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.
All travelogues from New Zealand
For 11 days we explored New Zealand from north to south by rental car on our own. We started our trip on the North Island in the city of Auckland, we experienced the tremendous underground forces in Wai-O-Tapu and Orakei Korako, we explored the capital Wellington, drove across the New Zealand Alps, did a glacier hike on the Fox Glacier, before we finished with a trip through the UNESCO World Heritage Site Milford Sound. New Zealand is a really beautiful country that we enjoyed incredibly.
» North Island: Auckland – Tourist Attractions, Things to Do & Photo spots (New Zealand)» North Island: Waitomo – The Waitomo Glowworm Caves (New Zealand)
» North Island: Rotorua & The geothermal area Wai-O-Tapu (New Zealand)
» North Island: Orakei Korako – The geothermal region in Taupo (New Zealand)
» North Island: The Tongariro Alpine Crossing & the city of Wellington (New Zealand)
» North Island / South Island: Picton – The ferry from the North Island to the South Island (New Zealand)
» South Island: Abel Tasman National Park – Hiking & Boat tour (New Zealand)
» South Island: Pancake Rocks & the Sea Lions at Cape Foulwind (New Zealand)
» South Island: The Franz Josef Glacier in Westland National Park (New Zealand)
» South Island: Fox Glacier – Heli-Hike, Glacier Walk & Ice Climbing (New Zealand)
» South Island: New Zealand Alps – From Franz-Josef to Milford Sound (New Zealand)
» South Island: Milford Sound – A boat trip through the fjord (New Zealand)
» South Island: Road to Milford Sound & the town of Queenstown (New Zealand)