Is there a guide on the walk?

Not on these walks. You go as your own party, with our guidebook to hand, on tracks marked from end to end . On the Queen Charlotte, the one turn to watch is at Torea Saddle. Most days have a fixed point or two: a boat to catch, or a low tide to wait for. The swims and long lunches fit around them. New to it? Self-guided walking, explained .

What fitness do these walks need?

None of them needs scrambling, and age matters less than walking fitness. In order of effort: The Abel Tasman is the gentle one , with short stages and small climbs The Queen Charlotte's longest day is about 8 hours , and mountain bikers share the track The Hump Ridge climbs 890 m on its first day , from the beach to the first lodge. The Hump Ridge Track Trust, which runs it, asks for moderate to high fitness and advises training first Each walk is rated from 1 to 5 for fitness and for technical difficulty. Our Hiking Difficulty Guide says what each number means.

Always under a roof, never in a tent or a public hut. The rooms change with the track: Queen Charlotte: your own room and bathroom , in lodges with a restaurant and a bar Abel Tasman: a room with its own bathroom at a lodge inside the park, after a B&B at the park entrance Hump Ridge: shared bunk rooms for four or eight in the Trust's two lodges. Bathrooms are shared, and hot showers cost extra. A pillow and blanket are supplied; bring or hire a sleeping bag Twin or double on the Queen Charlotte or the Abel Tasman? Let us know .

Breakfast comes with your Abel Tasman rooms, and dinner there is paid on the spot. Queen Charlotte lodges sell breakfast, dinner and packed lunches. On the Hump Ridge, every walker gets free porridge in the morning. Hump Ridge walkers cook their own meals in the lodges' shared kitchens, on gas. Bring food from Tuatapere, or buy meal kits in the lodge shops. Because they hold a liquor licence, the Hump Ridge lodges allow no outside alcohol .

Do I carry my own bags?

Queen Charlotte bags travel by boat each walking day. The boat pass covers one bag per person. Bags can get wet between boat and jetty, so pack yours in a waterproof liner. Abel Tasman water taxis serve every stage , and each fare carries one bag of up to 20 kg. Hump Ridge walkers carry their own pack , usually 10–14 kg, so bring one of 40–50 litres. On the first walking day, a helicopter can lift a bag of up to 10 kg to the first lodge, as an optional extra. It flies on Mondays and Thursdays, subject to availability. Drop the bag at the Trust's office in Tuatapere by 8 am.

Where do the walks start, and how do I get there?

Getting to the trailhead town is up to you, and we plan the walk around your arrival: Nelson, for the Abel Tasman: direct flights from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, then about an hour by road to Mārahau Picton, for the Queen Charlotte: the Interislander ferry from Wellington takes 3.5 hours. Or fly to Blenheim, 30 minutes' drive away Queenstown, Te Anau or Invercargill, for the Hump Ridge: the Trust's shuttle runs to Tuatapere if you book ahead. Queenstown has direct flights from Australia On the combined walk, Nelson to Picton is about 2 hours by road.

How early should I book?

February fills first. The Queen Charlotte lodges at Endeavour Inlet can be full for mid-February four months ahead. For December and January, write as soon as you know when you're coming. The sooner your dates reach us , the more choice you have. The Department of Conservation (DOC) sells the Great Walk huts and campsites, and on the Abel Tasman they must be booked all year round. Our walks sleep in lodges instead, so you need no DOC booking .

Do I need a visa, and what do I declare on arrival?

Australian citizens need no visa or NZeTA : a passport is enough. Australian permanent residents and US and UK travellers need an NZeTA , New Zealand's electronic travel authority. Request it before you fly and allow 72 hours. It lasts two years. US and UK visitors pay the International Visitor Levy with it. On an NZeTA, your passport must be valid for 3 months after you leave New Zealand. On arrival, declare used hiking boots and outdoor gear on the free NZ Traveller Declaration , and clean your boots before you fly. Undeclared outdoor gear can earn an instant NZD 400 fine , even for an honest mistake.

Should I take out travel insurance?

We strongly recommend it: comprehensive travel insurance with health cover, bought before you fly. The Hump Ridge Track Trust recommends the same to everyone on its track. We offer insurance as an optional extra on every tour you book with us. It comes from our partner, Redpoint Travel Protection , and you can add it when you book. New Zealand's accident scheme covers visitors too. ACC helps pay for treatment when anyone is hurt in an accident here. It does not cover: illness disrupted travel plans, or emergency travel home treatment once you are back home New Zealand law also makes it unlikely you could sue anyone after an injury. Check that your policy covers walking, and cancellation too.

Can we start any day, and stay longer?

Yes, any day while the lodges are open. Picton, Nelson and Queenstown make easy bases for a night or two either side of the walk. Ask for the dates you have in mind .

Where can we leave a car?

Picton has long-stay car parks, run by the Marlborough District Council . They fill quickly in summer. The boat company behind the track pass has no parking of its own. On the Abel Tasman, the water-taxi operators keep car parks for their clients . For the Hump Ridge, the Rarakau car park at the track start sits on private farmland, watched by the farm manager. Its last 6 km of road are gravel, so the Trust suggests its track shuttle for rental cars and campervans.

Of course. A room to yourself carries a single supplement. On the Hump Ridge, solo walkers share a bunk room with others.

Will my phone work, and how do I pay?

Signal is patchy. The Queen Charlotte has no reliable phone signal from Ship Cove to Camp Bay , then good coverage on the ridge. On the Abel Tasman, coverage is limited, with reception on some headlands. Save your travel documents to your phone before you set off. On the Hump Ridge, USB charging is at Port Craig only , and Ōkaka has none, so bring a power bank. Cards and contactless work almost everywhere, the Hump Ridge lodge shops included.

Can you cater for vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free diets?

Where the lodges cook for you, tell us your needs . They travel with your booking to each kitchen on the route. On the Hump Ridge, pack food that suits you. The lodge porridge is not gluten-free. The shops sell dehydrated meals with vegetarian options, and gluten-free sausages are best ordered ahead.

What about tides, bad weather and closures?

Awaroa Inlet is waded near low tide : from 1.5 hours before to 2 hours after, in daylight only. Allow 25 minutes to cross. It is the Abel Tasman's one compulsory tidal crossing, so that day runs on DOC's tide tables . On the Hump Ridge's last day, Blowholes Beach is passable only at low tide. In bad weather, a water taxi can cut most Queen Charlotte and Abel Tasman stages short. The Hump Ridge offers no boat or road out , so watch the Hump Ridge forecast in the days before you start. Since February 2026, the Edwin Burn and Percy Burn viaducts have been closed , and the Trust says they will stay closed. The track goes round them on a bypass with a 58 m swing bridge, as DOC's notice explains.

How bad are the sandflies?

They bite, and the bites can itch for days, but New Zealand's sandflies carry no disease . Only the females bite. They breed in running water, so expect them near beaches and rivers, mostly at dawn and dusk. When you stop, cover your ankles and feet, and use a repellent with DEET. Antihistamine cream eases the itch, and visitors new to sandflies may react more strongly than locals. Wasps live on the Abel Tasman too: if stings affect you, carry your medication.

Who do I call if something goes wrong?

Our support number is in the guidebook we give you. Call it for a missed boat, a lodge question or a change of plan. For anything urgent, use New Zealand's own numbers: 111 for police, fire and ambulance , free from any phone, even a mobile with no credit 0800 611 116 for Healthline: free health advice from nurses and paramedics, day or night 105 for police matters that are not urgent Where there is no signal, a registered distress beacon calls rescuers in a life-threatening emergency. The Trust hires them out from its Tuatapere office, and some DOC visitor centres do too.

Can we bring the children?

If they already manage long days on foot, yes. The Abel Tasman's short stages suit them best. The Hump Ridge is not recommended for children under 10 , says the Trust. Every child who walks it joins the compulsory safety briefing in Tuatapere. Send their ages with your dates, and a planner will match a walk to them.

Abel Tasman National Park, Timed by the Tide

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Golden sand, a warm sea and one inlet you can cross only at low tide. How to see Abel Tasman National Park on foot and by boat.

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The beach at the end of the track is the colour of a biscuit, the water over the sand is green, and the forest comes down to the high-tide line. A water taxi noses onto the sand, the skipper calls out the afternoon pickup time, and six people with day packs step off into ankle-deep sea. That is a normal morning in Abel Tasman National Park, at the top of New Zealand's South Island, and it is why most visitors never carry a tent: the boats do the long distances and you walk the best parts.

One thing shapes a visit here more than the weather. The park runs on the tide table. In the northern half, the Awaroa Inlet is crossed on foot only around low tide, the water taxis land on beaches that empty and fill twice a day, and the estuary shortcuts open and close with the sea. Pick the days first, read the tide times, then plan the walking around them. This guide covers the park as a place: where it is, what makes it different, how many days it needs, the tide, the bays worth a boat ride, and the practical part from Nelson airport to the last boat back.

Where Is Abel Tasman National Park?

The park in numbers
Opened	19 December 1942, three hundred years after Abel Tasman anchored off this coast, after a campaign led by the ornithologist Pérrine Moncrieff
Size	22,530 hectares on the Department of Conservation's figure, the smallest national park in the country
The coast	60 km of Coast Track from Mārahau to Wainui, with four huts and eighteen campsites along it
Tidal crossings	One with no way round, at Awaroa Inlet, and two with an all-tide track around them
Water taxi bases	Mārahau and Kaiteriteri, both at the southern end; no boats run north of Tōtaranui
Marine reserve	Tonga Island, 1,835 hectares of no-take sea since November 1993, with the park's fur seal colony
The sea	Warmest in February, at about 18 to 19 °C off Nelson
Nearest airport	Nelson, domestic flights only

Abel Tasman National Park sits at the top of the South Island, between Tasman Bay and Golden Bay, about an hour and a quarter by road from Nelson. It is the smallest of New Zealand's national parks: a strip of granite hills and bays along the coast, with the marble country of the Canaan Downs behind it. The gateway villages are Mārahau at the southern end and Kaiteriteri a few kilometres further south, and the only road into the northern half ends at Tōtaranui, reached from the Golden Bay side.

The park's shape explains the logistics. It is long and thin, with no road along the coast, so everything moves by boat or on foot. A water taxi from Mārahau puts you on any of the main beaches within an hour and three quarters, which is why the park works as well for a single day as it does for a week. Walkers on the track book about 80,000 hut and campsite nights a year, and most of the people on the beaches have come for the day.

Find the bays and the two gateways on the map

What Is Special About Abel Tasman?

Granite, and what the sea does to it. The hills of the park are Separation Point granite, roughly 110 to 120 million years old, and it weathers so deeply that it crumbles into the sand on the beaches. That is why the beaches are gold rather than white, and why the water over them turns green in the sun. Where the granite meets the sea it forms rounded boulders and headlands, and between the headlands lie the bays: Anchorage, Bark Bay, Onetahuti, Awaroa, Tōtaranui, and smaller ones that have no name on most maps. The same granite makes the park gentle underfoot. The Coast Track has no pass and no scree, only short climbs over the headlands between one beach and the next.

Look at the granite, it weathers into the gold sand

It is also the only Great Walk you can reach by boat, which changes what a visit looks like. Elsewhere in New Zealand a multi-day track is a commitment: you carry food for the week and walk out the way the track goes. Here you can be dropped at a beach, walk one section and be picked up at the next, and the sea is warm enough to swim in from December to April. The fur seals of Tonga Island, inside a marine reserve since 1993, haul out on the rocks beside the kayak route.

Walk under tree ferns between the beaches

The forest is coming back as well. The Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust, formed in 2007, and Project Janszoon, a private partnership that ran from 2012 to June 2026 and spent more than NZD 21 million, trapped stoats across most of the park and brought birds back that had gone: 532 birds released in fourteen years, among them kākā at Bark Bay in 2019, pāteke on the Awaroa Inlet and tīeke on Adele Island. You hear the difference on the track, with bellbird and tūī in the canopy and weka on the campsite tables after your lunch.

How Long Do You Need?

One day shows you the park, two days give you a night inside it, and three to five walking days cover the whole coast. The water taxis make every length work, because any day can start or finish at a beach rather than at a car park.

Time	What fits	Where you sleep
One day	A water taxi out to Anchorage or Bark Bay and the walk back towards Mārahau, or a kayak morning and a boat home	Mārahau or Kaiteriteri
Two days	Boat to Bark Bay, walk south to Anchorage for the night, walk out to Mārahau the next day	A night at Anchorage
Three to five walking days	The Coast Track in sections, with the Awaroa crossing timed to the tide and the boat doing the rest	A lodge inside the park, or the huts and campsites

Walk the headland track between one bay and the next

On the two-day plan, book the night early: the huts and campsites are booked all year round, the summer dates fill months ahead, and the huts ran at about 95 percent occupancy last summer. On the longer plan, the Awaroa day fixes the rest, because the crossing is possible only around low tide and the water taxi to the northern beaches runs to a timetable.

For a first visit we would walk the three sections that make the track famous and let the boat carry the bag. We book the lodge inside the park, time the Awaroa day to the tide table and hand you the crossing time with the route. See the walk:

Hiker wearing flip flops backpacking Abel Tasman Coast Track, New Zealand

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Abel Tasman Self-Guided Walk

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Where the Tide Decides

Awaroa Inlet opens for three and a half hours a tide: the Department of Conservation's rule is within an hour and a half before low tide and two hours after it, in daylight, and there is no track around it. That is the one fact that decides the shape of any walk in the northern half of the park. Miss the window and the next one comes about twelve hours later, which on a short day means the next morning. The crossing itself is easy: a wide tidal flat of sand and shallow channels, knee-deep at the lowest, and the crossing takes about 25 minutes.

Two other estuaries, at Torrent Bay and at Bark Bay, also open two hours either side of low tide, but both have an all-tide track around them, so a high tide costs you time rather than the day. The Torrent Bay one has had a 56-metre suspension bridge since November 2024, after a slip took the old one out. The times for all three, with the rest of the track, are in our guide to the Great Walks.

Cross the Awaroa Inlet only in the low-tide window

Use the Department of Conservation's own Abel Tasman tide table, which it publishes by the month with sunrise and sunset beside the two low tides. The times are the Nelson tide, a few minutes later. Low tide moves about fifty minutes later each day, so a crossing that falls at nine in the morning on Monday is after midday by Thursday, and on many days the second low tide is after dark and does not count. If the daylight low tide on your Awaroa day is in the afternoon, walk the day in reverse: take the boat north first and walk back to the crossing.

The tide reaches the beaches too. Water taxis land on the sand, so at Mārahau a tractor tows the boats across the flats to the waterline at the start of the day, and at Awaroa the boat lands on the beach in front of the lodge rather than at the hut. None of that needs managing by you, but it is why the departure times on the timetable change with the day of the month.

Places Worth the Boat Ride

Six places that earn a detour, none of them on our walk: a granite boulder split in two, a seal colony, a river pool, the park's northern tip, a waterfall in the bush and the beach where the boats leave from.

Split Apple Rock

A granite boulder about 50 m offshore between Kaiteriteri and Mārahau, split clean in two along a natural joint in rock some 110 million years old. Its Māori name, Tokangawhā, joined the official name in 2014. Guided kayak trips paddle out to it from both villages, the cruises pass it on the way north, and at low tide you can walk down from the car park near Mārahau to Towers Bay and look across.

Tonga Island

The seal island of the park, about a kilometre off Onetahuti Beach inside the Tonga Island Marine Reserve, 1,835 hectares of sea protected since November 1993. New Zealand fur seals breed on its rocks from October to January, so landing needs a permit, and four kinds of dolphin feed in the reserve. Nothing may be fished or taken inside it, and only three kayak operators hold the permit to approach the colony.

Cleopatra's Pool

Up a side track from Torrent Bay, the Torrent River has worn a smooth slide into the granite and lined it with moss, and the pool below it is the swimming hole of the track. The Department of Conservation gives 40 minutes return from the Torrent Bay junction, or two hours from Anchorage. Closed after a slip in August 2022, the track reopened in November 2024 with the new Kākāwera suspension bridge.

Separation Point

Where Tasman Bay ends and Golden Bay begins. The French explorer Dumont d'Urville named the point in January 1827, when four of his men landed here; its Māori name, Te Matau, is the fish-hook of Māui, the whole hook drawn by the curve of Golden Bay and Farewell Spit. Fur seals rest on the granite below, an hour's return walk off the Coast Track between Tōtaranui and Whariwharangi.

Wainui Falls

The largest and most reachable waterfall in Golden Bay, at the northern end of the park, on a 3.4 km return track the Department of Conservation times at an hour. The path crosses farmland by stepping stones, enters nīkau palm and rātā forest, climbs beside granite boulders along the Wainui River and crosses a suspension bridge below the fall. Stay away after heavy rain, when the river floods the lookout.

Kaiteriteri

A crescent of golden granite sand facing east into Tasman Bay, with Kaka Island in the mouth of the bay and the water taxis and kayaks leaving from the beach. The headland at its northern end was a Māori pā, lived in until about 1842, and the reserve behind the sand dates from 1936, when a local farmer gave the first land. In one year the boats carried 156,000 passengers over this beach.

On the Water

Half of a visit here happens on the sea, and most of it can be booked the day before from Mārahau or Kaiteriteri. A guided kayak morning along the coast, a water taxi hop between beaches, a paddle out to the seals and a cruise the length of the park are the ways in, and on our walk a half-day kayak can replace a walking stage if you ask when you book.

The classic paddle leaves Mārahau in the morning and follows the coast north past Adele and Fisherman islands to the beach at Anchorage, about four hours for a steady pair. Rental kayaks go out in twos, with a briefing and a minimum age of 14, from about NZD 125 a person; the kayak goes home by water taxi.

Adele Island, on the way, got its saddlebacks back in 2014, from Motuara Island in the Sounds.

Ride out, walk a section, ride back. The boats leave Mārahau and Kaiteriteri at nine in summer, stop at Anchorage, Bark Bay, Onetahuti and Awaroa, and reach Tōtaranui in an hour and three quarters; a one-way fare costs NZD 63 to 75 and carries one bag for you.

Book the day before in summer. In winter the boats still run seven days a week, but only when someone has booked.

The combination most people choose. A guided morning on the water from Mārahau to Observation Beach or Anchorage, lunch on the sand, then the Coast Track back through the forest on your own feet, about three hours. From about NZD 150 a person with a rental kayak, or NZD 260 guided, and the kayak goes home by water taxi.

Guided kayak days reach the Tonga Island Marine Reserve, where the fur seals breed from October to January and the dolphins come in to feed. A water taxi carries the kayaks north first, and only three operators hold the permit to approach the colony. Keep 20 metres from any seal on land.

The reserve runs one nautical mile out from the shore, between Awaroa Head and the headland south of Bark Bay.

The whole coast from a deck chair. Three and a half hours from Kaiteriteri to the top of the park and back, past Split Apple Rock, the seal rocks and every beach on the track, from about NZD 118; the half-park cruise is shorter and cheaper. Both let you step off for a walk and rejoin a later boat.

Sit on the left going north: the whole coast is on that side.

Where to Sleep

Three kinds of bed, from the village at the gate to a tent behind the beach. Mārahau has the B&Bs, lodges and the beach camp an easy walk from the water taxis, Kaiteriteri has the resort beach, and inside the park there are the Department of Conservation huts and the campsites. One lodge inside the park takes public bookings, at Awaroa, reached by boat or on foot only; it is where our walkers sleep, and it has its own card in our guide to the Great Walks.

Mārahau

A village of about 250 people at the southern gate, with the Coast Track starting across the estuary. The beach camp has cabins, a backpacker lodge and powered sites beside the water taxi base, and chalets and B&Bs sit a few minutes from the park entrance. Three places to eat open through the summer, from a waterfront café to a burger caravan. The nearest supermarket is in Motueka, 25 minutes back down the road.

See Mārahau here →

Kaiteriteri beach

The resort beach south of the park: a campground of about 400 powered sites across the road from the sand, cabins, apartments above the store and an eco resort with a day spa in the hills. The kayak and cruise offices line the beachfront. From mid-December to early February the beach is full and parking is charged; in the shoulder months it is quiet.

See Kaiteriteri here →

Tōtaranui and the huts

Inside the park you sleep in a Department of Conservation hut or at a campsite, booked all year. The four huts have bunks and mattresses but no cooking gas or lighting, and the water is boiled before drinking.

Tōtaranui, at the northern road end, has a campground of 269 tent sites for up to 850 people, fireplaces and a beach a kilometre long.

See the Coast Track huts here →

When to Go

December to April for the sea, October and November or April and May for the walking. The track is open all year and busiest from October to April; in winter the water taxis still run seven days a week, but only when someone has booked. Summer here is dry and settled by New Zealand standards, and Nelson gets about 2,400 hours of sun a year, among the highest in the country.

Season	Sea and weather	Bookings and crowds
December to February	Highs of 21 to 23 °C at Tōtaranui, the sea at its warmest in February, strong westerlies some afternoons	The school holidays from about 19 December to the end of January fill every bed; book months ahead
March to May	21 °C in March and the most settled weather of the year, 16 °C by May	The best balance of weather and space, with the huts easier to book after Easter
June to August	Highs of 13 to 14 °C, frosts possible, more rain days	Quiet, no sandflies, boats on the winter timetable, the lodge café shut
September to November	15 to 19 °C and warming, with wind and rain on some days	The track fills from Labour Weekend in late October, the sea still cold

Come in March for a warm sea and quieter sand

The weeks to avoid without a booking run from Christmas to the second week of January: every bed in Mārahau and every hut on the track is full, and Kaiteriteri charges for parking from mid-December to early February. Watch the forecast on MetService, the national weather service, and read the Department of Conservation's alerts page for Nelson Tasman before you go, because slips closed parts of the track after the storms of July 2025.

Getting There

Fly to Nelson, then drive or take a shuttle for an hour and a quarter. Nelson has flights from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and the road to Mārahau runs through Motueka, the last town with a supermarket and a pharmacy. You do not need a car: the shuttle meets the morning in Nelson, the water taxis leave from the village, and everything in the park is reached by boat or on foot.

From	To	How
Nelson airport	Mārahau	60 to 67 km, depending on who measures it; about 1 h 15 by shuttle or car
Nelson	Kaiteriteri	61 km, about an hour
Nelson	Tōtaranui	160 km over Tākaka Hill into Golden Bay, the last 12 km unsealed; about 2 h 30
Christchurch	Nelson	5 h 20 by road, or a 55-minute flight
Picton	Nelson	About 2 hours by road, for walkers coming from the Queen Charlotte Track

Fly into Nelson, an hour and a quarter from the park gate

The Better Bus runs the shuttle: it leaves Nelson at 06:30, reaches Mārahau at 08:15 in time for the first boats, and comes back from the village at 16:20; the fare is NZD 42.50 each way in the 2026/27 season. It cannot meet a morning flight, so sleep in Nelson the night before, or book one of the kayak companies' own buses.

The water taxis are the park's buses. AquaTaxi runs from Mārahau, where it has been since 1990, and Wilsons and Abel Tasman Sea Shuttles run from Kaiteriteri. The boats leave at 09:00 in summer, call at the main beaches on the way north to Tōtaranui and come back through the afternoon, and every fare includes one bag of up to 20 kg to the same beach as you. The fares below are AquaTaxi's published one-way adult prices for 2026/27; Wilsons' are about NZD 10 lower from Kaiteriteri.

From	To	One-way fare
Mārahau	Anchorage	NZD 63, about 45 minutes
Mārahau	Bark Bay	NZD 67, about an hour
Mārahau	Awaroa	NZD 73, about 1 h 30
Mārahau	Tōtaranui	NZD 75, about 1 h 45

Catch the morning boat from Kaiteriteri or Mārahau

Book the boat the day before in summer and tell the skipper your pickup beach and time when you board. Torrent Bay is a morning drop-off only, with no pickups, and the timetables for both bases are on the AquaTaxi timetable page and the Wilsons sailing timetable.

Both Coasts in One Trip

The Queen Charlotte Track is a day's travel to the east, in the Marlborough Sounds, and the two make one trip: beaches and tides first, then lodge-to-lodge walking along the sound with the packs carried by boat. The link is a road day from Mārahau through Nelson to Picton, and the boat out to Ship Cove the next morning.

We put the two together with the travel day in the middle, the lodges booked on both tracks and the bags moved by boat on each. Explore both:

Tramping in Abel Tasman national park, Abel Tasmam Coastal track, New Zealand, Great Walk

9 days

Two Walks, One Trip: Abel Tasman & Queen Charlotte

3/5 Fitness

2/5 Technical

from 2.545 €/person

The Tide Table Is the Hard Part

Everything else about the park can be booked in an afternoon. The crossing time, the boat that matches it and the lodge night in between are what take the planning, and that is the part we do for you.

Send us your dates and one of our agents will come back with a plan built around the tide.

Prefer to talk it through first? Book a call.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, and for a reason the photographs miss. It is the easiest multi-day coast in New Zealand to walk, because the water taxis let you choose how much of it to do on foot, and the sea is warm enough to swim in at the end of a day. If you want mountains, go to Fiordland; if you want beaches and a track that never gets hard, come here.

Easily. Take the morning water taxi north to Bark Bay or Onetahuti, walk south to Anchorage for the night and walk out to Mārahau the next day. The one booking you need is the hut or campsite at Anchorage, and the summer dates go in May.

One day for a taste, two for a night inside the park, and three to five walking days for the whole coast from Mārahau to Tōtaranui or Wainui. The answer depends less on fitness than on the tide, because the Awaroa crossing sets the day it falls on.

The official sections run 12.4, 11.5, 13.5, 7.1, 9.8 and 5.7 km from south to north, and the water taxi can skip any of them.

All year, yes. Every Coast Track hut and campsite needs a booking, in summer and winter alike, and a bunk costs NZD 84 a night for an overseas adult from October to April. The Backcountry Hut Pass does not cover them.

From most beaches on the track, and the sea is at its warmest in February. The water is clearest in the bays facing north and east. Inside the Tonga Island Marine Reserve you can swim and snorkel but take nothing, and the rule for seals is to stay at least 20 metres away on land.

Fewer than on the West Coast or in Fiordland, and mostly at dusk around the campsites and estuaries. Cover your ankles in the evening, carry repellent, and watch for wasps on the track in late summer. In winter there are none.

Yes. Every night on our walk comes with breakfast, at the B&B in Mārahau and at the lodge inside the park. The lodge restaurant serves dinner, both places will pack you a lunch, and you carry nothing else, because the track has no shop.