Blogs from Abel Tasman National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

Getting Started We woke early and packed the car, not quite knowing what lay ahead of us. We were heading for the Abel Tasman National Park where we were hoping to Kayak. It was a very last minute decision though and we hadn't managed to pre-book. We weren't at all sure we would be able to just turn up and go out on the sea. We headed for the Sea Kayak Company in Moteuka. I went in and made the booking, no questions asked - they just loaded an extra kayak onto the load that was departing twenty minutes later. We were told to follow the kayaks and we did so; down narrow winding roads, up mountains; into deep valleys; through a dense forest; and then to a calm turquoise sea. This was our first glimpse ... read more

My buddy Dan and I completed about 3/4 of the Abel Tasman Track from Awaroa to the southern entrance of the track at Marahau. We walked 4 hours the first day and 7 the second day. We spent one night at the Bark Bay hut. It would have been nice to do the whole thing, but we were short on time because we had so much to see. Walking Conditions Dan had arrived from the States the evening before, but we left Nelson the next day because we wanted to get out there and start the tramp while the weather looked clear. In mid-July the high temperature each day was around 13 Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit), which made it possible to hike in shorts and a long-sleeved shirt. Still, some sections of the track that see ... read more

Arrivés sous des trombes d'eau, nous avons décidés de laisser passer l'orage et d'attendre le lendemain. Nous avons dormis dans un charmant pavillon surplombant la mer, le réveil était magnifique avec un beau soleil. La randonnée de plusieurs jours s'effectue du côté montagneux à l'est de ma map ci-dessous. N'ayant pas beaucoup de temps, nous avons sélectionné "le meilleur" passage d'après nos critères: arrivée en voiture, marche avec une belle vue et surtout pas trop physique car nous attaquons dans quelques jours un glacier. La randonnée sur la plage suivie d'une petite marche à travers la forêt pour retrouver une nouvelle plage nous paraissait le plus judicieux. Nous avons compris la raison du surnom de cette côte "Golden Bay", un jaune / or, une impression de marcher sur du blé, des diamants nous a impressionné. Nous ... read more

Just finished a week's woofing in Mapua, which is near the Abel Tasman National Park up in the northern bit of the South Island. The landscape here is different again! I'm still not getting to grips at how diverse this country is in natural landscapes. Here, we are surrounded on one side by large shallow estuaries which half the day look like lakes and the other half look like deserted beaches, and on the other by acres and acres of orchards, predominantly apple and kiwi, but almost everything grows here! Arriving at this place, i had just had a really frustrating week of travelling with 2 mates, one of which i ended up getting really fed up with, which made the trip really hard to enjoy... So when i got here to a lovely family with ... read more

A few photos taken by our awesome guides on the Canyoning trip We did mid hike. After 7 hours beasting it through the gorge, there is no wonder that we found the Abel Tasman Great Walk harder than we thought! Great fun. If you look closely in the jumping photo you can see the moment I cut my nose open before even getting to the canyon by not holding my helmet down! I was pretty blasé initially but got a bit nervous after I didn't let go of the rope in our first abseil. It created quite a funny photo and I like to think it was due to reflex survival instinct which then sent me flying back against the wall. Still the rest went fine without any injury and Becks, myself and James loved the ... read more