Abel Tasman National Park
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
41
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Abel Tasman National Park,
South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
After parking up and plugging in we ran into the office to try and book a tour before they shut up for the day. We probably rather stupidly only scheduled one day at the park so we had to opt for an all in one tour involving some kayaking and hiking.
Finally sorted we strolled into the restaurant hoping to get some half decent fush n' chups. What we didn't expect was one of the best meals we've had in NZ so far, and that's really saying something. Emmet started with a whitebait entree. Whitebait is a NZ delicacy which is in season at the moment and therefore ubiqutous on menus up and down the west coast. It's a tiny little fish, commonly battered and deep fried whole or thrown into an omelette. We've spotted dozens of people with their nets out along rivers trying to catch the critters; and at 20 bucks for a starter of them I can understand why! Emmet's came out in an omelette and I have to say they were pretty tasteless.
Amazing Pancake Rocks
Maybe they would be better deep fried?! Anyway, you live and learn. He then had some sinfully good NZ lamb (almost as good as the Kerry variety) and I had Grouper. (Yes yes I know, not sustainable, I'm going straight to eco-hell...) All washed down with some delicious NZ Ale / Marlborough red wine, followed by creme brulee for desert. No wonder I have put on half a stone on this trip. (And we're not even half way through!)The next morning was a sprightly 8am start and a 2 min stroll over to where our sea kayaks were getting set up. After some embaressing safety demonstrations involving myself and Emmet we were all set to head into the park and pray our kayak didn't tip over. Abel Tasman is NZ's smallest national park, only 225 square kilometres, but it's definitley one of it's most beautiful. It boasts a plethora of beautiful coastlines and beaches, loads of which you can camp overnight on. (Which with any common sense is what we would have done.) The first European explorer to stumble upon the area ended up in a bit of a miscommunication with the local Maouris; they blew their horn to find out if his group was peaceful or war waging. The appropriate response was to stay silent indicating peace, instead Mr. Tasman pulled out his trumpet and gave it welly, resulting in the slaughter of his entire landing party bar himself and two others. Oopsie!
Luckily it's alot friendlier these days for our sort, although a French girl on our tour got alot of (well deserved) ribbing about their lot blowing up the Rainbow Warrior! The kayaking was brilliant, even though Emmet laid back and watched me do all the work ;) We paddled along hugging the shoreline, spying native trees, birds and penguins along the way.
Powerful sea
Mercifully the sun had come out and the bays shaded us from much of the wind so sea faring conditions were very pleasent indeed. At lunch time we pulled into one of the beaches for our chicken sambos, muffins and gumboot (black) tea. After piling on some energy giving calories we hopped on a water taxi to Torrent Bay. We had a two hour, fairly leisurely, but spectacularly scenic hike over to Bark Bay. After going bananas with my camera we were picked up by a water taxi and dropped back to our starting point by a huge blue tractor with our boat trailing behind it. If only all exercise was that much fun. Travellers Tips
If you have a campervan consider doing what we should have done. Drop it a few days earlier and bus it up to Abel Tasman so you can spend longer in the park. We didn't want to spend the money camping in the park after paying for our camper, plus were a bit worried about leaving it parked up for a few days, even though I'm sure somewhere like Motueka it would be perfectly fine.
We paid 145 dollars for our one day tour, it was pretty good value. If you have more time in the park the company we went with (attached to the campsite in Motueka can't remember their name and not sure if they are the best value as we arrived late and didn't have time to shop around in other towns) do freedom tours, where you get a guide for the first day so you get a heads up on how to kayak properly, where to go etc, then you can spend the next few days on your own exploring the park and camping in DOC campsites. Crucial to book ahead if you're doing a few days though especially in high season. Can't remember the cost of these 4 / 5 day tours but think they were around 400 bucks per person including all equipment.
Eat in the restaurant in Motueka, it's divine.
