Kayaking with the Seals in Abel Tasman National Park

Close to Nelson is Abel Tasman National Park, where I went on a three day kayaking/camping/tramping (what they call hiking here) trip. On the second day of kayaking we paddled into a place called Shag Harbour (the Shag is a type of bird) that is only accessible around high tide. The cove was amazingly beautiful with perfectly clear, still, blue waters around a maze of rocks, gorges, caves and sandbars. However, the most amazing part was all the young seals that were in the water. Not only were they not afraid of humans, they actually wanted to play with us. So, about ten of them would swim and jump along right next to the boat while we were paddling along, and  when we stopped, they would come up to the boat, stare at us, play with our paddles and ropes on the kayak, and a couple of them actually jumped on my boat with me. It was the most amazing (animal) experience of my life. I’ve been trying for over a week to upload a video of it, but am not having any luck, so you’ll just have to imagine this little guy jumping with me on the back of my boat.