Our day in Abel Tasman National Park included some of the best highlights (in my opinion) of the entire trip. We got up bright and early and headed to the north side of the park. While the south side is usually the most popular, the best hikes were only accessible by kayak and the weather was iffy. I loved the tramps we ended up taking -- Jamie and I basically had the whole trail to ourselves and the weather cleared up just in time for our adventures.
We did a lovely tramp alongside a river, across a couple suspension bridges, and landed us at the base of a pretty great waterfall.
A day hike like this in the States would have been completely overrun by visitors...
We decided to head over to Takaka and Kahurangi National Park to check out Te Waikoropupu Springs (a.k.a. Pupu Springs....heh). Ironically, the water in Pupu Springs is considered among the clearest fresh water in the world. It was officially the clearest fresh water on inhabited land until a few years ago when it was "out-cleared" by another lake in a more remote location in Tasman. Still. It was pretty incredible. It was hard to capture with my amateur photography skills and equipment, but trust me, you could see all the way to the bottom through the springs and it got pretty deep.
And of course, the drive along the coast back to our "bach" (i.e. NZ AirBnB equivalent) was gorgeous. We had to stop and take a stroll...
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