Day 47- Abel Tasman

The next day we decided to hike part of Abel Tasman National Park. The area where Abel Tasman is located is known as the Golden Bay. It has clear, blue water and orange/yellow sand that looks like it is out of a postcard. We began our hike up the wooded hills, and eventually hit a sheltered cove filled with beautiful sand. This was the most beautiful place I had seen yet in New Zealand (see the trend of increasing beauty?). We started walking along the beach to where the trail picked up again, and I was struck by something. There was only one other pair of footprints in the sand. It was a beautiful April day in an astonishing natural park, and we seemed to be the only ones enjoying it. We sat down in this locale and enjoyed our lunch, then continued on. We continued on this pattern of beach, hills, beach, hills. On the coast I felt like I was in a pirate movie- in the jungle-esqe wooded hills I felt like I was either in Jurassic park, Indiana Jones, or Lord of the rings (take your pick). Jens, our well traveled German friend, pointed out areas that looked like different parts of Europe. Throughout our day walk, we tallied up areas that reminded us of different places- the Caribbean, the Appalachians, the jungle, and the Mediterranean. We returned to our hostel and made dinner- which was a step up from our meal the day before, and way above our first pitiful night, hoarding our free soup. We met a few people this second night at Shambala- 2 women from England and Argentina, 2 more from Spain and France, and a man and woman from Switzerland and England, respectively. Me and the other 2 guys traveling with me went down the street and got a homemade beer that evening (which was amazing) and talked to some of these people for the rest of the night.