Abel Tasman

A filling breakfast of porridge made us feel ready for our day of walking. We left the hostel and drove to Marahau which marks the start of the Abel Tasman track. This took us around an hour to get to so we listened to some more of our audio detective series which is rather gripping. We haven't a clue who the murderer could be. It's a true story as well which makes it even more exciting. 

We set off on our walk, first passing by a large beach. It was lovely to see a couple of people riding their horses along it in the sunshine. The track then climbed a little so we were walking through trees along the coast line, occasionally being able to see the sea. Along the way there were a few bays that were simply stunning. We'd planned a little circuit so after around two and a half hours we took an inland track that started to climb and kept climbing. We stopped for lunch at one point, looking out at the sea and trees below. We had leftover noodles and a little sandwich each. However, after this pleasant stop the track got worse. It just kept going up. For about another hour we were walking uphill, some parts being very steep and lacking the fabulous views we had while walking right by the coast. Both of us got pretty grumpy and sweaty and we were sure we wouldn't make it. Finally, after what felt like days, we made it to flatter land and started walking through rainforest. This was lovely and cool and looked quite impressive with all the moss and trees. 

Out of the rainforest the track started to head downhill which ended up being quite tricky in places because it could be steep. I had a nice fall and landed on a spikey plant meaning I had plenty of splinters in my hand. Luckily, it didn't really hurt and I had great fun trying to get the splinters out. The walk took us seven hours in total so it was gone 5pm when we got back to the car. We decided to drive 20 minutes to a larger town with a supermarket and cheaper hostels. We checked into a place that was again rather empty but this meant we got full use of the washing machine and dryer. Clean clothes! 

For tea we made ourselves a Thai yellow curry. We cooked chicken and sweet potato and green beans and onion, then added a paste that we'd bought and a tin of coconut milk. With an accompaniment of rice it was absolutely delicious. We'll be making another one of them. I'm going to make my own Thai curry pastes when I get home. We played a game of scrabble after tea (Matt won just) before going to bed and falling asleep immediately. A day of walking is pretty tiring.