not far from one of the beaches was Split Apple rock (a large split-boulder peaking out of the sea). I swam out to this so that Karen could take my photo from the beach. She fell asleep - I shouted from the rock to wake her up but to no avail, I then had to make the 10 minute swim back to shore and wake her up, and then swim back out for the photo. So you can see pictured (very far away) a very tired Ian wedged between the two bits of boulder - the photo involved 40 minutes of swimming!