Abel Tasman National Park

Hi there

I've just been a week down the Abel Tasman National Park, at the top of the South Island.  I swam and hiked every day.

About an hour out of Torrent Bay, where I had rented a holiday house, and hiking through beautiful bushland, one comes across Cleopatra's Pool.  It's a pool at the bottom of a little waterfall and there is a natural slide down through the waterfall and into the pool.  However, for a couple of minutes, there are loads of boulders to scramble over to get to the pool.  I managed getting to the pool okay but leaving it, I slipped and smashed my hand  against a boulder.  I sprained my thumb.  Within seconds my thumb and the pillow underneath it were ultra-swollen.  And oh-so painful.  Still, no sprained thumb was going to get me down.

Within one hour of my leaving to hike back to Torrent Bay where I was staying, a helicopter had winched up an injured hiker who hadnt been successful clambering over the rocks.  Apparently there are several injuries every few weeks.   I realise now that I should have plodded through the puddles and streams, and little rock pools, rather than trying to emulate a mountain goat, leaping over the boulders.

I love Anchorage Bay and Bark Bay.  I hiked every day to various places.  There are loads of tourists walking the track.  Some catch a boat from Kaiteriteri and just walk for a day, or just a few hours.  Others hike for a week.

Here's a bush track.

 Here's low tide, Torrent Bay

 Here's Kaiteriteri, the jumping off place for catching a sight-seeing boat around Abel Tasman National Park.

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I only took my phone with me so the photos arent that great, sorry.

Now I'm offf to complete the rest of My Great South Island Road Trip.....