From Nelson, we drove to the Abel Tasman National Park. Although it is the smallest in New Zealand, it is also the most popular with over 250,000 visitors a year of which 100,000 visit in the summer months. We can see why it's popularity is skewed to summer and not winter as you'll find out! We stayed in
Marahau Beach Camp and booked a water taxi through them too.
The water taxi was more like a tour, taking us to split apple rock, Kaiteriteri beach - acclaimed as one of the most beautiful in the world (note to selves; must return in summer!) and then up to Tonga island where we saw some seals. The seals were so small and sweet that the Argentinean sea lions would have eaten them for breakfast!
We were dropped off at Tonga bay for the 4.5 hour hike to Anchorage bay. Unfortunately it started to bucket down 10 minutes into our hike and we feared it would never stop....it didn't for the next 2 days actually. Within half an hour, our jackets and shoes were no longer water proof and an hour into our hike, we were dreaming of warm baths and steaming cups of coffee. It took us only 3 hours to get to Torrent bay, our visions of steaming cuppas propelling us forward, leaving us with the half an hour walk across the sea estuary to Anchorage. Unfortunately, the torrential rain and a late low tide meant we all had to wade through the sea....in our shoes, socks and trousers. Hysterical by this stage, we continued on, squelching through the mud dunes until we got to the boat. On the upside, the park was really beautiful with some amazing views and to be fair, it could have been worse - we could have been in sea kayaks which is what the area is most famous for!
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