Abel Tasman from the sea

A large national park with an interesting history. A dutch woman who had lived in the area for some time wanted it to become a national park and had sent many letters to the New Zealand authorities. She was ignored repeatedly, so changed her approach by sending a letter to the dutch royal family, inviting them to the opening of the Abel Tasman National Park, named after the dutch explorer. They accepted and all New Zealand could do was comply.

The park has a magnificient coastline of granite rock and pure blue waters. There is a 51km coastal walkway but we decided to rest our legs and explore the coast on a guided kayaking trip that lasted the better part of a day and took us to some beautiful bays along the way. Our lunch stop was a bay called Tupu or Tapu or something similar meaning cursed in Maori. It received it's name because of the local iwi (tribe) chief's practice of strapping the dead chiefs of conquered tribes to a tree in the bay and eating them bit by bit. The Maori's were not a bunch to be taken lightly.