Kayaking and Walking in Abel Tasman NP

  Motueka, New Zealand
Saturday, April 7, 2007

It took a long day of driving to get to our next destination, Abel Tasman National Park. This is the smallest national park in New Zealand but many people go there to walk or kayak the coastline. When we finally pulled into town at around 8pm and after we checked into our campervan park we headed to town to find a bite to eat. Mom's guidebook recommended Hot Mamas but when we drove by we found all the customers with long dreadlocks, loud live music and a couple making out in the doorway. We went Thai. The Thai restaurant was great. Julius and I even ordered Chang beer to remind us of our time in Bangkok.

The next day Mom, Julius and I went to the National Park to do a four hour walk. The best way to do this at the park is to take a speed boat to a beach halfway up the park then walk back to the entrance and carpark. The first kilometer of the walk was straight uphill. We got a little nervous at this. Was the whole walk up and down hills? Thankfully, the trail leveled out and the rest of it was carved along the side of the mountain. There were streams, fabulous views, lush greenery and beaches to visit along the way. We can see why this walk is so popular. Plus we were lucky to have great sunny weather.

Since we had one more day before needing to head to Nelson we decided to do a kayak trip along a different part of the park. Dad was joining us on this too. Another speedboat took us to a beach where we met our guide.

We joined another couple from the Netherlands (website here) who were also doing a trip around the world. They are going to Vancouver BC and Tanzania so it was fun to chat about their plans. 

Dad and Julius in the Kayak

Our guide was also very interesting. He had lots of stories about the area and told us about his time as a set builder for the Lord of the Rings movies. The castles in Return of the King are made from styrofoam and spray concrete!

Kayaking was a little more difficult than walking but we got the hang of it. We even managed the choppier waters at the end. When we finished the day and got dropped off back at the campervan park we had to hightail it out of town and get to Nancy and Mark's place in Nelson. Luckily Nelson is less than an hour away.