Abel Tasman

Declared in 1942 and named after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, the first European documented to have sighted New Zealand in 1642, it is the smallest national park in the country but one of the most visited thanks to its fine golden sand beaches, reachable almost exclusively on foot along the Abel Tasman Coast Track or by sea kayak, with no roads crossing its interior. Its coastal waters hold permanent colonies of New Zealand fur seal, whose population had fallen drastically under commercial sealing in the 19th and 20th centuries before recovering under later legal protection.