Abel Tasman National Park – beaches and forests

We arrived in the dark after following a 12km narrow dirt road, blocked partly by rocks and trees - or sometimes a whole part of the street was missing. Just 2 weeks ago they had massive rainfalls on the south island with a lot of flooding. Weather wise we are just lucky again, it is sunny.

Suddenly in our front lights, just coming around one edge was a bucket digger. That was a bit odd. But still we could drive to our destination (no street closure), a big campsite, totally deserted. We were the only one.

Hungry as wolves and a big tour ahead we started cooking a nice dinner. And suddenly our gas cooker went dead. Empty. So we got only an extra big salad and chips. This also meant no espresso in the morning and untoasted toast. Sounded like a perfect start for a 7 hours track.

From Totaranui to Whangawharangi via Gibbs Hill back again was a 20 km tour and we did it in 4 ½ hours. Don’t know how but we had a fast pace. The estimated time of 7 hours for this track was given by the Department of Conservation. Maybe the distance was not correct but still, we covered a lot of ground. We could feel it in the muscles.

Our legs felt pretty wobbly and the last bit only downhill wasn’t a relieve. That was crazy but definitely a mind blowing landscape. The golden beaches, sandy estuaries all embedded in a natural forest. This is definitely a must do in NZ.

Let’s keep on going to refill our gas bottle. Want to have some nice dinner tonight.