Day 12 (7th November) - Abel Tasman National Park

One of the ‘must sees’ on our list, Abel Tasman boasts beautiful golden beaches and clear turquoise waters backed by lush pristine native bush. It didn’t disappoint despite a rather panicked start to the day when we had to catch a much earlier water taxi than planned in order to complete our desired ‘tramp’ (NZ for ‘hike’ and our new adopted word). The sea shuttle picked us up on (a sunny – hoorah!) Kaiteriteri beach, taking us along the coastline as far north as Totaranui before dropping us off on the return loop to Bark Bay at 11.30. We then had until 3pm to march through fabulous forest and over a swing bridge for the return pick-up at Torrent Bay. The tree ferns and native beech trees are huge and lush!

Our pick-up boat nearly beached itself but delivered us back to our campsite where word had gotten round that this campervan fed ducks. Soon we were surrounded by sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes and some very territorial mallards all dancing around our feet for the next crumb. The birds in NZ are exceptionally tame – until the Polynesian and European settlers’ relatively recent introduction of mammals such as rats, rabbits, stoats and possums, the native birdlife had few predators and the likes of kiwi and the (now extinct) moa, became flightless. Children gradually replaced birds (historically as well as outside our van) and we found ourselves in the centre of a football game! Watched the sun set across the bay and chatted to a couple of local families who were fishing on the beach.