Immediately after breakfast we left our Hotel Picton Yacht Club and headed for Abel Tasman National Park.
Table of contents
Our drive along the coast
From Picton, you will take a serpentine road(Queen Charlotte Drive)from which you have always had a beautiful view of the various bays (Shakespeare Bay, Whenuanui Bay, Ngakuta Bay).
Tickets for a tour in Abel Tasman National Park
In the small town of Motueka we bought tickets for a boat & hiking tour “Seals & Beach” in the Abel Tasman National Park from the agency Wilsons. The agency’s office is located directly at 60 Street (High Street) opposite the Toyota dealership and next to the parking lot of the New World shopping market (see Google Maps). You can watch the course of today’s tour here.
Abel Tasman National Park’s natural features
Abel Tasman National Park protects a 225.3 km2 area between the two large bays of Golden Bay and Tasman Bay on the north coast of New Zealand’s South Island. New Zealand’s smallest national park was established in 1942, 300 years after Abel Tasman’s landing, and named after the explorer. The National Park is famous for its numerous small bays with sandy beaches and turquoise waters and its granite cliffs. At the same time, however, more than three quarters of the national park area is forested. The wildlife of the park is mainly characterized by its seabirds. For example, white-cheeked herons, stilt-runners, Tara-tern, Tui, Korimakos, cuckoo-owl and dwarf penguin are native. More than 70 bird species can be found in the national park. The 51 km long coastal trail (Abel Tasman Coastal Track) is particularly popular among visitors to the park. Another popular way to explore Abel Tasman National Park is a kayaking tour along the coast. [Source: Wikipedia]
A map of Abel Tasman National Park
The start of our tour in Kaiteriteri
Starting points for most tours are the villages of Marahau and Totaranui (at the southern and northern end of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track) and the small town of Kaiteriteri, from which all boat tours and water taxis depart for the national park. Our tour started at 1 p.m. in nice sunny weather on the long sandy beach in Kaiteriteri.
The Split Apple Rock & the Sea Lion Colony
We drove along the coast to our first stop: Split Apple Rock, a granite rock formation that looks like a split apple and is certainly THE photo motif of the national park.
The Sea Lion Colony
Next stop was then a pre-island with a small sea lion colony. The boat trip along the beautiful coast with beaches and densely overgrown forests took about an hour.
Hiking along the Abel Tasman Coastal Track
In the bay Tonga Quarry we got off. From here, our 5 km long hiking trail started along the coast and through the Abel Tasman National Park. The vegetation here is very dense and you can also see New Zealand’s national plant, the silver fern. This is beautifully green on the top, but completely silver on the underside. The trail passed Bark Bay Waterfall, where a suspension bridge crossed the lagoon. After 1.5 hours of hiking we arrived at Medlands Beach, from where our water taxi went back to Kaiteriteri. But since we still had a bit of time until then, we walked the way a little further to a suspension bridge, which was much bigger than the previous one.
At 5 p.m. we were collected again by the water taxi at Medlands Beach and were back in Kaiteriteri an hour later.
A beautiful day in the national park
Our hotel in Kaiterteri
For the night we had booked a bungalow at Kimi Ora Eco Resort, which is located on a hillside overlooking the bay of Kaiteriteri. We stayed one night at the Kimi Ora Eco Resort and stayed in Bungalow 10, from which you have a great view of the bay. Pool (indoor and outdoor), sauna and steam bath are freely accessible from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The breakfast was included in the price and was really great. Home-baked bread (also gluten-free), toast, cheese, camembert, jams, cereal, yogurt, fruit salad, etc. There’s something for everyone. Wi-Fi works fine in the bungalows. It’s a pity we were there only one night. We are happy to come back and can recommend the accommodation to everyone.
Alle Reiseberichte aus Neuseeland
11 Tage lang haben wir Neuseeland von Norden nach Süden mit dem Mietwagen auf eigene Faust erkundet. Angefangen hat unsere Reise auf der Nordinsel in der Stadt Auckland, wir haben die gewaltigen Kräfte unter der Erde in Wai-O-Tapu und Orakei Korako erlebt, wir haben die Hauptstadt Wellington erkundet, sind über die Neuseeländischen Alpen gefahren, haben eine Gletscherwanderung auf dem Fox Gletscher gemacht, bevor wir zum Abschluss eine Fahrt durch das UNESCO-Weltnaturerbe Milford Sound erlebt haben. Neuseeland ist ein wirklich schönes Land, dass uns unglaublich gut gefallen hat.
» Nordinsel: Auckland – Ein Spaziergang durch die Innenstadt» Nordinsel: Waitomo - Eine Tour durch die Glühwürmchenhöhle
» Nordinsel: Die Stadt Rotorua & die Geothermalregion Wai-O-Tapu
» Nordinsel: Die Geothermalregion Orakei Korako
» Nordinsel: Das Tongariro Alpine Crossing & die Stadt Wellington
» Nordinsel / Südinsel: Picton - Mit der Fähre von der Nordinsel auf die Südinsel
» Südinsel: Der Abel Tasman Nationalpark - Bootstour & Wanderung
» Südinsel: Die Pancake Rocks & die Seelöwen am Cape Foulwind
» Südinsel: Der Franz-Josef-Gletscher im Westland-Nationalpark
» Südinsel: Der Fox-Gletscher - Mit dem Helikopter zur Eiswanderung
» Südinsel: Neuseeländische Alpen - Franz-Josef bis Milford Sound
» Südinsel: Milford Sound - Eine Bootsfahrt durch den Fjord
» Südinsel: Die Road to Milford Sound & die Stadt Queenstown