Ferry to the South Island and Abel Tasman national park

After a day and a half in Wellington, it is time to leave the North island and head down to the South island. To do so we have to take the ferry from Wellington to Picton, and that lasts about 3 and a half hours.

We get up early and the colors on the marina at 6 am are beautiful.

We stop to fill up the water tank and drive to the harbor to catch our ferry.

We have to check in an hour before departure. After that we wait in line before being asked to embark.

We take a few pictures of the Wellington bay before leaving.

And at 8 am the boat leaves for a 3 and a half hour ride. The sky is grey when we leave Wellington but after a while it clears out and the sun comes back out. We walk out on the deck a few times to take pictures. And admire the view on the nearby little islands.

We also take advantage of the sailing time to work on the blog and our itinerary for the next few days.

An hour before arriving in Picton the view is incredible. The coast line and the cliffs are really impressive. The forests full of huge trees.

The ocean is turquoise blue, and matches perfectly with the color of the sky.

We have an amazing weather for the sail, and spend a lot of time on the deck looking at the view and of course taking too many pictures.

We arrive in Picton around noon, and hit the road to Marahau, 125 miles away. Marahau is the entry gate to the Abel Tasman national park that we will visit tomorrow.

The Abel Tasman national park is home to one of the 9 great walks of New Zealand. These are the most famous and beautiful hiking trails in the country (the Tongariro hike is another one of the 9 for example). The trail is around 37 miles long, and people usually hike it in 3 to 5 days. Initially we wanted to do a 3 day Trek and camp along the way. Unfortunately the weather isn’t on our side, rain is forecasted for 2 out of the 3 days we planned on being there. And on top of that the prices of the camping sites doubled starting October 1st, so we will finally only spend one day…

Along the way between Picton and Marahau, we stop in the town of Nelson because there is an information center there. Where we can gather more information on the walk we want to do the next day. As we leave town we drive along a beautiful long beach, and the color of the water is amazing.

A little before arriving in Marahau we stop by another beautiful beach. It is low tide, and the mountains in the background offer an amazing scenery.

We arrive at the camping site late afternoon. It is located only a few hundred feet away from the beach. We take out the camping table and chairs and have a nice beer in the sun.

There is even a cat who comes to enjoy this relaxing moment with us.

After dinner we go wander by the beach to admire the colors of the sunset.

The next day we wake up early again. And off we go for a day hike on the Abel Tasman coast trail. Here bellow is a map of the park.

The goal is to walk from Marahau (where we spent the night) all the way to Bark Bay, so about 15 miles, and come back by water taxi. In the end we walk 17 miles, because of the detours we took to go to some lookouts or beaches along the way. It is possible to book water taxis from Anchorage, Bark Bay, Onetahuti and Totaranui that way no need to hike back the same trail!

As we leave Marahau, at 7:30 am, the sun just came out.

We walk past the very large Marahau beach, at low tide, it offers a nice view of the sun rising.

The trail then climbs a little along the coast, and offers great views on the bay bellow.

We stop many times to take pictures. The sky is blue and we take advantage of it, according to the weather forecast it shouldn’t last.

With the tide rising, different pools and sandbanks appear. It is magnificent.

We walk past a few little beaches, absolutely empty except for the local birds.

We cross a few rivers.

Behind us we have a great view on the mountains and forest with a nice blue sky as a backdrop.

At times we can see the turquoise blue ocean.

We continue inside the forest.

And after about an hour we see a nice beach just a little bellow the trail, and decide to stop there.

We are all alone on this huge beach and decide to go for a swim.

The hike up had us sweating a little bit, and the sun is now out. Why hesitate? The water temperature maybe… Apparently the ocean here isn’t much warmer than when we swam in the North island. Matt is able to go all in but Maider only goes half the way. Matt even goes in naked. We are all alone, why bother and have to hike with wet clothes afterwards?

After this refreshing stop we head back on the trail. The lookouts along the way are stunning, with amazing landscapes and clear blue waters.

We take a little detour to go to another lookout from where we have different views on the bay. Very pretty.

The trail gets a little flatter now and in the woods. We can still see a few nearby islands.

A little before arriving in Anchorage Bay we have an exceptional view on the bay.

The landscape is amazing.

Hiking down, we walk by a little lake.

And arrive at Anchorage Bay after 3 hours. The beach is once again very pretty.

It is now high tide, so we have to take off our shoes to cross the water.

The color of the sky has completely changed. It is now grey, but it doesn’t look like it will rain soon, so we continue walking towards Torrent Bay.

At low tide, it is possible to walk across the bay in just 20 minutes. Unfortunately it is still high tide when we arrive, so we have to take the coastal trail that last a little over 1 hour. A lot longer but the landscape remains amazing.

We walk along the ocean and its clear blue waters.

We also cross a bridge over a river with clear waters that we can see through.

We arrive in Torrent Bay a little after noon and decide to stop here for lunch.

The bay is super pretty.

We find a spot protected from the wind to picnic.

A seagull comes to say hi, it certainly wants a piece of our delicious sandwich.

The white sand and clear blue ocean is beautiful. We sit on a little dune and enjoy the view. The sun comes and goes and it makes for nice pictures!

We stay a while to take in the view and the peacefulness of the area.

After a nice long break we head towards Bark Bay. The first climb gets us to a stunning view on Torrent Bay and its turquoise blue waters.

We only have 5 miles left and our water taxi is only at 3:45 pm so we take our time. Unfortunately the weather is getting worse, and there is a slight mist and some fog. The lookouts aren’t as pretty now, but the landscape remains stunning.

We get pretty wet on this last part. We walk over a suspended bridge that reminds us of our treks in Patagonia. But this time we are wearing shorts!

We walk down to a few beaches to try to loose some time before getting to the water taxi. Unfortunately the weather is pretty bad and we can’t really wait on one of the beaches without getting wet and cold.

We arrive in Bark Bay 30 minutes before the boat’s scheduled time. The beach is huge and still looks amazing despite the weather. There are people camping and we are glad we chose to go back to Marahau tonight instead of camping here.

We embark in the water taxi.

And it takes us back to Marahau in only 25 minutes. It is nice to have a different view on all the beaches we walked by earlier today.

We arrive exhausted but super happy with the day we just spent. We are especially happy to have started the hike early, that way we really took advantage of the beautiful morning weather. The views are stunning all along the coast. Between small secret beaches, huge white sand beaches and clear blue waters, it is a great hike, and pretty easy even for beginners. We would have loved to spend several days and camp here if the weather was nicer and the campsite a little less expensive…

That evening we leave Marahau to go to Motueka, just a little bit South, and has the great benefit of having free campsites. We arrive just in time to park in the LAST spot available (even though it is only 5 pm) and it has a shower! OK it is a very cold shower but still, after a long day it is really pleasant. We couldn’t dream for a better place. And we are so lucky when we see how many campervans came during the evening and had to leave because there was no space left.

The next day we continue by driving down the west coast.