Abel Tasman National Park, at the tip of the South Island, is like a tropical island. You can only reach the outer limits by car and the rest has to be navigated on foot or by water taxi.
It comprises of a series of gorgeous sandy beaches with calm, aquamarine seas, fringing dense green forest. Many people trek the whole coastline over a few days, but we settled for a couple of nights camping, a coastal day walk (cut short by high tide), and a dip in the beautiful but unbelievably cold sea - it was autumn!
This was a lovely way to end this half of our New Zealand adventure and from here we made our way to the port town of Picton for the ferry to the other island.