South Island stop #3: Abel Tasman

We ended our tour of the South Island of New Zealand with a drive up the west coast to Takaka, near Abel Tasman National Park. The western coast is entirely different than the rest of the island, as all of the rain gets dumped there before it crosses the Southern Alps. The climate is more wet and warm; the area has a lot more palm trees and fewer conifer trees. We had hoped to see Franz Josef, a famous glacier that is quickly receding, but the day was so rainy and miserable that we had to stay indoors on our brief stop there.