Abel Tasman National Park is a New Zealand national park located between

Golden Bay Golden Bay may refer to: * Golden Bay / Mohua Golden Bay / Mohua is a shallow, paraboloid-shaped bay in New Zealand, near the northern tip of the South Island. An arm of the Tasman Sea, the bay lies northwest of Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere a ...

and Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere at the north end of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It is named after

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New ...

, who in 1642 became the first European explorer to sight New Zealand and who anchored nearby in Golden Bay.

History

The park was founded in 1942, largely through the efforts of

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and author

Pérrine Moncrieff Pérrine Moncrieff (née Millais; 8 February 1893 – 16 December 1979) was a New Zealand writer, conservationist and amateur ornithologist. Biography She was born in London, England in 1893 as Pérrine Millais. She was the grand daughter of t ...

to have land reserved for the purpose. Moncrieff served on the park board from 1943 to 1974. The park was opened on the 18 December 1942 to mark the 300th anniversary of Abel Tasman's visit.Historic Event, Evening Post, Wellington, volume=CXXXIV, issue=127, 25 November 1942, Page 3 Those in attendance at the opening ceremony at Tarakohe included

Charles van der Plas Charles Olke van der Plas (15 May 1891, Buitenzorg – 7 June 1977, Zwolle) was an administrator in the Dutch East Indies colonial government who served as the Governor of the state of East Java from 1936 to 1941.Huygens ING – Den Haag. Bronv ...

, as personal representative of the Netherlands' Queen, Wilhelmina. The Queen was made Patron of the park. The idea for the park had been under consideration since June 1938. The Crown set aside , comprising of proposed state forest, of Crown land and of other reserve land for the national park.Memory of Tasman A new National Park, Evening Post, volume=CXXXIV, issue=147, 18 December 1942, Page 4 The Golden Bay Cement Company donated the land where the

Abel Tasman Monument The Abel Tasman Monument is a memorial to the first recorded contact between Europeans—led by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman—and Māori in New Zealand's Golden Bay on 18 and 19 December 1642. It was unveiled 300 years later on the tercenten ...

and a memorial plaque was sited. The area's primary historic interest was the visit of Tasman in 1642, D'Urville in 1827, and the

New Zealand Company The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model focused on the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principl ...

barques ''

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Cl ...

'' and ''Will Watch'', and brig ''Arrow'' in 1841. The site was also of significant botanical interest. By 1946 the park had reached in area with additional land purchases. A further at

Tōtaranui Tōtaranui is a 1 km long beach and the site of a large campsite in the Tasman Region of New Zealand administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC). It is located in Abel Tasman National Park toward the northern end of the Abel Tasm ...

, formerly owned by William Gibbs, was acquired from J S Campbell in 1949 and added to the park. About have been added since. In 2008 an extra , including the formerly private land known as Hadfields Clearing, were added to the park.

Description

Covering an area of , the park is the smallest of New Zealand's national parks. It consists of forested, hilly country to the north of the valleys of the Tākaka and

Riwaka River The Riuwaka River, formerly known as the Riwaka River, is located in the Nelson region in the northwest of New Zealand's South Island. It flows for 20 kilometres, entering Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere close to the town of Riwaka, 10 kilometres no ...

s, and is bounded to the north by the waters of

and Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere. It contains some of the islands off the coast including the Tata Islands in Golden Bay, and Tonga Island,

Motuareronui / Adele Island Motuareronui / Adele Island is a small island off the coast of New Zealand. It is contained within Abel Tasman National Park. The navigator and botanist Dumont d'Urville Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842 ...

, and Fisherman Island in Tasman Bay. The park does not extend beyond Mean High Water Mark on the adjacent coast. Between Mean High Water and Mean Low Water Springs, the beaches are gazetted as a Scenic Reserve, covering in total. The Tonga Island Marine Reserve adjoins part of the park. Some of the birds that frequent the park are

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

s, shags,

penguin Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adap ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

s, and

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychu ...

s. Possums,

wild pig A wild pig may be: *Suina, a suborder of even-toed mammals, including: **Suidae, a family of animals that are pigs or pig-like, including the Suinae and more distantly related extinct Old World tribes ***Suinae, a subfamily which includes the ''S ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

, and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s also frequent the park. The

Abel Tasman Coast Track The Abel Tasman Coast Track is a long walking track within the Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand. It extends from Mārahau in the south to Wainui in the north, with many side tracks. It is one of two main tracks through the park, the ...

is a popular tramping track that follows the coastline and is one of the Department of Conservation's Great Walks; the Abel Tasman Inland Track is less frequented. Other walks in the park, such as the Wainui Falls Track are considered 'short walks'.

Kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits faci ...

camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more nat ...

and sightseeing are other activities. Access to the park is usually via the small settlement of Mārahau or Kaiteriteri (by water taxi). The nearest large town is Motueka, to the south.

Management

The

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

administers the National Park. The Scenic Reserve is administered by the

Tasman District Council Tasman District Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o te tai o Aorere) is the unitary local authority for the Tasman District of New Zealand. The council is led by the mayor of Tasman, who is currently . Tasman elects its 13 councillors from five differ ...

Chief Executive and Department of Conservation’s Nelson/ Marlborough Conservator. Activities in adjoining coastal waters are Tasman District Council's responsibility. These areas operate under separate regulations. File:Abel Tasman National Park, Nelson, NewZealand, 26th. Nov. 2010 - Flickr - PhillipC.jpg, Abel Tasman National Park from the air File:AbelTasmanNP.jpg,

is a 1 km long beach and the location of a large campsite. File:Abeltasmannp swingbridge.jpg, Swingbridge on the track File:Wainui Falls.jpg,

Wainui Falls Wainui Falls is a waterfall in Wainui Bay, in the Tasman region of New Zealand. The waterfall is part of the Wainui River and cascades over granite bedrock into a deep pool at its base. It is the largest and most accessible waterfall in the ...

, at the end of a short walk that begins in

Wainui Bay Wainui Bay is within Golden Bay, and at the south-eastern end of Golden Bay, in the Tasman Region of the South Island, New Zealand. Bordering the Abel Tasman National Park, it is approximately north-east of Tākaka, the nearest town. There are ...

Project Janszoon

In 2012 Project Janszoon, a privately funded trust, was set up to restore the park's ecosystems. The trust takes its name from Tasman's middle name ''Janszoon''. It is aiming to complete the restoration in time for the 400th anniversary of Tasman's visit and the park's 100th anniversary in 2042. The

and Project Janszoon developed a free virtual visitor centre for downloading to smartphones or tablets. The application provides information about the Park's history, its flora and fauna, points of interest, weather, walking tracks, and tides. This virtual visitor centre is free of charge and can be found through the App Store or Google Play Store.

References

External links