Wednesday at 9.30am, we went on a waka to canoe around the first stretch of the Abel Tasman National Park. First, I was slightly disappointed when we couldn’t book kayaks as the AoE is just a bit too small in the operator’s opinion. The kids were very disappointed but their faces lit up when the chance of going out in a waka ama presented itself. We as a family were on the bigger of the two wakas which took 12 people. Our two guides Thomas and Lea praticed paddling with us but also educated us on a lot of the tikanga around wakas. It was awesome and heart-warming and we whole-heartedly recommand it.

After all the paddling, the stop at a beach with a snack and afterwards some swimming in Kaiteriteri, we were all pretty knackered. However, our next destination was the West Coast and we hadn’t really planned to stay up in the area around here for three days so off we went towards the West Coast. In the end, we made it to another lookout, near Glenhope, Hope Saddle lookout, and stayed up there for the night. For once, we were the only ones at a place. It was pitch black outside and when going to the public toilet the thought of “I’m never gonna find the motorhome again if my torch fails” kept crossing my mind.

The next day was a big driving day. We went all the way to the coast, turned south without going to Westport and only stopped when we got close to Punakaiki. The national park down there, Paparoa, has some amazing walks (even a great walk) but we took the shortest track to a secluded beach. Truman track had been recommended by the lonely planet and it was well worth the walk. At the pancake rocks in Punakaiki we stretched our legs again on the 20min loop walk. This night, we stayed at the most amazing freedom camp at Cargills’ Road with two other campers. We even had time to BBQ home-made burgers so the kids were incredibly happy about the end of this day. The wekas were so curious and completely used to humans that one of them even jumped up on the BBQ to check if it could get some of our food. Crazy birds!