The granite sea cliffs of Seperation Point on the border of Tasman Bay and Golden Bay.

Jeff Dunbar > New Zealand - S Island

The granite sea cliffs of Seperation Point on the border of Tasman Bay and Golden Bay.

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The local marine mammals seemed to enjoy the sun as much as we did on the Abel Tasman Coast Track. This fella weighed at least 300lbs and we ate lunch right next to him (fortunately he wasn't hungry).

More pristine beachfront property at Abel Tasman National Park.

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Jeff Dunbar

Oct 7, 2007

“The granite sea cliffs of Seperation Point on the border of Tasman Bay and Golden Bay.”

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A big battle scene from The Chronicles of Narnia was shot here.

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The Abel Tasman Coast Track is loaded with pristine beaches along its entire length (51 kilometers). We only hiked about 10 kilometers of the track as a day trip, but we were not disappointed with the scenery...

Nope, not Castle Hill. This is the lesser-known, but equally as scenic boulder field at Elephant Rocks in the South Canterbury region. For a sense of scale, I'm the little spec walking out of the shaddow on the right side of this photo.

The main attraction at Moereki Beach is the cluster of bizarre globe-shaped boulders at the far end of the beach. For eons, these boulders grew like pearls from small mineral deposits in the otherwise sandy soil.

Back on the NZ mainland, we stopped at this remote beach on our way to Dunedin to observe a petrified forest by the sea (only visible at low tide). The lumps you see here are petrified tree stumps.

This is the grand plateau below Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook. In the bottom left/center, atop the rocky outcrop, sits an alpine hut with a red roof. Every year, hundreds of climbers use it as basecamp for alpine ascents of Mt. Cook (left) and Mt. Tasman (right).

There were arches everywhere you looked...

This place was like Arches National Park by the sea...

I'm the tiny blue dot walking away from the camera...

Natalie celebrates our arrival on one of the most rugged and desolate beaches we've seen yet in New Zealand, near Farewell Spit on the ocean side of Golden Bay.

The local marine mammals seemed to enjoy the sun as much as we did on the Abel Tasman Coast Track. This fella weighed at least 300lbs and we ate lunch right next to him (fortunately he wasn't hungry).

The granite sea cliffs of Seperation Point on the border of Tasman Bay and Golden Bay.

More pristine beachfront property at Abel Tasman National Park.

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Natalie took this killer shot of the snow and the ocean at the helicopter landing site at the top of the Franz Josef Glacier.

One quickly begins to feel rather insignificant in a place like this...

And these tiny Stewart Island Robins followed us everywhere we went (they litterally foraged for food in our footsteps).

This thing is about the size of a small medieval castle...

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Dr. Seuss would've loved this place...

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