Park Overview
The Abel Tasman National Park has become recognised as an area of outstanding natural beauty in New Zealand. The Abel Tasman colours; the deep blues and greens of the sky, water and forest with the golden yellows of the sand create a breathtaking paradise to sea kayak in.
Weather
The park is blessed with some of the highest natural sunshine hours in the country. It is the wind however that affects us kayakers the most. You can generally expect a light to moderate sea breeze between 12 noon and 6pm over the summer months. Stronger winds can occur at any time of the year and may cause you to have to change your kayaking plans while you wait for it to abate!
Tides
We have large tidal variations in the Park. This gives us a lot of interesting lagoons and coves to explore. You need to be aware of the tidal movements if you want to kayak into these areas. As a general rule, lagoons can be explored 2 hours either side of high tide. Good spots to check out include Ngaio Bay Lagoon, Torrent Bay, Frenchmans Bay, Falls River, Bark Bay, Mosquito Bay and the jewel in the crown – Shag Harbour Lagoon.
When walking the track you don't have the luxury of a kayak to float over the water so you need to time your crossings with a low tide. Most of the tidal crossings have a high tide route which will take a little longer to walk. Awaroa estuary has no high tide route and can only be crossed 2 hours either side of low tide. Likewise Onetahuti has no high tide route but can be crossed 4 hours either side of low tide.
Further information can be found on the Department of Conservation's website.
