I have made a lazy man's page for this trip report. The text below is directly out of an email sent to some friends when we got back from Abel Tasman National Park. It was a winter trip to avoid the crowds you get during summer The trip across from Wellington on the ferry and drive to Marahau were very uneventful so enough said about that. Thursday morning dawned bright and crisp, very crisp in fact.  It's the first time I've gone out to my kayak with the intention of paddling and there was ice on it!  We drove the 100 metres from our cabin in Marahau to the waters edge (would have been an ideal time for a trolley) and started packing.  Through out this email I'll point out times when we learnt something packing time was one of these, we have drybags that are all 35litres and above, in some cases these can be a bit bulky! It took us about an hour to rearrange things so that all our gear fit in the kayaks.  The CH16 rear hatch is too small for a lot of the bulky but lite items, so Kate ended up with the non-bulky but heavy items in her CH16, which made the first day a little harder for her. The delay with packing ended up having its advantages as the tide came in a long way while we were packing and the carry to the water was about 3 metres versus 20 when we first arrived (joys of 3.5 metre tides). Next observation is that a packed kayak is F#*^ing heavy (excuse the french) which is another reason to have a trolley.  We launched in perfect conditions, flat water brilliant sunshine but still a little crisp, we paddled out to Fishermans Island as on our last day trip there we had done the coast to Watering Cove but hadn't got out to Adele and Fishermans and then up the eastern side of Adele Island. Out that side of the island it was a little lumpy (here is where I introduce the "photographic scale of wave conditions") it was still ok to take pictures without getting to much blur. From the North end of Adele we paddled straight across to the "Mad Mile" which wasn't very mad infact it was one of the calmer stretches we had and into Te Pukatea Bay, which was absolutely stunning.  It was so nice that we thought we would probably stay there on the way back, but as you will see what we planned wasn't actually what happened.  We wanted to have a look at Cleopatra's Pool so we paddled around into Torrent Bay and then up the inlet (only accessible at high tide, which it was) as far as we could where we hopped out and took the 15 minute walk to the pool. Another lesson time, neoprene doesn't keep you very warm when you are in the bush and out of the sunlight so it was a quick visit so we could get back to our kayaks and into the sun again.  It was pretty much directly to Mosquito Bay via Pinnacle Rock from there as the wind and water were getting to the 90% of photos are blurred on the photographic scale. Mosquito Bay was a magic campsite, you can access it from the water only, so you don't get any of the track walkers camping there, also just after we got there the tide headed on out so a few other kayakers looked into the bay but none of them were keen on carrying their double kayaks up the beach. The disadvantage of the tides are that the next morning we had to carry all our stuff out to the water. The Mac performed very well for me on the first day but it was the last time I paddled it as Kate confiscated it for the next few days. Here's the first days paddle from Marahau to Mosquito Bay. Day two's (Friday) start wasn't quite as cold as the previous day and lugging the gear down the beach certainly got the blood flowing. Kate decided she would like to try the Mac out seeing it had a rudder but the only problem was that the gear in the rear of it fouled the right hand rudder line (note to Steve; run some teflon tubes for the rudder lines to go through in  the cargo space so gear pushing against them isn't a problem). The Mac was packed slightly lighter than the CH16 so she just went rudderless and never gave the kayak back to me. We went around the corner from Mosquito Bay and headed for Tonga Island, the sea conditions were similar to late in the prevous day so not too many pictures were taken but as we rounded the northern end of Tonga Island it calmed down and this was where the seals were hanging out.  We had a few on the rocks and a couple playing in the water about 4 metres from our kayaks, Kate was very excited about the ones in the water and I have to admit they were entertaining.  From Tonga Island it was on up the coast to Awaroa Bay where the Awaroa Lodge and Cafe is situated, I was planning on only having a coffee but they had lamb shanks on the menu so Kate and I decided to stayed for lunch (with red wine) and a coffee.  I was feeling very lethargic after lunch so we opted for what was in hindsight a very good move.  We decided to paddle to the closer camp of Totaranui rather than around the next point to Mutton Cove.  Totaranui is a massive campsite and we pretty much had the place to ourselves, I think there may have been another 6 people staying there but they were spread out so you never saw them.  That night we had an excellent camp fire (Kate's a good little firestarter), mushroom risotto (best I've ever made), a bottle of good pinot noir and most of a bottle of port so it was a great way to finish an awesome day. Mosquito Bay via Tonga Island and the Awaroa Lodge Cafe to Totaranui. Day three (Saturday) dawned ok but went down hill from there!  Kate wanted to go to Seperation Point at thetop of the park so we set out early as the weather was looking a bit dodgy for later in the day.  It was only a 10km round trip but about half way there I was getting a bit concerned with the weather, Kate said she really wanted to get to Seperation Point so we made a pact that we would paddle for another 20 minutes and we would turn around at that stage.  20 minutes is all that it took us to get to the point, I took a couple of pictures but the photographic scale of wave conditions show that it was very lumpy (no good pictures).  We spent about 10 minutes there just looking around then decided it was time to get back, the journey back was into the wind so it took a little longer but was pretty uneventful.  The rain came in the afternoon, it was pretty lite for starters but it got progressively heaver as the day went on. We took a tarp for just this event so we put it up and cooked dinner under it, after dinner the rain really started to come down and I didn't get a very good nights sleep because of the noise of it on the tent. Day three was just a Day trip in worsening weather to the top of the national park. Day four dawned as day three had ended, very wet but the wind had also started to blow.  I went and had a look at the sea conditions and knew we weren't going to be paddling today, it was pounding into the beach at Totaranui and about 500 metres offshore the whitecaps were really whipped up.  I had a chat with Kate and we decided that "if" the water taxis were running we would get one back to Marahau. I gave the water taxi company a call (they have phone booths at the camp) and they said they were running but it was too rough to consider taking kayaks so we got taken out and we then drove back to Totaranui to pick the kayaks up. It was an interesting drive because we got to see some of the country we hadn't been to before and I think a week staying in some place like Pohara and doing a few day trips in the kayak would be cool.  We got back to Totaranui around 3pm grabbed the kayaks and all our gear  (the sea was still rough but the rain had stopped) and headed for Nelson for a night of spa bath luxury in a motel. Day five we headed to Kenepuru Sound, we ended up at Cowshed Bay (which is a couple of minutes from Portage) and launched from there. The conditions were perfect, brilliant sunshine, warmish, and you could get out of the gentle breeze by hugging the shore.  We paddled around for about 3.5 hours covering 18k's or so and think that we need to get back in there at some stage. Here is a Google Earth Map of Kenepuru with the route we took on our day paddle.