Abel Tasman National Park

From Top to Bottom: (1) The prairie grass looking out to the ocean,
(2) 5pm is great for photos but not necessarily for swimming,
(3) The trees were incredible,
(4) "On The Coast Of Somewhere Beautiful NZ 2011",
(5) The coast of somewhere beautiful,
(6) Naptime with sand flies,
(7) Anapia beach,
(8) To the beach!,
(9) The path through the forest,
(10) These awesome fern palm trees,
(11) Mike admiring the trees

The Road to Abel Tasman

From Top to Bottom: (1) Tim has this habit of sweeping me off my feet - literally,
(2) Up the Mountain to Abel Tasman!,
(3) The beach was literally shimmering gold,
(4) Golden Bay,
(5) The beach we stopped to have lunch on,
(6) From the top of one of the mountains down into the valley,
(7) Mmm Mike don't jump!,
(8) Mike testing the water,
(9) Tim enjoying the sunshine,
(10) We had to stop on our way to Abel Tasmen cause it was so beautiful.

Abel Tasman: How Not To Do It

Wel eft The Palace on a bright sunny morning to head up to Abel Tasman National Park: which had been continually built up to be one of the most beautiful parks in New Zealand. We were excited to be on the road and the drive was fantastic on such a warm day. We stopped a lot along the way and one of the highlights of the day was this little fruits and veggie store that had a bakery, ice cream, and lots of organic food. We bought tons of local vegetables that were on sale and some "real fruit" ice cream and continued on our way.

It had been recommended to us to actually drive to the end of the Abel Tasman walking track and hike back in to the beaches instead of driving to the much closer beginning of the track where it would be more populated. We took the recommendation on good faith and I'd say it was one of our poorer decisions but one we had no way of knowing would actually be a poor decision. We spent our afternoon driving for hours and only stopping for a short period of time in the Golden Bay to have lunch. The sand was literally the color of gold and the water was warm but we decided to not swim as we had been promised better on the track.

We discovered that the final portion of our journey into the park was on gravel road uphill around a mountain with giant potholes. It took absolutely forever to find where we were going and it was 5pm when we finally started our hike. The hike itself was amazing: the forest here is sort of like a cross between a North American forest and a rain forest. But better. Of course because we're in New Zealand. We reached the closest beach, Anapia, at 6pm. It was secluded and beautiful but the waves were crashing and the sand flies were biting and we were exhausted. We had such a short time there as we needed to turn around and drive the two and a half hours back the way we came and then push on down to a campsite on the highway to Westport.

We couldn't have asked for better weather and poorer planning but every vacation has a bad day: when we finally reached a town with a supermarket that night everything but KFC and McDonalds was closed. We chose KFC and just used McDonalds free wifi and bathroom. It was a long, tiring day but the full moon guided us into the night.