FEATURE
WHY IS THE ABEL TASMAN THE MOST
POPULAR OF OUR
13 NATIONAL PARKS?
Words: Brendan Alborn.
How is it that our smallest national park, at 237km2, is also the one which attracts the most visitors each year?
P
erhaps most importantly, the Park contains some stunning scenery and a number of those scenes have become quintessentially Abel Tasman over the years. While the entire New Zealand coastline is basically a succession of beaches and bays, the golden sand, crescent-shaped bays in the Abel Tasman that have been captured in photos and videos over many years have become a bit of a thing unto itself. The sneak peeks of these beaches that are available from elevated sections of the Abel Tasman Coast Track make for good photographs. There is also something rather magical about seeing lush native bush that comes
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right down to the waterline, fringing beaches and tidal inlets. In combination, all of these elements make the Abel Tasman a bit of a superstar which has been used by organisations like Tourism New Zealand and Air NZ to promote Aotearoa around the world in their marketing campaigns. And here’s the thing; the Abel Tasman looks and feels just like it does in those postcard photographs and promo videos. This means the Park consistently delivers or even over delivers on the expectations of the people who visit it. This is the direct opposite to the modern marketing phenomenon that is a fastfood chain store where the food looks fabulous in the promo photos but more like soggy cardboard when you’re actually (cont’d)
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