Abel Tazman National Park at the northern tip of the South Island is one of New Zealand’s gems. It is a coastal park only reachable by boat. We found individual small beachside cabins in the tiny village of Maharau, just at the park entrance. There are water taxis that will drop you off at a beach of your choosing and then you can trek to another beach over excellently prepared paths to be picked up, or just stay and enjoy being virtually alone on a golden sand beach with Azure waters. Cheryl and I chose to trek over one of the more scenic parts of the park in the morning crossing a long suspension bridge (way to go Cheryl) and then sea kayak in the afternoon. Alan and Lois chose to trek the same trail at a bit more leisurely pace.
The trek is very interesting in that as you ascend off of the beach you immediately enter a temperate climate rain Forest. It is densely overgrown with giant ferns, many types of pine and an indigenous Beech tree. It is as dense and dark as any tropical rain forest we have visited. We achieved quite an elevation and at points could look down to beautiful deserted beaches.
After that it was off to an afternoon of sea kayaking. We saw colonies of fur seals, with some swimming around our kayaks, Blue Penguins, Oyster Catchers, Gannets, and Shags. As well some of the rock formations were quite unusual.
All in all it was a great exhausting (understatement) day.
Fantastic.