6 Wochen Neuseeland
6 Wochen Neuseeland
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Abel Tasman Boat tour - Day 15

Published: 15.03.2018

After a short stay in a garden cottage as accommodation, we started today on 11.3. for the boat tour along the coast of Abel Tasman National Park, booked at abeltasmancharters. At 9:55 am, we - as agreed - were at Stephen's Bay and were surprised that three more couples had booked the tour. All of them from the United States of America. The tour was beautiful, incredibly relaxing, we could see sea lions, hear many birds singing on an isolated island (predator-free), take a short detour on the Abel Tasman Track (also a Great Walk) during a landing and climb the 'Pitt Head', which gave us a wonderful view of the many small islands on the coast. On the beach, we collected some great shells and walked along the wonderful sea. It was a beautiful sunny weather!! The people and the skipper were super friendly and there was a very pleasant atmosphere on board. There was also something to eat and you could go kayaking or swimming. We can recommend this boat tour to everyone without reservation! A little downside: we could not see a blue penguin or a dolphin, unfortunately there were none in the area. But then the sea lion babies compensated us :)

A boat trip, that
A boat trip, that's fun...
Sea lion babies!
Sea lion babies!
On the Abel Tasman Track
On the Abel Tasman Track
Jörg on the beach, hooray!
Jörg on the beach, hooray!
Janina enjoying herself on deck
Janina enjoying herself on deck
The split rock
The split rock
Adele Island, left (?!)
Adele Island, left (?!)
Beach taken from Abel Tasman Track
Beach taken from Abel Tasman Track
Beautiful view from Pitt Head
Beautiful view from Pitt Head
Great bay at Pitt Head
Great bay at Pitt Head


After 6 hours, we arrived back at the starting point. So we had enough time to pass State Highway 60 over Takaka Hill towards Collingwood. The former cyclone Gita had heavily affected Takaka Hill a few weeks ago, so that convoys were only allowed to pass between 7am and 8am in the morning and between 5pm and 6pm in the evening! On Sunday, cars were allowed to pass between 8am and 5pm, and luckily it was Sunday today! After the restricted section of the route, we visited Hawkes Lookout. Here you could see from the mountains to the sea.

Major Slips on SH 60
Major Slips on SH 60
Hawkes Lookout
Hawkes Lookout
Clouds. Mountains. Green
Clouds. Mountains. Green

Shortly after 7 pm and after driving on some gravel roads (thanks Google!), we arrived at the hidden accommodation 'Heaphy Haven' in the idyllic Bainham. Bainham was even smaller than a village, it felt like there was only one store (The Langford Store) that sold coffee and cake, but also had some everyday items on offer and was a museum, as well as a community center, which could best be described as a better barn. However, the accommodation was super idyllic, in farmhouse style, very friendly owners with a great family atmosphere welcomed us, there was really delicious homemade bread, it was very spacious and we were very close to the starting point of our upcoming hike. And when we went to the toilet at night, thousands of stars and the Milky Way glittered above us :)

Answer (2)

Mechthild
Gibt es noch ein Foto von der Milchstraße? Was ist das für ein Baum auf eurem Profilbild?

Jörg
Ein Foto von der Milchstrasse gibt es später noch, dort haben wir keine Fotos gemacht. Der Baum ist ein ziemlich dicker Rata-Baum