On Wednesday (the 16th), we packed up and moved off from Punakaiki, heading towards Abel Tasman National Park. Incidentally, Abel Tasman was the Dutch explorer who was the first European to discover New Zealand and subsequently name it, although he never set foot on the land after a run-in with a local Maori tribe.
Most of the day was spent on the bus travelling through Buller Gorge, with a stop for a walk to a seal colony and then a further break in Murchison for lunch. Most days we only drive for maybe three hours, but today was much longer in terms of time on the road, although we would spend two nights at Abel Tasman National Park to make up for it.
