Anchorage to Marahau

Today got off to an early start almost like a fire drill! We needed to leave the hotel no later than 7:45 to make it to the water taxi by 9:10 for a ride to our trail (Anchorage). The drive to Abel Tasman Park took about 30 minutes, then we had to hike to the beach to meet the water taxi, about a 40 minute hike. The attached photo was taken on the beach before we boarded the water taxi...I found a sand dollar on this beach:-) We got on the boat where we received a nice history lesson during the 15 minute ride. Our plan was to hike from Anchorage to Marahau where we entered the park so about 12.5 KM or around 7.5 miles. The beach at Anchorage was absolutely stunning with lots of canoes and sailboats as well as hikers taking the same trail. Our hike was gorgeous! The weather was warm, sunny and clear so we had some amazing views of the cove and hiking in the park felt very much like hiking through a jungle with the ferns, palms, bugs and thick vegetation. The hike should have taken a little over 4 hours but we practically ran it and finished in under 3 hours (total miles hiked today 9). I took the lead for the majority of the hike and John was really impressed with my quick pace (the elliptical is paying off). Next we drove more twisty curvy roads to Kaiteriteri where John had a nice swim. Then back in the car for more twisty curvy driving on the left side of the road and this time I took the wheel on the right for several KM! I hate driving here; it's so stressful. We drove to a little hippie town called Takaka where we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and dined on food prepared by a French chef. It was long drive and while the town was mildly interesting the food yuck! I had a chicken barrito and John had the veggie barrito; for some reason the French chef thought smothering a barrito in sour cream and honey barbeque sauce was a swell idea! Ick. I wouldn't recommend driving those curves to hang out with barefoot hippies in Takaka. We made it back to Montueka around 5:30 and have been chilling out ever since. We both wanted ice cream so we walked up and down High Street in search of some, sadly the best we could manage was soft serve at McDonalds! Tomorrow is a holiday in NZ so some businesses will be closed including the sporting goods store where I wanted to look for that rugby shirt. The plan for tomorrow is for another long drive to someplace with a name I probably can't spell or pronounce. Cheers.