19th October: Abel Tasman National Park

Morning in Nelson, and I really should have decided what I wanted to do before going to bed the previous night.
It's a bright sunny morning, so I'll head to the Abel Tasman National Park. Last time Duncan and I walked through the middle section of the park's coastal route, I don't really want to just repeat myself, so I book a boat to take me from their car park just south of the park to roughly where we got picked up from before. That should be about 4 hours walking. Rather foolishly I leave my jacket back at the hostel. It does look such a nice day.
Of course by the time I get up to the boat start the skies have darkened, a light drizzle has begun and the wind is making it all rather cold. No time to go back. I buy an emergency poncho and lash it onto the hydration pack. I don't know if the wind's going to keep on, if the trees along the path will serve as a wind break. If there's serious rain then it'll obviously be useful, and if the wind keeps up then it'll be a barrier. But I fix my eyes on the prevalent sky and try to convince myself that the conditions are improving, and even if they don't I'll warm up a soon a I'm walking.
This becomes increasingly difficult as others arrive for the boat, properly kitted out with all weather jackets and bulging packs doubtless containing every conceivable emergency supply. Harder still as the boat is backed into the sea and we whiz off. The boat appears to be an all steel rib, very safety conscious (life vests all round) and speeds along at suck a lick that it feels even more windy and colder than at base.
Off the boat, through the surf, and then up into the hills for the walk. About 12km, not too demanding. much more life out there than the previous time, I keep seeing quail nip out onto the path in front of me, there are two kinds of shag, kingfishers, and strangely English looking thrushes, plus all kinds of alien birdsong from the woods.
Unusually it turns out that my Pollyanna approach to weather forecasting may actually have been right. The rain holds off the winds lessen and even by the end of the walk the sun comes out for a bit. Not too much through - overcast, but not actually raining is pretty much what you want for walking and this is it. A good trip. More like four and a half hours, but I did stop for a breather and went the wrong way at one point
Back to Nelson, and after a brief rest, time to look for something to eat. If Saturday night Nelson is dead, as you'd expect, Sunday is quieter. I figure on eating in the first remotely decent looking restaurant I find, which turns out to be a nice little Indian. Good prawn and mushroom curry, though the place has never heard of vegetable side dishes. The waitress is very surprised by my ordering a salt lassi, despite it being on the drinks menu, I'm the first to ever order one.