VictoriaApril 2
Abel Tasman was a Dutch explorer who was the first to discover New Zealand in 1642. Although the area existed well before Abel arrived, the Abel Tasman National Park is named in his honor. The park is the smallest of NZ’s national parks and receives the most visitors.
Today is the first day of our five day guided walk of the Abel Tasman Track, one of NZ’s Great Walks. This is more of a walk and less of a hike, with minimal elevation gain walking through beech and rimu forests from one beach to the next.
We met our group and guides at Wilsons office in Motueka for a quick briefing about the day. This hike only has 19 people and two guides, much smaller than our previous hikes.
We boarded the bus for a 20 minute ride to the dock where we then walked through sand and over a small makeshift bridge to board a boat that traveled the length of the Abel Tasman National Park coastline from Kaiteriteri to Totaranui.
The 1 hr 45 min boat ride made many stops to let day walkers and kayakers off the boat. We were eager to start our hike. The weather was overcast, but not raining, weather I’ve come to appreciate on a hike.
We began our hike at the northern end of Abel Tasman National Park.
We finally arrived at our destination, Totaranui. Our guides separated us into two groups: those who wanted to walk a bit longer and those who wanted a shorter hike. We chose to go the extra two miles to explore an area of the park east of Totaranui. While we were circling up getting our briefing, we saw a new bird on our trip, the pūkeko, and of course the devious weka seeking out what it might steal from a tourist or two.
We walked through mature forest and learned about the different trees and plants from our knowledgable guide Sarah. We hiked about 6.5 miles in total today, a fairly easy start to our Great Walk.
We continued on our hike and walked on a secluded beach filled with beautiful shells. There was no one there besides our group of hikers, so it felt very remote.
We reached the Awaroa Inlet, where we experienced the first of many tidal changes the park is known for. When we arrived, the tide was coming in and rising quickly. We had to wait for a small motorboat to take us across the estuary.
As you can see, the boat couldn’t get to shore to pick us up without grounding. So to board, we had to put on our water shoes, roll up our pants and wade out to our boat to take us across the water to our accommodation.
We stayed for the next two nights at the Meadowbank Homestead.
We checked into our room, showered and went for our nightly briefing before dinner.
Tomorrow is a rest day, so we will be spending the day at Meadowbank. Kayaking is off the list due to the low tide and low tide here literally means zero water and all sand. It’s a complete transformation. Alternatively, there are two short walks we can do. Or we can just laze around and do nothing!
We’ll see how we feel in the morning and make a plan after breakfast.
