Abel Tasman Coast Track Self-Guided Walk

Abel Tasman is the smallest of New Zealand's national parks and the one people picture when they think of the country's coast: gold sand and green water, forest to the tide line. The Coast Track runs its whole length. This tour walks the three sections that make it famous and uses the water taxis for the rest, so every day starts where the best walking does.

You sleep in two places only. Two nights in Mārahau, the village at the park's gate, and two nights at Awaroa Lodge, which stands inside the park on its own inlet and can be reached only by boat or on foot. Dinner there is à la carte; the sea is at the door.

The walking is gentle. The track is wide, formed and signposted at every junction, the climbs are short and the beaches come one after another. Day 3 is the long one, about 22 km from Torrent Bay to the lodge, past the Falls River gorge, Bark Bay and the boardwalk behind Onetahuti.

Day 4 is the one everyone remembers. The Awaroa Inlet has no path around it: you wade across at low tide, knee-deep for twenty-five minutes, at the hour we give you from the tide table. If the tide falls in the afternoon, you take the boat to Tōtaranui first and walk back.

Distances and climbs here are approximate. They come from our own route lines and are rounded; the track's official sections are a little shorter because they start at the car park rather than the village.

We book the beds and every boat, send your bag ahead to the lodge, and put the tide times in your guidebook with the route. You carry a day pack, swim where you like, and the boat is always on time.