Abel Tasman National Park

Today we got up early and drove up to Abel Tasman National Park... glorious and never to be forgotten! We took the first boat from Kaiteriteri to Totaranau (about 2 hours) and then back to Medlands beach where we got off and set off along the Abel Tasman Coast Track to Anchorage Bay. A 4 hour scenic walk through a temperate rainforest that every so often opened up and revealed some absolutely magical vistas of the sandy lagoons down below the cliffs. The weather was perfect (we had great weather and excellent accommodation throughout our trip apart from the 2 days of drizzle in Glacier Country) and the scenery unfolding before our eyes was

awesome (awesome - as in its proper sense). To top it all off we discovered the most glorious spot to have lunch - sitting above Ballon Rock and gazing down at the pure white sands of Torrent Bay Beach, pure bliss!
The track from our lunch spot took us downhill to the beach and it was at that point that we realised we had lost our camera!
Olja's first comment is unrepeatable but she soon philosophised that "whenever you feel that your life is too wonderful put a stone in your shoe and keep on walking"... Loosing our camera was a timely reminder how quickly things can change... We went back up the hill and to our huge relief found the camera, untouched - sure enough, it was laying on the ground right next to the bench we sat on admiring the view, eating our lunch...
A couple of kilometres further around Torrent Bay we found a side track leading to Cleopatra's Pool... well worth the 10 minute walk to see a beautiful boulder strewn pool set amongst the woodlands (pack your swimmers). Finally, after 13km we reached the northern end of Anchorage Beach where we finished our walk and waited for another boat to pick us up and take us back to Kaiteriteri. We got back to the motel by 7pm, polished off a beer and a bourbon & coke (compliments of the management), cooked a delicious pasta boscaiola and finished it off with a Montana SB! Another perfect day!