Blogs from Abel Tasman National Park, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 33

We stayed in Nelson for a few days at a hostel, but the highlight was most definitely skydiving. We went from 13,000 ft and had at least a full minute of free falling. The view and the experience in general was incredible!... read more

Sensational South Island January 24-28 Since we had spent a lot of our first visit to New Zealand (10 years ago) in the South island, we chose to spend more time this trip in the North Island. However, the South Island is probably the more popular destination and there is no end of destinations to choose from. We made Abel Tasman National Park our first stop, always regretting not getting there the last time. The park is in the North West corner of the island and is the smallest National Park in the country. After a three hour drive from the Picton ferry landing with a stop in the pretty seaside town of Nelson to get groceries, we arrived in Marahau in late afternoon. The last 15 km was a hair raising, nausea inducing ride over ... read more

I had two days off from work at the restaurant in Takaka this past week and was able to put together a two day backpacking trip to Abel Tasman National Park with my friend Jennie. The track weaves in and out of beaches and bays for about 5 days worth of walking (if you do pretty short days and lots of beach lounging) but we took a water taxi part way up the track and then hiked 4 hours the first day and 8 hours the second day and I felt like we pretty much saw the whole thing. We stayed in a hut so we didnt have to carry a tent and opted for a cold dinner instead of having to carry a stove and a pot so I was happy with my light weight ... read more

This place was great! The only downside was the bad weather on the first day. WHen it rains in NZ it fucking doesn't stop! My Austrian pal Matteas and I hired a kayak and went from Marahau to Bark Bay in about 5 hours. We had time to explore the little coves and although it was raining the mountaind attracted fog and gave the whole place a "Lost World" effect. We camped up for the night despite trying to get into one of the huts. No room and we tried to sneak in but the buggers caught us and escorted us to our tent in the rain. Quite a hard night when its pissing down and blowing a gale. The kayak got picked up by water taxi and than we had a 8 hr trek back ... read more

Being back on the road again, we were determined to be well organised so we were up early in Kaikoura to be ready for the Magic Bus to pick us up and take us to the next stop, Nelson. The two of us sat outside the hostel cursing the bus for being late and half an hour after pick up time we decided to check with reception if they knew where the bus was. They did. It was on its way to Nelson, minus Karen and I. Doh! Not our fault entirely though, the pick up point was different from what our handbook said. Fair enough, the bus driver had told us this but we forgot. Anyway, Kazza phoned Magic Bus, did a bit of giving-off and they paid for us to get another bus. Happy ... read more