Abel Tasman Track

As we worked our way northward from Kaikoura, we learned about the Abel Tasman Coast Track (one of the Great Walks of NZ), and made plans to hike the 33 mile trail.  We were able to secure campsites for two nights along the track, with water taxi folks set up to take our heavy bags each day so we could hike with just a day pack.  On the third day they would pick us up at the end of the trail and transport us back to the beginning, where our car would be.  We were looking forward to hiking the coast trail with beautiful ocean views.  The plan was to visit various beaches along the trail and enjoy the New Zealand sunshine.  Ah, such a great plan!  I only wish it had worked out that way.

One thing we have learned during our stay here is that New Zealand’s weather is unpredictable – and it can be fierce!  New Zealand sits in the middle of the Roaring 40s, between latitudes 40 and 50 in the southern hemisphere, where there are strong westerly gale force winds throughout most of the year.  We have already spent a couple of nights with the wind shaking our tent like we were in a cyclone – I was sure the nearby trees were going to blow over onto us!  When we’ve mentioned it to the locals, they shrug and say it’s normal for this time of year.  Normal!  In the case of the Abel Tasman trail, when we booked the hike the weather was supposed to be “fine,” but as we got closer to the date rain and showers crept into the forecast.  It started to rain the afternoon before our hike and Daron and I hoped that the storm had arrived early and would be mostly gone by the time we started the hike the next day.  We were as ready as we could be and went to bed looking forward to the next day.

Daron walking down the flooded street

Neither of us slept that night.  It poured ALL night long – not a light rain, but poured!  And the wind!  If we hadn’t been in our tent I am sure it would have blown away.  The rain was more concerning because it never at any moment let up.  Our campground was near a stream and we both had thoughts of the stream overflowing and taking all the campers with it.  How do you get out of a tent when you’re washed downstream and it’s all zipped up around you?  These are the thoughts that kept us awake (and we did peek outside and check from time to time).  It got light out and we were both happy to get out of the tent, only to see that the campground had become a small lake.  Some campers had tried to leave and were not able to for some reason - neither of us was too concerned at the time (we were trying to pack up our wet stuff and get ready for the hike still).  We packed up the car, and started to head out ourselves, only to find a large campervan parked in the exit/entrance to the campground!  (What the heck!  Is this Hotel California?)

Tractors pulling empty boat trailers

We came to find out that the stream DID overflow and took the road to the campground with it!  We got out and walked the road (now a small river) in our sandals.  It covered the entire length of road and flooded a few buildings at the end too!  We walked through town to the water taxi place and asked what their status was – they were in the process of cancelling all their trips that day, focused only on evacuating people out of the park.  They refunded us our money and we walked back to the campground where our vehicle was stranded.  Shortly thereafter the rain stopped (finally!) and the stream subsided enough that vehicles could leave the campground.  We were so tired that we immediately left town and got a room nearby where we dried out our sleeping bags and tent, etc.  We both slept like a rock that night. 

We tried to leave the entire area the next day but the road to the town we were headed was washed out!  We later learned that lots of other places in the area had worse flooding than what we experienced.  Even though we didn’t feel like it at the time, we were lucky.  There were no fatalities, but some campers did lose their things when other campgrounds flooded.  Since we couldn’t get out of town we took a break to discuss our options.  Neither of us wanted to let Abel Tasman go, so we decided to give it another try (call us crazy).  We booked a water taxi to take us halfway into the park the next day so we could dayhike the best part of the trail.  We went back to the flooded campground to stay for the night, surprised when we got there that it looked like almost nothing had happened (besides some torn up asphalt). 

View from along the trail

Certain parts of the trail are tidal, meaning that you have to cross it at low tide, which makes planning the entire trip a bit tricky at certain times.  Luckily the section we were hiking had only one tidal area to cross, and it was going to be low tide when we were there.  The tides in that area are crazy – they vary up to18 feet from low to high tide!  It’s a challenge for the water taxi companies to get their boats into the sea when it’s low tide.  We had to all get into the boat while it was still on the trailer, then it was pulled across the low water area by tractor, and then backed into the water until it floated off the trailer.  Two tractors actually got bogged down the morning we were there (but not ours - phew!). 

This time all went well – the water taxi took us to our dropoff point along the trail and we hiked our way back to the beginning.  It was a beautiful blue sky day – we couldn’t have asked for better weather!  We had ocean views the entire way and stopped at various beaches to have a snack and lounge around.  Daron swam at one beach, even though the water was very cold (at least it was to me!).  The only oddity was the number of giant bumblebees in the area.  For some reason they seem to really like me – Daron said while we were hiking he kept seeing them circling my head (first the cicadas in Oz and now the bumblebees in NZ – lucky me!).  For those of you who think they can’t sting (like we did), they can!  I had one get caught in my towel and while I was folding it up, it stung me.  I thought I got stuck by a thorn until I saw the bee fly out.  I found out later that bumblebees were brought to NZ to pollinate the red clover, about 100 years ago.

Pit stop along the beach!

Abel Tasman National Park is at the north end of the south island and is protected by a long spit, so the bay is very calm.  It is named after Abel Tasman, who was the first European to see New Zealand, although he never set foot on it.  Abel was a Dutchman who was commandeering two ships looking for southern land and anything valuable it might contain.  In 1642 he sailed into the cove near the trail we hiked and the resident Maori people greeted them in their canoes with their traditional challenge, meant to find out if they were friend or foe.  A skirmish occurred and four of the Dutch crewmen were killed.  Abel Tasman sailed away and no European set foot on New Zealand for 127 years, when James Cook arrived in 1769. 

We had better luck than Mr. Tasman and thoroughly enjoyed our day on the trail.  I’m glad that we gave it a second try – it was well worth it!