After eating lunch and letting the children play for awhile at Kaiteriteri, we drove a little farther on, to Split Apple Rock. We hiked down a steep trail from the car park to the beach, and suddenly saw this amazing rock!
There was amazing black sand on this beach, which kept itself separate from the golden sand. It was also much heavier. Must be a lot of minerals in it!
We also got to see and hear a tui! That was a new experience. The song is beautiful, but the video I took to try to record the sound only picked up the sound of the waves.
This was another beautiful beach!
The children explored some caves they found at one end of the beach, using headlamps they ran back up to the van to get, and found some Little Blue Penguins back in a crack! That was a special experience.
And then, a tour boat came along and anchored just offshore so the passengers could enjoy a cup of tea in these beautiful surroundings—and the man taking the tour recognized us and shouted hello across the water! That was special.
After leaving Split Apple Rock, we drove around to Marehau, at the beginning of Abel Tasman Park, just to see the area, then, without stopping, went back to our friend’s house with a very tired family. Despite being tired, however, the boys (and some of their girls) went down to play in the mud flats, since it was high tide. They came in at dark, covered with mud and cold!
I was intrigued by these boats, left high and dry on mud flats when the tide went out.
The view from our friend’s deck:
