Abel Tasman National Park

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January 22nd 2008

Published: January 27th 2008

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Sumpton Craven

Spectacular view

One of the many treats on our walk

The journey to Wellington was rather long considering it was just a one night stop-over before catching the ferry over to the South Island. We did however enjoy a scenic journey with the Tongariro National Park and Mt Ruapheu taking up views out of the back window. It was a national holiday in Wellington on our day of arrival so nothing was done as everything was shut.

A quick but rainy jump over the pond however brought us to the South Island and some hazordous driving conditions. Unknown to us at the time a cyclone had swept in bringing wind and rain that slowed down our journey across the northern part of the South Island. Adventure still managed to seek us out as a rock flew off a cliff, bounced up off the road and onto our beloved Zeta. We hope the rental company doesn't notice the chip in the windscreen, or was that there before?!! Takaka the main city within Golden Bay was our destination and after a steady drive up and over the Takaka Hill, glorious sunshine awaited us. Although Takaka was apparently the main city within Golden Bay, its city centre consisted of a few random shops

Silver fern

New Zealands national emblem

littered along the state highway, awesome.

Golden Bay was our base for our brief visit to the Abel Tasman National Park, said to be one of the top 5 National Parks within New Zealand. As we only had one day here we combined a half day walk with a boat trip and a seal visit. As the Abel Tasman National Park is basically concerned with the sea, its coast and the area around it we thought that this was the best option. The AquaTaxi dropped us off at Tonga Bay (an area within the Tonga Island Marine Reserve) which was the starting point of our three and a half hour walk to Torrent Bay were our AquaTaxi would be waiting. The walk took us through mountains and over rivers which to be honest could have been any National Park, the special and most unique thing about Abel Tasman and why we loved it so much was due to the clear turquoise waters and the golden secluded bays. It was definately beautiful.

However, it was time to move on again and leave our homely hostel behind as we made our way down the west coast towards Franz Josef with

Pancake Rocks

a stop over in Greymouh, and it was definately grey. Seriously nothing to do in this place with its highlight being a river running through the town which is used as is sewage outlet...nice!! Although we were very happy to be moving on again, we left behind a rather interesting dormitary. We slept in what was called the 'chapel' and it really did have an old churchy feel to it, stained glass windows and the smell of brownies, not chocolate fudge but more like a kind of old musty smell, interesting!!

We made a visit to the pancake rocks at Punakaiki which although made you use your imagination a fair bit, was quite intersting nonetheless.

Since we have been in New Zealand we have heard a great deal about Sir Edmund Hillary who died a couple of weeks back. From what we have learnt he was a kiwi legend, a deeply respected man and a seemingly man of the people. He was given a state funeral which was aired during our North-South Island ferry. It seems as though he did many great things in his life, such as being one of the first to climb Mt Everest. He