Nelson & Abel Tasman

About Nelson & Abel Tasman

Nelson consistently ranks among New Zealand's sunniest regions by recorded annual sunshine hours, a reputation that shows in the golden, easy-going feel of the towns and coastline nearby. Just north, Abel Tasman National Park — named, like the wider Tasman region and the Tasman Sea, after the 17th-century Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman — is New Zealand's smallest national park by area, but punches well above its size with a string of golden-sand beaches and clear turquoise water along its coastal track, one of the country's Great Walks and one of the few that can be shortened into an easy one-or-two-day version using water-taxi drop-offs and pick-ups.

Inland, the wider Nelson-Tasman region is known for arts and crafts (Nelson has one of the country's highest concentrations of working artists and craftspeople per capita) and for hops and orchards feeding a strong regional craft-brewing and cider scene.

Freedom camping here

Nelson City and Tasman District Councils each map their own zones; the immediate Abel Tasman coastline itself is largely national park (managed by DOC, not open to general freedom camping — camping there means booked DOC campsites along the Great Walk), while freedom camping options concentrate in the wider Nelson and Motueka areas outside the park boundary.

Good to know

• Abel Tasman's Great Walk campsites require booking in advance, especially in summer — they are not freedom-camping spots.
• Nelson's sunny reputation means summer can also mean genuinely hot, dry conditions — pack for it.
• Water taxis into and out of the park run on a schedule; check timetables before planning a day trip.