Thursday was a free day, allowing us to do whatever we wanted to in Abel Tasman National Park, which was a walk away from us in Marahau (on a side note, our campsite was called Old MacDonald's Farm, the same as in the childrens' song).
Most people on the bus did a kayaking trip, but as I'd already done kayaking at Coromandel, I chose to go on a seven hour sailing trip around the various bays and islands of the national park instead. The wind was ironically absent, so the captain just cruised around the coast using the ship's engine.
After a look at Split Apple Rock and trip up a river, amongst other things, we stopped at Anchorage Beach for lunch. Although the weather wasn't ideal with overcast skies, the scenery made up for it. The sand was probably the best I've seen since I've been in New Zealand; soft and golden like you see in postcards of paradise islands.
Once we got back into the bay, a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins appeared and followed us around for about half an hour, playing around in the sea before us. It was especially cool because on a ship like ours, there are no walls or windows to get in the way, so you can stand on the front corners and take pictures from a great viewpoint. Most of the others on the boat seemed to give up taking pictures after a while because their cameras weren't fast enough, so I managed to get an excellent set of photos from the trip. That evening we went out to a local cafe for a meal, and while the food wasn't quite up to standard, there were a bunch of cool local artists providing the music.
