Since nearly every town in New Zealand a gateway for scenic hikes New Zealand's park service has deemed it necessary to distinguish eight and name them the "Great Walks". The Tongariro Crossing, which we did 2 weeks ago is a portion of one, another is a 51km coastal trail in Abel Tasman National Park.
Wrapping along forested ridge lines speckled with palm tree size ferns, the trail connects gold sand coves & inlets with cliffs of soft granite rising from aquamarine water. The park is also home to several fur seal colonies protected by marine sanctuaries. The coastal trail is extremely accessible, for better or for worse, and water taxis will shuttle you to various points within the park. Using that service we were able to get dropped off and walk the lower Northern portion of the trail (23 of the 51km), stopping at as many pools, sandbars and rocky ocean overlooks as daylight would allow.
Our second full day in the park we rented a kayak for what is arguably a preferred view of the coastline. The tides are large here, in excess of 12 feet, so the water scape changes drastically in the course of 6 hours. As we paddled home we came across a raggedly sculptured granite island rising from a v-shaped deserted beach that was just beginning to be exposed by the lowering tide. These sort of findings our the norm and make the area incredible for kayaking. Our only regret is that we didn't book a 3-day overnight trip that would let us venture further into the park uninterrupted from the moment we arrived.
Photos from our hike the first day along Abel Tasman's Great Walk trail.
Photos from our kayak day. We caught this sandbar in the last photo at just the right time. Tides had just began to reveal this beach.
Right before we left town, Dion noticed this sand bar and thought we had time to "walk" out and back before the water got too high. Maybe for someone tall... Christy was up to her waist in water by the time we got back to the beach!
Not a bad place to wait for a bus
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