Hi, new voice here (it’s Mark), Melissa has handed over control for a guest post. We’re coming to you live from the South Island as we’ve ventured to the lower of New Zealand’s two spits of land.
We arrived on the South Island two days ago and after incredibly smooth sailing through the first half of our trip we hit a few bumps after we left the beaches of Coromandel (our last post). We suffered a smashed car window and a stolen bag of electronics during our trip to the Auckland museum just before heading to the airport, and the next day Melissa’s suitcase took a longer than expected voyage to Nelson, our landing spot on the South Island, although it showed up that night. We did soothe ourselves with the best ice cream we’ve ever had from Giapo (sorry Sebastian Joe’s).
Following those adventures, including a headache with Thrifty rental cars on paying for the broken window, we returned to our regularly scheduled programming with a bike ride around Nelson and the surrounding shores.
Yesterday was an exhilarating day of hiking through Abel Tasman, and possibly the most exhausting day of my life. Up early for the hour long drive to our water taxi departing from Marahau, with a quick detour to Split Apple Rock (the source of color in the world according to Maori legend) and Adele Island to take in seals sunbathing and playing, we landed with the tide in at Bark Bay around 11:30 AM. We hiked more than 26 km (16 miles) South back to our launching point. 
The hike included picturesque views of forests, plants, waterfalls, cliffs and the surrounding sea and beaches. It was 8 hours continuously surrounded by nature and with the most amazing woman – I won’t get too mushy but it felt like one of our first dates. And in typical fashion we set new records for daily steps of more than 40,000 – although this may be one that is tough to surpass 🙂
Abel Tasman is situated on the Northwest coast of the South Island with granite cliffs rising above white sand beaches and gorgeous shades of blue, teal and green water. It has significant tides with the sea level rising and falling 6m (~18 ft) – these tides fill entire pools and bays, and create small islands and peninsulas when they are in, and leave a lot of stranded boats marooned on sprawling beaches when they are out. There are also many streams and waterfalls throughout the park and we stopped at one of the most famous, Cleopatra’s Pool, where we saw canyoning and crowds of people bathing in the large natural pools. The water in all of the streams, rivers and pools is perfectly clear and one of the most refreshing sights I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately we didn’t bring our swim suits.
After 8 hours of tramping (local term for hiking), we arrived back at Marahau and stopped at the first restaurant we saw for dinner, situated conveniently at the head of the trail. The food was delicious, and despite many sandwiches and snacks on the trek we both were starving! After dinner we limped back to our car about 10 minutes away and took the hourlong drive back to our room. We were both spent but it was one of our best days together ever.