Abel Tasman National Park

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Marahau is a small village tucked on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. Due to arriving at short notice all the huts for the Abel Tasman Track were booked out over the next few nights - I wouldn’t be able to walk the three day hike, billed as one of the best in New Zealand. Anders, Joe and I wanted to walk on the track so paid for a water taxi 25km up the coast and then walked back to Marahua.

The walk was very easy, very few extended rises or descents. The most difficult parts of the track were the descents down to the beaches. The many beaches were the highlight, golden sand cool clear water, and seals playing just yards from the beach.

We met Robin from Boston in the water taxi, she just finished a half triathlon in Taupo, a 2km swim, a 90km bicycle ride and a 20km run in one day, taking around 5 ½ hours to complete.

So no real stories from the trek, just had a really nice day, took some nice photos and spent a happy hour climbing around rocks that were strewn in an area known as Cleopatra’s Pools.

Joe had told me about a festival that he wanted to work at for Christmas and New Years, the Vision Fetival, a zero impact event. Being without plans for that time I thought it would be really nice to do something like that for the time. I’d sent an email seeing if more volunteers were needed. After the walk got the reply saying that they had enough volunteers, looks like Christmas and New Years will be difficult to find something that isn’t completely swamped.

On the plus side I would get to hang out with Anders and Robin a little longer, travel down towards the glaciers with them. On the other plus side, we found a leaflet about the Vision Festival with “No Alcohol” written all over it, Joe had scoured the website looking for just such words and been unable to find them.

The journal formally known as:

Able Tasman National Park

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