Abel Tasman National Park

After her conversation with our hostel owner, Laura came back to our room with an idea: "Let's get this 10:30am water taxi nearby at Kaiteriteri and take it to a drop off point deep in Abel Tasman Park for a 1 hour hike."

The problem was, it was 10:20am and the water taxi was a fifteen minute drive away. Time to summon our inner New Yorkers.

We arrived two minutes late to the Abel Tasman Sea Shuttle Service and asked if we could still catch the 10:30 tour.

"You're too late, love," the woman said. Then she looked us up and down for a second and said, "Well, you can catch it if you run."

We ran.

And thus began a water tour of one of the most spectacular coastlines we've ever seen. Once again, I'll let Laura's photography do the talking:

These next few photographs are of the amazing coastline here at the park, viewed from our boat:



Split Apple Rock:



The Water Taxi dropped us off at a nearly abandoned beach, and we had a nice walk in the cool weather before heading into the woods.





Laura, soaking up the sun:


Hiking the coast trail:



View from the coast trail:


A nice English man offered to take this photo of the two of us right before the ride back home:


George the dolphin. This was a bottlenose dolphin who was probably kicked out of his pod--he would occasionally meet up with the water taxis on their routes to various shore points:



George even liked to cavort with kayakers too:


On our way home we saw one of the most amazing sights we've seen: a pod of dusky dolphins approached our boat, jumping and playing in the water around us. When we eventually had to leave, the dolphins followed us in our wake, jumping in and out of the water all around the boat. It was amazing.




Catching the water taxi for home. It was a great day.