Whilst at the top of the north island a popular location to visit is Abel Tasman National Park. The easiest way to visit is to stay in the town of Nelson and book a tour to get you up there and do whatever activities you want. You can go kayaking, camping, 4-5 day treks, guided or unguided, or simply do a single day trek and get taken back to your hostel.

As i am on my way to join a sailing boat i haven’t packed for trekking or camping trips so i had to stick to a single day trek. I picked a trek which would start in Bark Bay, take me through Torrent Bay, Anchorage, Apple Tree Bay and back to the starting point of Marahau.

The company i used, Abel Tasman Aquataxi, have a fleet of water taxis that run up and down the coast picking people up and dropping  them off, they also take your bags up ahead so you don’t have to carry a heavy rucksack around with you if you are on a longer trek. When  i checked in the lady said to me ‘Oh, you are on the big trek aren’t you ? You have to keep moving on that one, don’t hang around too long’.

I realised that the suggested 6 1/2 to 7 hour estimate of the trek might be more accurate than i thought ! They normaly over estimate on these sort of things just to make sure everybody gets back in time and nobody gets left behind.

The water taxi took me up to the drop off point in Bark bay and i jumped ship to start my 24 km trek through the national park.

The trek sometimes hugs the coastline, goes along the beach or climbs up and down over the hilltops, always changing and giving you different views all the time.

Various bridges appear to help you over any gorges or rivers –

It was a great day out, fantastic scenary, good weather but pretty exhausting. It was pretty much a full 6 hour trek with hardly any stops along the way, only a few 5 minute stops to admire the views.

Back to the start and the tide had gone out quite some considerable way.