Abel Tasman National Park

The Abel Tasman National Park lies at the northern tip of the South Island, on the promontory between Tasman Bay and Golden Bay.

The park - one of the most visited of New Zealand's National Parks - is open throughout the year. The main season is in December and January, and to be sure of a place on a campsite or a bed in a hut at that time you must book months in advance.

The French seafarer and explorer Dumont d'Urville, who surveyed the north coast of the South Island in 1826-7, was overwhelmed by the beauty of the scenery. Nowadays tourists, walkers, water-sports enthusiasts and scuba divers are drawn to the national park by its beautiful coves and inlets, bizarrely shaped limestone cliffs, tiny islets and beaches of golden sand, some of which can be reached only by boat or on foot. Since the establishment of the national park the vegetation has recovered from the effects of earlier over-felling.

In the southwest of the National Park there are a number of cave systems, some of them still not completely explored. The best known cave is Harwood's Hole, which is 300m deep.

Warning The caves in this area can sometimes be dangerous because of the brittle nature of the rock.