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After a quick flight across the straight from the North Island to the South Island, we were in Nelson, our jumping off town for a day in the Abel Tasman Park, named after the same Dutch explorer as Tasmania and the Tasman Sea. He first discovered this corner of NZ in 1642, but thinking the waters on the west coast made it too difficult to settle, left if for Captain Cook and the Brits to claim New Zealand as yet another flag sight where the sun never set on the British Empire.
We understand how Abel found it so rough. We elected to take an 11k hike up, down and along the tree covered slopes of the towering mountains that make up this park. We were told we had 5 hours to make it back to Anchorage Beach or our boat would sail without us. But not to worry, it was a piece of cake and even included a 45 minute lunch break.
The switch back trail is well constructed and we walked through a virgin forest, breathing rarified air and looking over stunning views of the sea. We went up, we went down, we took an occasional photo, we had a 15 minute picnic. Then we switched back and forth again and came to a posting along the trail that caused small alarms to go off in our heads. We are already getting a bit tired but we still had 4 1/2 k to go. So up another switch back, down and up and down. We're taking fewer pix now and racing against time. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare and the feeling that we might need double knee replacements. The photo I'm including is one of Albert and me on the single suspension bridge high over one of the waterfall ravines.
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