Aotearoa (New Zealand) has 10 “great walks“, one of which is called The Abel Tasman Track. The Abel Tasman area is located on the north end of the South Island of New Zealand. The area is named after the explorer Abel Tasman, who was the first European to set eyes on New Zealand in December 1642. Along that journey, aboard the Zeehaen and the Heemskerk, he had many other “first sighted” areas for the Europeans. You can read about him here.
Earlier on in the year, Ellamae and I received the invite from her best friends, Joy and Carina and their mom Chana, to join them on the Abel Tasman walk that September. I thought, “what an awesome opportunity to have a girls backpacking trip”! We invited Nina as well, but she opted out. Along with the three other girls, another local friend, Rowena, and her son came along for the adventure. So in total it would be 7 of us, all hopping on the ferry to get from Wellington to Picton, renting 2 cars and then driving to Marahau to start our journey. The whole excursion took a fair bit of planning. Once the rough timeline had been established, we had to reserve the huts through the DOC website. When booking the huts you had to make sure that the hut you would be staying overnight before the required low-tide crossing section was available and timed with optimal timing to cross that section. Once that was established, we could book the ferry, a hotel had to booked for the first night, the water taxi for the return trip back to Marahau, and reserve the car rentals.
Prepping for the actually hike, wasn’t took extensive. All but one hut had potable water. We did need to pack our stove kits though. No tents required, since we would be staying in the huts. Rain gear was a must along with assorted layer options, since it would be spring time with varying temperatures and moist conditions. We kept our food choices to easy to cook/ add hot water options for Ellamae along with my personal challenge of doing the whole hike on my home made Pemmican, a few meat sticks, dehydrated bone broth, and freeze dried coffee with butter each morning. Sounds kind of of crazy, but it worked out great! We packed a minimal amount of change of clothes, but most importantly the layers. Sleeping bags, bathing suits, and toiletries, water filter just in case, headlamps, a book, stove, fuel and something to eat and drink out of was about the extent of what we packed. For water we both used water bladders in which we filled up at each hut. As for fitness training, I just stuck to my usual routine of HIIT classes, swimming, beach walks, a few longer local hikes. Ellamae joined Joy, Carina and Chana on a few of their longer hikes and continues with her CrossFit. Otherwise not much extra training for her either.
The walk itself was about 60 kilometers total (37.28 Miles) . We added a little more by taking some scenic tours to places like the Cleopatra’s Pool and other small day hikes around the huts that we stayed at. Most of the walk is along the coast of the Tasman Bay. There are some sections that go a bit inland and up and down some hills, so its not completely as flat as one might expect. You can look at the elevation guide here. The sightseeing was spectacular. Wild animal sightings, check, cold ocean dips, check, fresh cold spring water shower, check, meeting cool people along the way, check, cozy evenings by a fire and in a “bunk”, check, and an overall hell of a good time, check check. If you ever get the chance to do the Abel Tasman Walk, I highly recommend it.
Our itinerary was roughly of that listed below. You can find the “track guide” here.
First a ferry ride from Wellington to Picton:
Then a car ride from Picton to Marahau where we stayed overnight in a dorm style room at Marahau Beach Camp:
Day 1, Marahau > Anchorage, 12.4km: Stayed at the Anchorage Hut.
Day 2, Anchorage > Bark Bay, 12.1km: Stayed at the Bark Bay Hut. 40 min side trip along the way to Cleopatra’s Pool.
Cleopatra’s Pool:
the rest of day 2….
Day 3, Bark Bay > Awaroa, 11.4km: Stayed in the Awaroa Hut.
Day 4, Awaroa > Whariwharangi, 13km: Stayed in the Whariwhrangi Hut. Low tide only crossing for Awaroa Inlet.
Chana was suffering from really bad blisters at this point, so instead of continuing on to the last hut and then back tracking to this water taxi pick up location, she arranged to have the water taxi take her a day early as we were walking by Totaranui. I promised her I would take care of her girls.
Day 5, Whariwharangi >Totaranui, 9.8km, then a water Taxi from there back to Marahau.
For the details on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track see DOC’s PDF map: click here
There’s nothing like a fresh fruit blended into soft serve after a 5 days of hiking!
I’m hoping I found all the photos I wanted to post for this epic journey. The other challenge is making sure I caption them correctly…. It’s been so long! Below are some videos.
A Family Afloat 