Honeymoon - Abel Tasman National Park isolation and resting in Hanmer Springs

I eat my words, I had thought the crampt campsite would be noisy in the morning but all I could hear when I woke up was the birdsong. We even had a duck and 8 chicks come to say hello. On with the morning routine of cooking the breakfast, then at 8am an air raid siren went on for a couple of minutes! Don’t have a clue why. We drove the whole 100m to the car park next door to the campsite, ready for our tour. 

We boarded the Wilson company catamaran called Vista to take is into Abel Tasman National Park thanks to Iwan for treating us. Guess who we saw, a couple that we saw on the Taieri Gorge Railway in Dunedin, weeks ago! We cruised up the park stopping at the split apple rock and then got off at Bark Bay, down the gang plank into the sea and up the white sand beach. On with the hiking shoes, and off to find the Bark Bay waterfall, about an hour and 30 minutes roundtrip walk which was lovely. We followed the beach, with drops into the turquoise water. It was sunny and hot. I must admit, we thought the waterfall was smaller than described, but good none the less. We only saw 2 other walkers, it was lovely to be so isolated. 

Back to the beach and back on the boat to Kaiteriteri and the hustle and bustle. However, we got out of there as soon as we could. People were on their boats, paddle boarding, jet skiing, sun bathing…far too much going on for our liking so instead we drove for 6 hours to Hanmer Springs along the Lewis Pass. 

Our thanks to Paula for treating us to tickets for Hanmer Springs spa. It was absolutely boiling today, 28.5 the high and what did we do, got in the hottest pool first when all e wanted was a cold bath. Sadly being short sighted and pools don’t mix because we can’t see the signs. We moved from pool to pool. Some of the pools were sulphur and it took us back to Iceland which was almost two months ago. If you shut your eyes, it was like we were back in the blue lagoon before the wedding. I went in the lazy river which was too cold for Ali, and we chilled. An excellent end, and sadly tonight is our last nights sleep in our camper.