The Abel Tasman Coast Track is a lovely great walk in New Zealand. Here is an overview of this magnificent walk.
New Zealand’s great walks offer a wide range of experiences, from walking wild west coast beaches along the Heaphy to traversing volcanoes on the Tongariro Crossing, or the mountains along the Kepler Track or Routeburn Track. The Abel Tasman Coast Track explores beaches for swimming and relaxing. This is the most popular of the great walks due to the multitude of ways that it can be explored, such as a half day, full day, kayak trip, or multi-day.
Abel Tasman Coast Track Highlights and Logistics
Highlights – White sand beaches, aqua-marine water, and more beaches.
Location – Top of the South Island in Abel Tasman National Park
Length of Walk – 60 km whole length
Difficulty – Moderate
How To Explore The Abel Tasman Coast Track?
The best part of this walk are the crystal clear aqua marine water of the numerous beaches along the way. I would strongly recommend not rushing this walk just to get from point A to point B, rather take your time to enjoy the beaches. Each of the beaches that you pass would be a destination by itself, but here it just becomes another stunning beach.
The entire 60km walk can be done in 3-5 days, or you can explore part of the track for a half or full day by taking a water taxi one or both ways. Or if you are keen, you could take a walk one day and then kayak another day. Or you could even kayak the entire length of the coast. So many options!
There are DOC huts to stay at along the walk (that must be booked in advance during the Great Walk season). Or there are many campsites if you want to lug in your gear for camping.
About The Abel Tasman Coast Track
Most people start the walk at the southern end, beginning from Marahau. The track itself starts at Marahau, but that is also the base for water taxis if you are taking one of those.
The first stretch of this walk is the least exciting as it is quite busy as it travels the 12 km up the coast to the Anchorage area. Most of the walk follows the same patter – leave a beach by climbing up to a ridge then dropping down to the next beach/cove and so on. The difference is that some of those climbs are super steep and others not so bad. The good news is that most of those climbs are not very long.
Anchorage is quite a busy area with the hut and numerous campsites near it. It is also one of the areas that the boats pick up and drop off people. A nice side track takes you to Cleopatras Pool, a beautiful pool for swimming with a small natural water slide.
From Anchorage the track carries on to Bark Bay where there is a hut and campsite. There is an inlet at Anchorage that can be crossed at low tide or a longer track goes around it at high tide.
Bark Bay is located in a large inlet and near another fantastic beach to take a swim at. At Bark Bay hut we heard and saw many kaka that had recently been reintroduced to the area. Super cool!
The next section from Bark Bay to Tonga Quarry is a moderate walk that drops down to stunning Tonga Quarry, where there is a lovely secluded campsite (it’s secluded after around 4:00 when the boats stop running and most walkers are done). We spent one of our favourite nights camping in New Zealand at this campsite.
Tonga Quarry leads on to the longest beach along the walk, Onetauhuti. At the far end of this beach we came across some nesting oystercatchers. Cool! Then up and onwards to Awaroa Hut. Look at my tip below on the Awaroa lodge for a tasty treat.
Awaroa hut is located at a major inlet, which the track crosses at low tide. It can only be crossed about an hour and half before or two hours after low tide.
The walk across at low tide will still get your feet and legs wet, but makes for another fun part of this walk. We went barefoot to cross as parts were super sticky, deep mud that sucked crocs off other people. Some people prefer to wear something on their feet as there are many shells that can be painful to walk across.
The next picturesque beach the track comes to is Goat Bay. Just another stunning beach to marvel at, then on to Totaranui. Little did we know, but there is a windy road that leads to Totaranui from the Golden Bay side. We arrived by foot to discover a bustling campground by the beach with cars and a camp shop. We took a swim again then grabbed an ice block at the camp shop before carrying on to the next beach.
Totaranui is the last spot where boats can pick up and drop off people, so the next couple beaches up the coast were just as lovely, but more isolated. The next beach we passed was Anapai Bay.
Then another climb up and down to another stunning beach at Mutton Cove. The crazy thing is that by this point we were mostly just tired of walking and not too amazed at these beaches…oh yep, just another picture perfect beach…let’s keep going.
From Mutton Cove, the track climbs up and over, leaving the east side of the peninsula and heading to the west side. The final hut was Whariwharangi.
From Whariwharangi the track climbs up steadily, but not very steep, along a gentle grade up to a saddle before dropping over the other side to the end of the track at Wainui Bay.
My Insiders Tips to the Abel Tasman Coast Track
Water taxis – there are several companies that can bring you to the many beaches along this walk. You can use two of them for a day walk. Or you can take a taxi in and then walk the rest of the way. Or you can even arrange to have a water taxi shuttle your gear for you so that you just have an easy, enjoyable walk with the family and then your stuff is waiting for you at the end!
Awaroa lodge – if you are visiting the upper part of the walk then a lovely spot to stop is the Awaroa Lodge. A signed trail cuts off to the lodge if you are heading north about an hour before arriving at the Awaroa hut. The reason to take a break here is to visit either the cafe at the lodge or a pizzeria to grab some food and a drink. From there it’s a half hour walk at low tide to the hut. At high tide you would have to return up to the track and follow some more ups and downs for the hour to the hut.
Shuttle – we’ve often used Trek Express to shuttle us from the Nelson airport to the start of finish of many of the walks around the top of the South Island. If you book far enough in advance you can arrange your own trip or you can try and book onto another trip that is already happening.