Abel Tasman NP

The pre-ordered shuttle took us verrrrry early (8:30 😂, based on the previous days and weeks that was early) to the nearby Aquataxi base. Waiting for more people we were ready to board a speedboat 🚤, a tractor‘s 🚜 going to pull us to the beach and push us into the water (it was low tide). Everyone including the kids were asked to put on the lifejackets. First stop: Split Apple Rock. (Luckily we could skip the drive there, as it should be a bumpy road and very little space to turn around.) On the second stop we could spot some fur seals. They blended in perfectly with the stones...

After 30minutes bumpy ride over the Tasman sea we arrived at Anchorage, our starting point of today’s walk to Bark‘s Bay, which is part of Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. The girls were excited to have golden sand under their feet and it was hard to persuade them to start the track, but we had to, as we needed to cross Torrent Bay during low tide as we otherwise needed to make an 1,5hr detour.

Crossing the Bay was good fun. We saw boats on land, loads of mussels and we waddled through streams. The path continued through rain forest along the various bays and saw one beautiful beach after the other. After loooong 8,5km we arrived just in time for our aquataxi, which will bring us back to Marahau, but also meant no further time to spend at the beach... the girls were a bit sad. Especially Matilda, as she walked all by herself (proud mom moment) and was very looking forward to the sand.Read more