Why Abel Tasman Is New Zealand’s Best Kept Secret

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may [have visited] Abel Tasman, but that’s not the reason I find myself approaching New Zealand’s smallest national park by boat,” Amanda Linfoot writes for Britain’s Sunday Times. “No, I am here because of a simple conversation starter: ‘If you could go on holiday anywhere, where would it be?’ I’d asked Pip Casey from the country’s tourism board. After the slightest hesitation – to apologise mentally to her family for blowing the secret of their blissful summer breaks, I imagine – back came: ‘Abel Tasman’.”

“And goodness, it’s a stunner,” Linfoot writes. “On the northern tip of South Island, its granite headlands covered in beech, manuka trees and tree ferns are interspersed with sandy beaches and estuaries. There’s a lot of photogenic loveliness packed into its 59km of coastline. And the good news is that a well-formed, easy walking track means that just about anyone can get in on the action.”

Original article by Amanda Linfoot, The Sunday Times, October 27, 2018