The hour drive to the southern-most part of Abel Tasman and a short 2 hour walk along the Coast Track was well worth it. The weather was perfect, beach was beautiful and isolated, and the water was blue as can be.

Too bad we didn’t have more time. Next time I’m back, I shall explore the coast on kayak.

When the opportunity arose a couple months ago to make a reservation at the restaurant for this past long weekend, our friends invited 6 of us to join as well – you can say it’s been a good 2 months worth of anticipation! The tasting menu consisted of 4 main dishes and roughly 10 “snacks”, and a few “dessert” dishes. The price is $150 per person, $60 extra for wine pairing, and $40 extra for juice pairing (or you can do half-half). I personally had the juice pairing which were very different than what you would make yourself at home with the same ingredients (Sorrel, Cucumber, Carrot, Currant, Elderflower). I would probably have opted for the half-half if I didn’t have to drive afterwards.

Most of the ingredients are sourced locally right on the island, with a lot of the vegetables being planted right behind the Inn. It’s always interesting to see very simple ingredients being used as enhancements for these dishes, but without them, it would taste completely different. They also had their own smoke house, which they used to smoke and prepare a lot of the meat and seafood.

The service was excellent and fast, although if you are thinking of splitting the bill in different ways, you may encounter some delays in the end. The meal itself would not be complete without foodies taking a lot of photos of the dishes itself – which were often decorated very beautifully + precisely. Sorry, photos do not convey the smell and taste of the food!

Definitely reserve many months in advance, and enjoy the rest of the island before your meal, especially if the weather turns out great!

Looks can be deceiving.. this was quite amazing.

Made me want to eat the bread over and over again…

Another one of those “looks can be deceiving”. Just the right amount of chewiness and sweetness!

I haven’t hiked this long since my trip to Peru on the Inca Quarry Trail, so the distance was moderately challenging, minus the altitude factor. It was quite an enjoyable hike, but prepared to spend more time than what they estimate for stopovers and photo ops along the way! We walked the recommended loop through Taylor Meadows, took a small detour midway to Panorama Ridge, then down to the lake and back, taking us a total of around 7.5 hours.

Beautiful lake – the weather was cloudy/foggy, with some short spurts of sunny breaks in between, which was perfect. Glad that the weather turned out much better than the forecasted rain!

Smithsonian Zoo, Washington DC.