The Abel Tasman Coastal Track - has experiences to suit you
Golden Bay to Farewell Spit, and across Tasman Bay to D’Urville Island.
We sat on the rocks watching baby seals playing. There were lots of gulls and a speaker playing gannet calls, trying to entice gannets to breed here.
Leaving the point we climbed back to the main track, and continued down to Mutton Cove, with a lovely DOC campsite. We wandered along golden sands, over a rocky headland and down into Anatakapau Bay, and continued along to Anapai Bay which has interesting rock stack formations at its northern end.
On the way we saw several large floats washed in from the mussel farm. After a break in a little shelter at Anapai, we continued on a trail past Ngarata Homestead at Totaranui.
Ngarata is a historic building, built
in the 1914 from local timber, and bought by the crown in 1948. It is one of only two remaining homesteads in the Abel Tasman National Park, and is now an education centre .
From Totaranui we used a shuttle to take us to Awaroa. This estuary can only be crossed within two hours of low tide, which would have been a rush. Instead we sat back and enjoyed the scenery as we cruised past Goat and Waihorakeke Bays. We arrived in time for a half hour meander over sandy flats to reach Awaroa, a lovely hut in a beautiful setting. Once again we had to protect our food from the wekas.
The track on day 3 from Awaroa to Bark Bay was challenging for