I think everyone who travels in life has places that are photographs imprinted into their memories. Where time almost stood still, and there was nothing but magic around them.
The place, you remember how the air tasted, the smell of the wind, the feeling of the earth under your feet and the beauty pouring over your soul. The all encompassing wonder, the places that moved you. The ones you don't need photos of to re-live in the moment.
These are the places we never forget, we talk about them as the top ten places we've ever been, the ones we encourage others to visit when they are near, in hope that the magic is transferrable to them.
This is Abel Tasman National Park, located on the south island of New Zealand, about an hour's drive north of Nelson. This is one of those top ten places for me. It has no roads and is accessible by foot or water. You can take water taxi tours, rent kayaks, hike the entire pensuila. There's beaches only accessible by water, and beaches you climb down to from the crest where most of the trail sits. The water is that shade of blue that almost matches the sky, and crystal clear on less windy days.
