New Zealand day 14

            Abel Tasman National Park was established in 1942, named for the sea captain who was the first European to see it.  Unfortunately, he never set foot on it.  When his ship anchored off one of the beaches and four men began to row in to investigate, two huge war canoes loaded with Maori warriors came out and rammed the little boat, killing the occupants.  Abel had had a previous experience like this (as you will recall from our report in the Bay of Islands); and he took exactly the same steps, pulling the anchor and high-tailing it out of the area.  The year was 1642,  part of which he spent trying to find an island to name for himself over in Australia and the rest of which he spent discovering Fiji and Tonga.  Why it took 300 years to get around to naming this area for him is anyone’s guess—except that maybe there was nothing around here left to name for Captain James Cook.

            In any case, we drove up to the park and took a water taxi about 45 minutes to one of the beautiful beaches, and then did a 3 hour hike through the most beautiful countryside we have experienced in New Zealand.  We walked through forests of strange new trees and plants, sighting beach after beach.  Tricia remarked that this was certainly what we came here to see.  The walk was 6.6 km, which normally would have killed me, but the views and mountain streams we crossed kept my heart beating.  I will try to share a few of the beaches, as seen both from the water and from the mountainsides, with you:

 

 

  

Abel Tasman beaches from the water

  

 

 

Tasman beaches from above

            Our hike ended with an hour or so sunning in a little cove, on golden sand under a cloudless blue sky.  It was just a fantastic day.  We celebrated by driving back to town and stopping at my favorite place in town.  I tried a small taste of the speculass, but there was a new flavor in the freezer since yesterday that I could not resist.  So I ended up with a cone of hazelnut and frangelico.  What a way to spend a day.

Charlie & Tricia

©2013