Abel Tasman Coastal Walk

Abel Tasman National Park is New Zealand’s smallest but most visited of the 14 national parks. The Abel Tasman Coastal Walk is one of the Great Walks and runs for 53 kilometres from Marahau to Wainui Bay. It mostly runs along the coastline at different altitudes. Some branches lead to remote bays or into the interior of the national park.

It usually takes three to five days to complete this track. You can spend the night either in DOC huts or on campsites. Frank drives me by car to the starting point in Marahau – and there’s no turning back. I spend the first night in the hut in Bark Bay, with 23 kilometres ahead of me today. The first day is exhausting and rainy. It’s unusual to hike alone.

Giant ferns and palm trees feel like jungle. From up here you can see the yellow bays with their light blue to turquoise water and you want to stop at every one and go down to the beach. But as I still have a long way to go and it has started to drizzle, I concentrate on the main path and leave the detours to the left.

I’ve seen a few kayakers so far, but haven’t met any other hikers. During my lunch break in Torrent Bay, I run into a group of Asians having a picnic who have just arrived on one of the water taxis and are chatting on their radios. Strange customs… After a short break, I walk on quickly to leave the pack behind me.

The path leads steeply uphill and downhill – I am relieved when I finally reach the hut in the afternoon, as my rucksack is getting heavier and heavier. There are already a few other hikers there. A fun get-together with a Swiss man, who even the Dutch understand better in German than in English, a man from Munich, a couple of Australians and a group of Asians who, as always, keep to themselves.

As Bark Bay lies between Sandfly and Mosquito Bay, I don’t go to the beach and eat the sandwiches and muffins I’ve brought with me after an ice-cold shower at the edge of the forest. At bedtime, everyone crawls into their sleeping bags and settles into their mattresses. Everyone? No! The Swiss man wraps himself in his aluminium thermal blanket, which weighs just 5 grams, and rustles through the night. The wine-soaked Australians saw through the nearby forest. Good night until the next morning!

I walk the stretch to the first tidal crossing in Onetahuti Bay together with the Swiss, who takes the water taxi back from there. Forewarned by a group of Dutch people at the lodge who attempted the crossing the day before between the tides and had to balance their rucksacks on their heads because of the high water level, I take a longer break in Awaroa. At the lodge there, I treat myself to a delicious salad with roast lamb strips and wasabi aioli dressing and a refreshing ginger beer.

I spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach, waiting for the tide to go out so I can cross the next bay. There are only a few hikers on the way, and everyone is eagerly waiting to see how deep they will sink when they cross the ford. I have such a good chat with a couple from Pforzheim about travelling on the trail that we have almost planned our next holiday in South America by the time we arrive at their campsite.

I have to walk a step faster to make up the time. Along the way, one bay follows the next – and each beach is even more beautiful and whiter than the one before. In the evening, after a final strenuous climb, I finally reach Totaranui Bay, where Frank is waiting for me at the campsite with dinner and a tent already pitched. In the meantime, he and a couple of professors from Christchurch have already had a good time with wine and strong beer. We round off the evening with good music and whiskey while stargazing.

Nobody is really fit the next morning. Frank vapours out residual alcohol. After a hearty breakfast, I set off so late that I miss the low tide on the beach and have to take the inland track for the first section. I continue up and down across meadows and through the forest. Eventually I meet up with the Australians from the Bark Bay hut again, who persuade me to take the diversions via Separation Point with them. I’ll do almost anything for a good view and a few seals.

After another two hours past an old farmhouse, I reach the end of the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. We are once again on equal footing.

from Mrs Matzkinger