Feeling energetic we decided to do a few walks to explore the area of Golden Bay and Abel Tasman National Park.

The first stop was Wainui Falls. You'd think we had seen enough waterfalls by now in New Zealand! The higlight of this walk was crossing the very unstable and quite scary 'suitable for 1 person only' swing bridge over a surging river below. Made it!

We quickly checked out the memorial to Abel Tasman (first person to ever sale to New Zealand, though he didn't realy know it!) himself, before heading to Grove Scenic Reserve, which is a series of huge limestone blocks, where at one point you walk through a crack in the rock which towers either side of you.

Following a quick lunch, Dave talked a very hesitant Claire into going to the Rawhiti Caves. A track that is described for 'experienced trampers only'. The first section was quite pleasant walking up a dry river bed and we wondered what all the fuss was about. This then lead to a near verticle cliff face where the overgrown track zig zagged steeply and narrowly up the sheer face of the mountain. This went on for a good couple of kilometres and it was a little scary having only a slippy mud track and a huge drop on one side of you at all times. It was worth it though, even Claire will agree, as we approached the entrance of the huge mouth of the Rawhiti Cave. Claire was quite happy admiring from the edge the 1000's of stalagtites hanging down as Dave decided to go a little further into it and admire the large pitch black hole descending downwards.

Heading back to the town we stopped off at Waikoropupu Springs. These are New Zealands largest freshwater springs and the largest coldwater springs in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also the clearest fresh water in the world, to prove this a mirror has been placed in one of these springs showing us everything underneath the water including the paddling legs of the ducks sitting on top of the water!