The Awesome Abel Tasman Track

From Mistletoe Bay we drove west through the city of Nelson (it's not big) and then north up to the Abel Tasman national park. Here, again, is a famous coastal walk which takes about three days to complete but there's a brilliant water taxi service which calls at all the main beaches every hour or so during the day, so there's the option to walk one way and travel by boat the other.

Part of the track crosses an estuary so it's only open a couple of hours either side of low water and this dictated our plan for the day. We took the boat south and then walked back, about 5 hours' walking, to the camp site.

A brilliant design feature - climb aboard with dry feet!

Di wants one of these!

Hugging the coast as we head south

A beautiful bridge on the coastal track

Crossing the estuary - the tidal range is pretty massive here, about 6m

The long walk back was made rather more challenging when Di stumbled and twisted her ankle, about 3 hours away from the end of the walk. Graham gave her a piggy back though the river as we didn't think she'd get her walking boot back on if she took it off but she was very brave and made it back to camp.

Meeting other walkers

Soft golden sands - beautiful but not easy walking with a poorly ankle

In spite of the injury it was an epic day and we celebrated with a wonderful BBQ back at camp - fillet steak, cream sauce, roasted veg and a glass or two of red win. 'Sweet as' as they say in these parts.