New Zealand | Discover Abel Tasman National Park

Abel Tasman National Park (Location here) is located in the upper left of New Zealand's South Island. This national park is named after Abel Tasman, a Dutch navigator who arrived in 1642 New Zealand discovered. This park is known for its green surroundings, its beautiful bays and for kayaking close to this coast.

To see those beautiful bays and the green surroundings, you can take walks in many different places. Actually, there are two larger starting points for small and longer hikes. Those are the locations Crazy en Totaranui. Incidentally, there are more locations from which you can go hiking, such as Wainui en Awaora.

In addition, you can Adele Island (Location here), discover the coastlines and of course the associated bays from a kayak. I will discuss both below, because it is all really fantastic!

Things to do in Abel Tasman National Park

There are so many things to do in Abel Tasman National Park. It is good to know that many things overlap and so doing everything is actually unnecessary. You can do a number of very different things, which I will explain below. In any case, it is already worth going kayaking or taking a walk. You can also combine this if you have less time. If you have all the time, I would definitely do it separately. Why I will explain later.

Also read: The 10 Most Beautiful National Parks in New Zealand | Nature at its best

Hiking | Day hike from Marahau

There are many hiking trails, both multi-day and day hikes. You can also visit the different areas within Abel Tasman with only day hikes, so that you can still discover more of this beautiful park. When you do a multi-day hike, you automatically walk through several areas. I made two day hikes myself. The first from Crazy and the second from Totaranui.

This hike was much more beautiful than I had expected. We walked from the Anchorage Cabin back to Crazy (Location here). Although the Anchorage Hut is located in the middle of Abel Tasman National Park, you can start your hike by taking a water taxi to this point. The water taxi departs from Marahau and is an activity in itself.

The water taxi

After you have bought (or already have, because you have reserved) tickets, you must collect at the company at the agreed time. There a boat will be assigned for you and you can already sit in it. While the boat is on a trailer, it is brought towards the water with a tractor. The tractor reverses and you suddenly sail with the boat. A crazy, but fun experience. Then the boat pays a small visit Split Apple Rock (Location here) and then the boat goes full speed to Anchorage Hut. Of course you can already see the beautiful bays in the distance that you can walk past or to later.

Travel Route

The route from Anchorage Hut to Marahau is approximately 12 kilometers and without breaks it takes an average of 3,5 to 4 hours to walk.

From Anchorage Hut (Location here) you have the choice to walk straight towards Marahau, with possible stops at the beautiful bays. What you can also do is walk around in the direction Pit Head Lookout (Location here). It will take you about 1,5 hours and 5 kilometers extra, but it is very beautiful. If you want to do this, we recommend taking the water taxi at 10.30 am at the latest, so that you can add this to the normal route. During the loop towards Pitt Head Lookout you can see the bay At Pukatea Bay and it is really amazingly beautiful!

Then you walk towards Marahau. It is a fairly flat route, except for the first hour. In the first hour you walk up a bit. Even when you look at a bay, you always have to go down a bit and of course back up again. Two fine bays, where you can also enjoy a swim during a break from your walk, are Akersten Bay (Location here) On Apple Tree Bay (Location here). Of course, the other options are also great, so take a look when you feel like going to the bay.

Unfortunately, we found the last part of the walk very boring. This section actually starts when you leave Abel Tasman National Park and walk towards the village. We had parked our campervan at the water taxi company and that was secretly quite a walk. As a tip, I would therefore like to give you advice about your means of transport at Abel Tasman Carpark (location here) to put down. That saves you the last kilometer at the end of the day. Of course you have to walk that kilometer before you get on the water taxi, but I would really recommend that.

Tip: Add a drink The Park Cafe (Location here), which is next to the parking lot at the end of the National Park. A very nice place and a good end to your walk of the day.

Hiking | Day hike from Totaranui

What I especially liked compared to the hike above is that you see new views almost continuously and you hardly walk up and down. The route is basically a circle with a viewpoint here and there, where you can walk up and down.

You start this hike from the place Totaranui (Location here) and that's where you end up. We parked our campervan at the DOC campsite that is here, but you also have day parking spaces. To start this route you actually walk in the same direction as where you came from with your means of transport. Then there are signs to indicate the route.

Travel Route

First you go direction Gibb's Hill (Location here) and that is mainly rising. The advantage is that this is almost the entire route in the shade, which makes it doable with some heat. After Gibbs Hill you mainly descend, but it remains a hilly area. The next stop is then the Whariwharangi Hut (Location here). An ideal place to take a break, for example, because there are also picnic tables. You can also refill your water here and visit the toilet. When you walk away from this hut, you can take a look at the beach, but then you do not continue your route via the beach.

You go next direction Mutton Cove (Location here). Towards Mutton Cove you can choose to walk back and forth towards Separation point. If I'm honest, the point was a bit disappointing. You can still go down at the end, but we did not do that. I expect the visibility was better there. The view on the route towards Separation Point was very beautiful!

Then you continue to Mutton Cove and then you continue on the beach. After this you leave the beach again and walk through the greenery to the next bay. Also here, at Anapai Bay (Location here), you walk a bit on the beach again and then the route is back to Totaranui.

During the entire route you have fantastic views and the bays you walk over are really beautiful. It is certainly worth exploring the north of Abel Tasman National Park as well.

Kayaking in Abel Tasman

Kayaking in the park is a must! You can rent kayaks from several companies to complete a route yourself, but if this does not feel comfortable, you can also join a guide. We opted for only renting and to determine and take the route ourselves. Our starting point was Crazy and of course we came back there.

We also rented a kayak Kahu Kayaks and were very excited about it. They gave a very good explanation and good stuff. In addition, they brought you to the water with the kayak and picked you up again. In addition to good explanations about how to use everything, they also explained where you could best go.

Travel Route

What was a huge highlight for us was kayaking along the seals. These are on the rocks and in the water around Adele Island (Location here). That is one of the first small islands that you can kayak to. If you want to see the seals at their best, you have to lie still for a while along the rocks, of course at a suitable distance. This so that the seals will probably give a show in the water. That is very nice to see I can tell you!

After that you can enjoy all the bays. They are the same bays as you walk past on the first walk I explained above, but everything looks very different from the water. You probably haven't seen all the bays with the walk, so it's nice to see them now.

Kayaking all day is quite tough, don't underestimate that. Making a stop somewhere is therefore a very wise thing to do. For example, we really took off our kayaking outfit and went swimming on one of the beautiful beaches. You can also tap drinking water at several bays.

What else can you do?

There are so many more things to do in Abel Tasman National Park. You can also go kayaking for half a day and then walk back for half a day (as we did with the water taxi), but there are also multi-day hikes. For example, you can take a water taxi to TorrentBay (Location here) or Awaroa Bay (Location here) and from there hike back to Crazy.

If you want to know more about this, go to the information center of the DOC in Nelson. We were helped very well there and therefore made our choices about what we wanted to do and see.

Near Abel Tasman

In addition to Abel Tasman National Park, you can also take another trip. You are almost at the northernmost tip of the South Island. To do this, follow your navigation direction Caption (Location here), by Golden bay. The road to here is already incredibly beautiful and the two viewpoints are also highly recommended.

Because here are Wharariki Beach en Cape Farewell. A short walk of about 20 minutes will take you to Wharariki Beach. You can also take a longer walk there, but you don't have to to see it. A really beautiful piece of nature.

The second viewpoint Cape Farewell is the northernmost tip of the South Island. You can also take a short walk here, but you can also walk a little further. As you walk further, you can enjoy an increasingly higher top of the bay. With a bit of luck you can even see seals playing with the waves in the water here.

Practical Information

How do you get there?

The Abel Tasman National Park is a bit off the main roads. This does not mean that you cannot get there easily, because there are excellent roads to it. By this I mean that you have to drive there and not just drive by. It is located in a corner.

Also read: Travel information New Zealand | Everything you want to know 

Near the city Nelson (Location here) is a smaller town called Richmond and you pass or through it before you drive to the north of the South Island. From Richmond you take the New Zealand State Highway 60 towards the north.

What does it cost?

Like all New Zealand National Parks, Abel Tasman is also free to visit. Really so fantastic that it is arranged this way in New Zealand. Entrance to the area is therefore completely free, but if you are going to use a water taxi or rent a kayak, there will of course be costs involved.

The prices below are from March 2023.

• A water taxi is $48 per person (about €28).
• Renting a two-person kayak costs $146 (about €85), so for two people.

Where to stay?

You can spend the night in quite a lot of places around Abel Tasman National Park. There are several campsites in it Crazy. If you are looking for a free camping spot, it is best to spend the night from Marahau Motueka. It's heading north Totaranui a very nice DOC campsite (view here) and if you're looking for a free camping spot, it's best to go in Takaka overnight. From both free sleeping places you really have to drive a bit before you start your activity of that day. The roads are well paved around Abel Tasman, except for the last ten kilometers towards it Totaranui.