Abel Tasman National Park

Abel Tasman National Park is at the second-most northern most point of the South Island. It juts out into the Pacific Ocean and forms the Golden Bay with the western tip of the island. It's called the Golden Bay because the sands are bright, bright yellow with an orange tinge, and really beautiful. It was pretty surprising too: we drove about 15 kilometers and went from sand like this:   

Sand in Murchison

  To sand like this:  

The famous golden sands

  Pretty amazing! Our plan for the day was just to hike out along the Abel Tasman Coastal Track and then return when we were done. The full track is a 4 day walk, so we were only going to see a small bit of what it has to offer.  We started out our walk in Abel Tasman with the tide going out. So the very first bit is over mud flats and marsh land.  

 

  But soon enough, we were in to the bush.   

 

  And then very soon after that, we were going past beautful bays.   

 

 

  We hiked our for a couple of hours and then stopped for a picnic snack at one the large, gorgeous bays.  

  After hiking back, we had another outdoorsy stop on the way to our apartment: the Split Apple Rock. The rock was amazing because it really did look like a perfectly round apple had been split in two.   

  The beach was also also amazing, mostly because we were some of the few people on it!   

  Because it was low tide, we could also walk through some natural caves formed in the rocks along the beach. Pretty cool!  

  We had a pretty full day, so we headed back to our apartment in Little Kaiteriteri Beach. Again, we had the beach mostly to ourselves, which was perfect for taking a quick rest on the warm sand.   

 

At the end of the beach were some massive rock formations. Penguins live in the area, so you can bet I was keeping my eye out for any little guys heading in early!  

 

  We were all starving after our long day, so we decided to take the path over the hill in to Kaiteriteri for an early dinner.  Lucky we did, because one of the restaurants was already closed, and the other was closing up at 6! We got in the door just in the nick of time and had a great dinner. Mom even got a cute dinner date for part of it!  

  All up, Abel Tasman was at the top of my list for favorite things in the trip to date!