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