61 Days of Togetherness: Abel Tasman

We have had a number of adventures since our last post. Our period of silence started with five days in the bush on the Abel Tasman Track.

Five days and 40+ miles on foot with backpacks. We all completed it. We all survived. We all did well. We all craved a hot shower upon completion (which is saying something for 14 and 11 year-old boys).

Abel Tasman has a reputation as one of the most beautiful and most visited Great Walk in New Zealand. I believe it on both counts. It is a coastal track with turquoise water that is almost tropical, golden beaches, interesting rock formations. It has lush and varied trees and plants. We got well acquainted with one of the national symbols of New Zealand, the silver fern. At least, we think they were silver ferns. They look like a cross between a large fern and a palm tree. We stayed acquainted with our nemesis, the sandfly, although they were not too oppressive on this track.

This section of coastline has big tidal swings. The track includes two big tidal crossings of bays that completely emptied at low tide. You have to time your crossings for low tide.

A coastal track should not be equated with a flat track. There may have been more cumulative up and down than Milford, but it all came in short, steep sections.

Ocean and bay water was warm enough for an occasional swim - particularly for the more aquatic Mortons (Margaret and Walter).

By no means is Abel Tasman a true wilderness experience.

Water taxis provide access at various bays for most of the length. They drop off and pick-up trampers, day walkers, kayakers, and lodge-goers. We walked the full length and then took the water taxi back to our starting point.
There were sea kayaking trips galore following the coastline in parallel with our walking. Supposedly, Abel Tasman is the most popular sea kayaking destination in the world (according to a sign we saw). I believe it.
There were stretches of private inholdings – some of which we were covetous of.
We heard about a fancy lodge along the way where you could get a good cup of coffee. We ended up having an excellent lunch of fish and chips there for a pretty penny. Naturally, I washed that down with a cold beer followed by a long black (cup of coffee)

We stayed in four huts along the way. The huts got smaller and more rustic as we moved northward. The track got progressively quieter as we walked northward. We approved of both of these northward trends.

We had different contingents of trampers in the huts each night. Unlike Milford, people are going opposite directions, skipping huts, doing partial sections, etc. There were a small group of trampers doing most of the same itinerary: a very nice couple from Christchurch (Jane and Graeme), a 20 year-old Canadian who had been on the road for most of the last three years, and a Seattle photographer and his wife, and a handful of Germans.

At the last hut, the Whariwharangi homestead, we met some very interesting folks. Trevor and Di were an Australian couple on the track both to enjoy the walk and train for their respective athletic endeavors. They were walking 30 km per day while carrying a box of wine for a proper cocktail hour at the end of the day. Trevor had a big outgoing Australian personality. He was in his 50’s and super fit. Margaret asked him if he was a triathlete and he responded that triathlons were for wimps. He was an adventure racer which involves four person teams heading into the bush for five days of orienteering, running, mountain biking, kayaking, and operating on one hour of sleep per night. There is some rigor to the Abel Tasman track, but it stops well short of adventure racing thank god!

At Whariwharangi, we also met an extended group of three New Zealand families with a bunch of kids about Lucas and Walter’s age. Surprisingly, these were just about the first school-age kids we had encountered during our adventures as most every kid in the world is currently in school. We felt like we were back at the yurt, roasting marshmallows with them, and socializing.

Now for the photo documentation.

The obligatory "starting the track shot"...