8 January 2014: Abel Tasman National Park and the marathon drive to Franz Josef

We quickly rose and packed camp to leave for Marahau this morning.  Once again, our group was expedient in their packing and were right on time for departure by kayak or by foot.  Our trip along the Coastal Track (Kiwi for ‘trail’) had some picturesque scenes and the weather cooperated with us until just before reaching Marahau.  Once in Marahau, we all re-packed our belongings to include everything we’d left behind at the hostel and then headed to Franz Josef.  A visit to Marahau wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the local fish-and-chips eatery, the Fat Tui, so a quick stop was made after leaving The Barn hostel and nearly everyone had something yummy to eat (I nicked some fries from Dr. Moran, who ordered the Cowpatty: a generously-sized burger with lettuce, tomato, and some sauce that looked like it had seeds in it!). 

What Google Maps said was supposed to be 4-hour long trip from Marahau to Franz Josef turned out to be 8 hours in length.  Our group was tough and survived the long haul.  At 12:30am, we got settled into our rooms and called it a night…we’ll be ready to go by 7:30am tomorrow morning for our trip to Fox Glacier.  Whew!