Adventure Great Walk - The Abel Tasman Coastal Walk

Hello dear ones,

As promised, today I will tell you everything about my experiences with the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. First of all, I want to say that I can cross off one thing from my bucket list (things I want to achieve before I die). Just a year ago, I didn't think I would ever be able to do it, but I did and I am very proud of myself.

First, let's talk about the necessary preparations that need to be made to do such a Great Walk. First, I visited the iSite, the tourist office. There, I got a map of the park with the Great Walk, the huts and campsites, and other useful information. Before entering the park, you must have booked all accommodations and the water taxi or bus. Next, I checked the weather forecast, which didn't look good, so my hike was postponed for a few days. At that time (September 24th), I didn't want to commit yet, so I took all the information materials with me for further planning. I also had to make sure to find the right companion because I didn't want to do this hike alone. In the next few days, I talked to some people and finally met Lina, who had the same plan and was as inexperienced in long hikes as I was. After this was settled and we chose a date, September 28th, it was time to plan the food. With two people, it's much easier to distribute the weight in the backpacks, so we decided to cook something in advance. Actually, I had already made this plan independently of a possible hiking companion and simply stuck to it. So I cooked Tikka Masala, from a jar, with potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and onions. We also had some portions of rice. That covered dinner. After cooking and checking the weather again, we booked everything.

But the remaining meals still had to be planned, and that brings us to the next topic I want to discuss, the contents of my backpack. I have a 32-liter backpack and now it had to be filled with everything necessary for a 4-day hike. I used my bed to collect everything first and then sort out unnecessary items. Of course, the food is very important:

Breakfast:

- 6 boiled eggs

- some salt

- cornflakes

Lunch:

- 4 bananas

- 4 apples

- 3 carrots

- 16 slices of toasted bread

- 1 jar of jam

- 8 cereal bars

Dinner:

- a large Tupperware container with dinner

- 3 bags of rice

Snack:

- 400g of nuts

- one bag of gummy bears

Drinks:

- 3 liters of water

As you can probably imagine after this enumeration, my relatively small backpack is bursting at the seams. But unfortunately, it's not just about the food. I still need clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste, pajamas, sleeping bag, flashlight, charging cables, dishes, and so on. Another reason why it's good not to hike alone, because you can divide the stuff. Without Lina, I would have been lost and would have had to part with things that were necessary for me. But luckily, everything was packed the next morning and we could start.

Now let's get to perhaps the most important part, the route. There are two options for hiking the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk, from south to north or vice versa. This decision depends largely on the tides, as there is a spot in the park that can only be crossed at low tide. Like most people, we walked from north to south and started our hike in Marahau. There, I met Lina in person for the first time, as well as four other people she met at the hostel who had the same plan as us. We formed a large group together. The six of us, Lina from Germany, Irene from Italy, Valentin (female) and Thoma from Belgium, and Leo from France, started together in Marahau and walked to the Anchorage Hut. A hut is a shelter with sleeping accommodations, a covered area for cooking and eating with a fireplace, and toilets. When we arrived at this first hut, we had lunch together on the beach and then, after settling into our room, walked to Cleopatra's Pool. On that day, we walked 19.6 km plus a few shorter detours to viewpoints. This first day was a good introduction to the hike with nice views and not too much elevation. In the evening at the hut, we met Chris from Luxembourg and Michael from the USA, who were going to join us the next morning. After a delicious, albeit cold, dinner (we couldn't find a place to put the gas stove and pot), Irene massaged us in front of the fireplace and then everyone happily went to bed quite early.

The second day (September 29th) was not as nice weather-wise as the first day, as it drizzled occasionally despite the sunshine. Not enough to make us seriously wet, but annoying enough to protect our backpacks with rain covers. After a quick breakfast in the early morning, we set off towards Awaroa Hut. Today, we had the longest hike ahead of us as we would skip one hut. Luckily, the tides were on our side, so we could cut the distance on two paths. First, we headed towards Bark Bay, where thanks to the good tides, we took the 'short' 8.4 km route. There, we could shorten the distance again and only had to walk 4.6 km to the next bay. We had a nice lunch break there and some of us even went swimming. After about 9 hours and another 7.1 km, we arrived at our hut. This hut was right on the water and we had it all to ourselves. However, the rooms were furnished a little differently than before. Six beds were right next to each other, practically like one big bed, and there was a ladder attached to one of them leading up to four more beds. This hut also didn't have any lights, so we went to bed quite early again because at some point we couldn't see anything anymore and were very tired after this exhausting day.

The next morning (September 30th) was a bit more relaxed than the previous one because this time we had to wait for the low tide as there was no track for the high tide. Therefore, we could only start at 10 o'clock. And even then, we had no chance of crossing this bay with dry feet. However, we didn't expect that we would have to roll up our pants up to our butts to keep them from getting wet. And of course, the water was terribly cold. But after a few minutes, we luckily got used to it. The next tricky part was walking barefoot over the shells. I was relieved when we finally got back to the hiking trail and could put on our shoes again. But at least we had incredible luck with the weather. We could walk around in shorts and T-shirts for the rest of the day. On this day, we also felt like we climbed the most altitude. Unfortunately, my feet suffered a lot from the previous day, so I had blisters that accompanied me with every step. But fortunately, on this day, we only had to cover 16.9 km. We also had to walk directly along the beach twice and we naturally took advantage of these opportunities and enjoyed the sun. Hiking is much more fun that way. We made our lunch break in Totaranui and said goodbye to Chris and Michael, who took the water taxi back to the starting point from there. The rest of us continued hiking to the northern part of the park. When we arrived at the Whariwharangi Hut, we briefly went to the beach as long as the sun was still there, and then spent the evening in a cozy way again. While having dinner, we met Martin and Tobi, two German guys who played Yahtzee with us.

On the fourth day (October 1st), the paths of our initial hiking group also diverged. Lina and I decided to walk back to the water taxi along the beach, while the others wanted to take the route through the forest. They also booked an earlier water taxi than us because Lina and I preferred to take it easy due to my blisters and the general exhaustion after so many days of hiking. We were lucky with the weather, so it only started raining when we arrived at the water taxi stop and sat down at the only covered table with Martin and Tobi, whom we happened to meet again. After a leisurely lunch and another round of Yahtzee, Lina and I were picked up. The ride was also very nice, but unfortunately, due to the rain, we didn't see much. But it was nice to see where we walked again, this time from a completely new perspective. When we arrived back at the starting point, we stored Lina's things in my car and then drove to Nelson to a hostel.

That's it from the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. I can highly recommend this hike to everyone. It is not only beautiful but also doable for relatively inexperienced hikers with the right equipment. I am definitely glad that I dared to do this hike.

See you soon,

Your Jessi