Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand (Post #100)
Hello! Michele here…
On March 17th, we made the 7-hour drive from Waitomo Caves to Wellington. I drove the first 3 hours and Mike drove the next 4 hours. The first part of the drive, like so much of the driving in New Zealand, involved going through mountain passes on twisty narrow roads. (I am still not used to driving on the left hand side of the road!) What is also true about the driving in New Zealand is that it never ceases to amaze us how stunning the scenary is. Driving in New Zealand is like constantly looking out over a scenic overlook. The country is beautiful everywhere. There are either moutains, oceans, lush forests, or green pastures filled with fluffy sheep alongside almost every road we’ve driven on.
We spent a few days in Wellington but didn’t do enough to write a blog so I will just briefly mention here what we did. First, we relaxed in our luxurious motor inn. Well, it was luxious to us. The motor inns in New Zealand are very high quality and the three we have stayed at, including this one, have had a large bathroom, spacious bedroom, cable TV, and little kitchen. Anyway, the two tourist activities we did while visiting Wellington included going to the Wellinton Zoo and visiting the National Tattoo Museum. We went to the zoo primarily to see the Tuatara lizard. This lizard has a third eye, is uinuqe to New Zealand, and has been around as long as New Zealand has been around. It is said to be closely related to the dinosaur. We viewed both a male and female Tuatara lizard in dim light since they are housed in a sort of darkened zoo area – and did you know the male Tuatara has no penis? See, you learn something new everyday.
We also spent several hours at the National Tattoo Museum in Wellington. This museum housed a tattoo shop (of course) and thousands of pictures of tattooed people from many different countries. The tattoos shown in the photographs often reflected the individual’s culture and/or country of origin. Some of the indigenous Moari people of New Zealand get their entire faces and bodies tattooed and the pictures of the tattooed Moaris were a fantastic illustration of how these tattoos are beautifully patterned and very intricate.
We left Wellington after spending two nights there and on March 19th we got up at 5:30am in order to be at the ferry terminal by 7:30. We had purchased ferry tickets over the phone and let me tell you, it is not cheap for 2 people and a car to ride the ferry from the north island to the south island through the Cook Straight. The total = $180 USD! Ouch! (We later learned that we should have rented from a car company that allowed us to drop the car off in Wellington and pick up a new one in Picton on the south island – oh well.) The funny thing was that when we arrived at the ferry terminal, we noticed there were very few cars there. The guy said, “Hi folks! Forget to set your clock back one hour last night? You know it’s only 6:20”. Ugh.
It took about three hours for the ferry to go from the north island to the south island. We drove off the ferry and took the scenic route to Abel Tasman National Park. We shared the driving and eventually arrived at Marahau, the last town before the national park. Marahau is a very small place and consists of only a few streets and few houses. There are only a handful of establishments but those that do exist either offer water taxi services, kayak rental, and/or guided walks on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, one of the “great walks” of New Zealand. An interesting thing about this part of New Zealand is that the tides are extreme – meaning the low tide is a lot lower than the high tide. Here is a picture I took the first night we arrived in Marahau. As you can see it’s low tide:
For more photos and blog read on…
The morning after we arrived we took a water taxi up the coast in order to walk some of the most scenic parts of the Abel Tasman Coastal walk. We walked 5 hours and despite the fact that it was cloudy, the views from the trail were outstanding. There were clear water streams, green moss covered rocks underneath small water falls, ducks and fish swimming in shallow water along side the trail, swinging bridges covering small salt water pools, and many white sand beach coves surrounded by beautiful light blue water. This is a picture I took from one of the look out points on the trail:
The day after our walk we got up early again but this time we headed for the nearby kayak rental place where we would receive our safety lesson. It was interesting that Mike and I were the only two people who had signed up for the “free kayaking” – that is, kayaking around the bay without a guide. All the other people we saw went out with a guide that day. It was much cheaper without a guide and in our opinion, it was probably more fun because we could go where ever we wanted whenever we wanted.
We had a great, (but exhausting!) day. The first thing we did was kayak around two small islands where we saw several bird colonies and 5 or 6 seals. The seals are fun to watch and they will often dive in the water when you get close to them. At the second island, we stopped at a deserted small black sand beach where we ate a picnic lunch. Right as we sat down to eat, two seals popped their heads out of the water and took a look at us. After a couple of seconds, they swam away playfully. This was a great moment and we talked about how cool it was that two seals came to visit us during our private picnic lunch. We kayaked for 5 hours and by the time we got back our back and arms were burning. Here are some pictures from our kayaking adventure:
Mike and I just as we were leaving for the day… 
A picture from the kayak looking at one of the beach coves. You can see the sign for the Abel Tasman Coastal Track (trail) on the beach. Also, note the color of the water – yep, it really was this color!
On the way back home we took this photo…
After two full days at Abel Tasman National Park we headed for Picton. On the way, we stopped several times to take photos of the beauty of New Zealand. Here is one of those photos. Again, it is low tide. You can also see the mountains in the background and some very beautiful clouds. Gotta run…bye!
Tags: Category #26: New Zealand
Michele Harmon
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