We spent the last 2 days kayaking Abel Tasman National Park with a guided group. The park is located on the northwest end of the South Island. It’s New Zealand’s smallest national park, but the most visited. There’re some great hikes in the park, but it also has many bays, coves and secluded golden sand beaches, which make it perfect for kayaking. 
We started our trip at Sandy Beach in Marahau. Apparently the tides change a great deal here, about 5m on a full moon. We witnessed this change first hand since the tide was out when we arrived at Sandy Beach. We could see tractors with boat trailers attached to back driving the boats out to water deep enough so they could be launched. By the time we were done with safety briefing and loading the kayaks, the tide was in…right at the spot we were going to launch. Phew! We were worried we’d have to walk the kayaks out 500 ft just to get it into the water.
After paddling past Adele Island, we stopped for lunch at Watering Cove. There were several other kayak groups there as well. The water was a beautiful blue-green and very clear. It was also cold, too cold for us to swim in, even though our guide, Brad, was insisting that it wasn’t cold.
After lunch, we paddled the “Mad Mile.” The water was really choppy, and we were paddling into the wind. It felt like we were paddling, but not going anywhere. We stopped at Te Puketea Bay to rest and escape some of the wind for a bit. Then it was back out into the wind and waves. When we got to Torrent Bay, we rafted up (lined up all 4 kayaks parallel to each other with everyone holding on to the adjacent kayak) and broke out a sail. It was finally time to use the wind in our favor! We sailed into our final stop for the day, The Anchorage.
We stayed on a catamaran, Arorere (flying cloud), 
that evening. Robyn, the woman who owns and sails it, built it with her ex-husband. Very cool! It was a beautiful boat! We drank wine, ate and chatted with Robyn and Sally as the evening turned to night. Robyn and Sally were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed getting to know them. Robyn is a neat woman – a female pirate! Our cabin was in one end of one of the hulls. “The gentle rocking of the sea, rocked me to sleep,” says Greg. Me too! We really enjoyed our stay on Arorere and would highly recommend it to anyone else who’s planning to kayak Abel Tasman.
We started our trip at Sandy Beach in Marahau. Apparently the tides change a great deal here, about 5m on a full moon. We witnessed this change first hand since the tide was out when we arrived at Sandy Beach. We could see tractors with boat trailers attached to back driving the boats out to water deep enough so they could be launched. By the time we were done with safety briefing and loading the kayaks, the tide was in…right at the spot we were going to launch. Phew! We were worried we’d have to walk the kayaks out 500 ft just to get it into the water. 
that evening. Robyn, the woman who owns and sails it, built it with her ex-husband. Very cool! It was a beautiful boat! We drank wine, ate and chatted with Robyn and Sally as the evening turned to night. Robyn and Sally were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed getting to know them. Robyn is a neat woman – a female pirate! Our cabin was in one end of one of the hulls. “The gentle rocking of the sea, rocked me to sleep,” says Greg. Me too! We really enjoyed our stay on Arorere and would highly recommend it to anyone else who’s planning to kayak Abel Tasman.
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