Travel blog: Nelson and Abel Tasman national park

Anna Kainberger is taking a year-out from her career to travel in south-east Asia, Australasia and the South Pacific, along with Hawaii and the USA. This month she is reporting from New Zealand. Here is her fifteenth blog entry:

From Kaikoura it was not very far to Picton where we stopped for a quick lunch break to pick up some fellow backpackers who had just finished exploring the North Island of New Zealand before we moved on to lovely Nelson.

Nelson is a nice little town, famous for its artsy cafes, galleries and local talent as well as its proximity to the famous Abel Tasman National Park.

I had bought an extension with the Magic Bus to go into the national park for a day hike and was looking forward to seeing the combination of ocean, sand and rainforest in a landscape set over a number of bays named after the famous Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer who was the first European to set eyes on New Zealand.

We were picked up extremely early to reach Kaiteriteri, on the edge of the national park, and have enough time to do the 15km hike to Torrent Bay, from where we would be picked up by boat to take us back to the starting point.

The options for Abel Tasman are pretty varied. It is a famous kayaking area and you can rent a tent and hike through the park, or stay in the park for a couple of days for as little as NZ$10 (£4) per person per night, or a combination of both.

A sailing day trip was also on offer but for me it was tramping (Kiwi for hiking) - on foot and mostly on my own, which I enjoyed.

The combination of sandy coast line, forested hills and stunning fauna in the Abel Tasman park was unlike anything I have seen before.

It was a clear day with beautiful views out across the Tasman Sea and the park is well signposted, telling you how many hours it should take to walk to the next beach, bay or view point.

It is an easy hike, which can be done by anyone, with very few steep hills to climb.

You have to bring your own food and water and take your rubbish with you when you leave the park - as everywhere in New Zealand the area is clean and green, and the Kiwis are very keen on keeping it that way.

It is a busy national park and you will not be the only one hiking but that does not matter once you have set eyes on the turquoise waters of Appletree Bay or taken a slight detour into Cleopatra's pool for dip in the river running through the park.

The hours of hiking just flew by and in the end I reached Torrent Bay with an hour to spare.

I simply had to have a quick swim in the fairly cool Tasman Sea, before our boat picked us up again and whisked us back to Kaiteriteri.

The one thing I regret about my Abel Tasman experience is that I did not dare to throw myself out of a plane.

Yes, you can skydive over the park and that must be one of the best skydives available in the world, the views are simply too good to be true.

Skydiving and any adrenaline-fuelled activity is big in New Zealand - there are plenty of places that offer all sorts of bungee jumping and skydiving opportunities. But I think the Abel Tasman park has to be one of the most beautiful spots.

This was one of my favourite places in New Zealand and I wish I could have stayed a bit longer but with only six weeks for both islands I had to keep moving.

After we were dropped back at the hostel it was off to bed early for yet another early start the next day. Our next overnight stop was Greymouth.

Greymouth is famous for coal and gold mining and apart from a tour of the Monteith's brewery there is not much to do there.

So for me it was only ever going to be a one-night stop. If you have been travelling for a while already you might want to stay a day longer and do your laundry, update your journal and just stop for a breather as it is very peaceful (you could translate this as slightly boring).

The one thing I loved about Greymouth was not so much the town itself but the hostel I stayed in. The place is called Neptune's and it has single beds rather bunkbeds. It gets better - there are bath tubs!

After travelling for over four months a bubble bath was like a mini spa for me - they even provide bubble bath smellies for free.

The next day we moved on to Franz Josef, a village boasting 300 people nestled at the foot of the famous Franz Josef glacier.

As an Austrian I simply had to stop there, after all the glacier was named after our famous emperor's beard.

Plus I had not seen any snow this year so a bit of glacier hiking sounded like a good idea to remind me of my alpine roots.

Anna Kainberger